Date of Award

Spring 2015

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Major

LACS German Studies

First Advisor

Julia Assaiante

Abstract

Soccer is a beloved and successful sport that serves as an important part of Germany’s culture, and, like in other European countries, there has always been a correlation between the success of a country’s soccer team and a perceived prominence of that nation. In the summer of 2014, the German National Team took the title of FIFA World Cup victors, in a tournament that was heavily publicized through all forms of media, both print and digital.

Now more than ever before, newer forms of digital media are emerging as popular forums for the distribution of news, and of conversation thereafter. These newer forms have fewer regulations and denotations about their supposed and effective uses in spreading news to the public, and because they are used by a younger and more digitally affluent generation, are used in an entirely different way than are other media genres, such as print media, associated with older generations.

In my thesis, I analyze a series of newspapers, magazines, commercials, and social media forum posts from the time of Germany’s 2014 FIFA World Cup victory, in order to discover how the rhetoric from these different genres of digital and social media show evidences of German national pride, and rhetorical appeals that would incite a similar feeling of patriotism in their audiences. I will discover the relationship between these forms of media and the country’s national pride, doing so through the lens of the relationship between international sports and nationalism.

Comments

Senior thesis completed at Trinity College for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in German Studies.

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