View of Polish and Russian Media on Euro 2012: Comparing and Contrasting

Abstract

Considering the role of the media in modern society, we need to understand that public opinion about football fans in general is formed out of the information transmitted by the media. The objective of the study is to analyze the different views and aspects of the Euro 2012: its influence on countries development; its profitability but also the behavior of fans – their cooperation and rivalry. However, contemporary scholarship on sports sociology and football fandom subcultures does not recognize class impact on the near-football movement. European Football Championship 2012 showed problems of development and regulation of football fanaticism. It is essential to see how events on Euro 2012 in Poland, collision and confrontation Polish and Russian fans were reflected in Russian, Polish and UK press “Sport-Express”, “Soviet Sport”, “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Gazeta Polska”, “The Independent” and “The Guardian”. Football fans’, organization, and culture require precise studies, not only for understanding of current situation, but, perhaps, also for the development of an adequate strategy of interaction with them in the run-up to the World Cup in 2018. It is also necessary to identify not only the relationship of this movement to the different sectors of society, but also a subculture itself and its image in public opinion shaped by the media. In the era of globalization, understanding of youth subcultures is complicated and leads to a paradox. At the moment, there is a modification of the fan movement. On the one hand, we see the transition from bullying to the cultural «fanatism»; on the other hand, the question arises, if the bullies were an integral part of this culture, do we talk about the death or rebirth of culture? Youth subcultures in the era of postmodernism and globalization are transformed, into the phenomenon of «postsubculture», and may enhance the destructive tendencies in the spiritual life of the young generation, increasing the level of nihilistic attitudes. It should also be noted that the movement of football fans is becoming mainstream. There has been an increase in the popularity of fandom in society. This is due to the attention to this phenomenon in the media, in the cinema and fiction.