Existence of elements of nationalism in cricket related content in Bangladeshi newspaper: An observation

Abstract

There is a tendency of mixing nationalism with sports in the media all over the world. Cricket is on the top of the popularity list, and that’s why there is an excessive craze in the media surrounding cricket. Newspapers play a huge role in keeping the Bangladesh cricket team contemporary. By portraying Bangladesh cricket team as the biggest representative of Bangladesh to the world and cricketers as national heroes, the newspapers increase the interest of people for cricket and publish cricket related news with importance. This extreme campaign has made cricket is one of the symbols of nationalism to the vast population, especially to the post liberation war generation. And this uncontrolled emotion is released on the social media where frequently Bangladeshi cricket fans get caught up in argument with other cricket fans, particularly with the ones from the countries of the Indian sub-continent. This arguments, though starts with cricket, end up being a disgustingly aggressive competition. In this research we took two most discussed issues of the Bangladesh-India cricket match. We used cultivation theory and social representation theory for this research, and the methods were content analysis and textual analysis. After conducting the research we found the types, the elements and the presentation trends of nationalism.