Identity Construction Of British Football Hooligans Through The Interaction With Media

Under the influence of economic and cultural globalization,football is growing an influence in the world.Football fans have become the one of largest sport fan groups.Being a representative of football fans,hooliganism has its unique sub-cultural style and exhibits a strong resistance against mainstream culture.Based on theories of subculture,media,and labeling,this thesis analyzes British hooliganism from the perspective of culture study,and combines the theory with consumerism.This thesis focuses on the discussion of identities construction of hooligans through media,with its communication strategies to label hooligans as deviants,and to transform hooligans' identities by way of consumption.Because of the need for maintaining hegemonic status of mainstream culture and the need for constructing a new normalcy for society,media intentionally labels British hooligans as deviants by using diffusion strategies.Media tries to influence the public's perception of hooligans and alienates hooligans as a sub-cultural group.Those strategies include delegitimization,appeals of fear,and derogation of image.However,sometimes the public will take an oppositional position against media's reports and protect the reputation and status of hooligans.Hooligans construct their identities through the process of rationalization of labeling and repetition of deviant behaviors.They will join in a hooligan group,and exhibit their sub-cultural style and resistance in forms of collective activities and dress.In the context of consumption,the sub-cultural nature of hooliganism may gradually disappear,and hooliganism may be integrated into mainstream culture in the form of ideology and commodity.Media tends to attach a different label on hooligans for the purpose of indoctrination.Besides,the sub-cultural nature of hooliganism is conductive to the production of consumptive products for the purpose of entertainment and is forced to disconnected from the context and group in which it was created.