Historically, understandings of nationalism and national identity have arisen to a large extent out of the actions of political institutions and state actors. However, with the rise of globalization and global commercialization, identity construction is now contested between state, popular and commercial narratives.14 Understandings of national identity are not specifically shaped or reproduced only by political elites, this is now beyond the control of any single political group. Increasingly, it is commercial narratives that drive the influence as well as shaping and reproduction ideas of nationhood and identity.15 Silk, Andrews and Cole argue that global commercial markets, recognizing this growing influ- ence, seek to capitalize upon the nation as sources of collective identification and differen- tiation. Thus, the nation is corporatized, and its identity and memory are commandeered for the benefit of commercialism.16 The markers of a nation, its identity, culture and myth
become part of tools of global commercialism. Silk et al. argue that the locus of control for a national sense of identity become both, “exteriorized through and internalized within, the promotional strategies of transnational corporations.”17 Nations have ultimately been replaced by the corporate-cultural nations of the twenty-first century. Popular understand- ings of what a nation and its identity entails, are increasingly falling under the influence of globalized transnational corporations. Jackson and Andrews support this notion, arguing that internal political forces are being eroded by external, commercially-driven forces and influences. Commercialization has become the primary source of creating and shaping of a nation’s culture.18 Central to this issue is the role of media narratives in the commercial- ization of national identity. Mass media plays a pivotal role in the formation of national identity and politics. Through popular culture, media can reconstruct, reinforce, reproduce and naturalize dominant ideologies.19 Smith extends this argument, stating that global cul- ture is operated through the prism of mass media, with a specific dominance of US media corporations, resulting in a form of cultural imperialism.20 US-produced media and popu- lar culture narratives can thus reconstruct and normalize specific dominant ideologies of commercialism and national identity. The power of transnational corporations and mass media to shape and influence national cultures and identities results in the emergence of a form of ‘corporate nationalism,’ that is, a corporate narrative strategy that produced narra- tives of national identity for commercial purposes.
According to Steve Jackson, the concept of corporate nationalism refers to the process where media companies and other corporations seek to capitalize upon narratives of the nation and the national as a source of collective identification, for commercial purposes. Using the symbols, images, stereotypes, collective identities and memories of a nation as part of a corporation’s overall branding strategy.21 It is more than just the appeal to the culture or needs of a nation through advertising; rather, it uses the nation’s very identity and sense of nationalism as part of the strategic branding of corporations. This can be used by both local and global brands as a means of aligning corporate narrative with the national identity.22 The success of corporate nationalism relies upon the linking of the rep- resentational project, visible through national symbols and myths, with the lives of ordi- nary people and shared popular experiences.23 Sport, more than any other form of cultural practice, is a powerful representational project. Therefore, sport becomes a powerful tool
within the use of corporate nationalism strategies, as it plays a greater role in the reproduc- tion of distinctive national identities and is also highly commercialized.
As corporations and media companies look to expand, notions of nationalism become a key narrative. Corporations drive for increased profit and market share and attempt to alter existing narratives of belonging, such as nationalism, to meet their goals. Promoting nationalism is rarely the corporations or media companies’ underlying goal.24 However, the use of messages and narratives of national identity are key to achieving emotional and ideological impacts. Sport, due to its importance within the culture and imagination of many nations, becomes an ideal vehicle for this emplacement of corporate nationalism. Silk et al. argues that sport acts as a cultural shorthand that has been appropriated within advertising campaigns of transnational corporations to the point where commercialized presentation of sport contributes towards the experience of national culture.25 However, with its strong links to culture and identity, sport is not just a tool of corporate encoding, but can be altered and re-imagined in distinction from its commercial uses. Much as dom- inant corporate narratives can be attached to sports, the intersection of sport, nationalism and media is nonetheless an “important arena where dominant cultural ideologies about national identities are (re)produced and challenged.”26
Within the online space of sport blogs, such contestations over ideas of national iden- tity expressed through sports narratives become highly visible. This study explores the contestation and reproduction of the narratives and ideology of nationalism and sport within the context of corporate nationalism. In its promotions and broadcasts, the UFCC, a multinational media corporation, uses popular identifiers of Canadian identity as part of its representational advertising strategy to capitalize upon the images, symbols and collective identity of Canada. The focus of this study is to determine how a specific segment of the UFC audience, here represented by bloggers and commenters, decodes these messages of corporate nationalism in ways that normalize, oppose, or transform such corporate encod- ings.