PAID PATRIOTISM
INVESTIGATION
PAID PATRIOTISM
INVESTIGATION
How are national symbols appropriated by official communities through the designed media events?
Through watching the performance of singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl from 2008 to 2018, it could be seen that national identity had reinforced through the patriotic sentiments of war, sports events might bring national communities together in nationalism and then patriotism. At the same time, the National Football League (NFL) reaped goodwill benefits from latching on to the resurgence of American patriotism, they know the military and waving flags become good for business.
1991 Super Bowl XXV
When the United States fought in the Persian Gulf War and American and coalition troops fought Iraqi troops in Kuwait, 1991 Super Bowl XXV in Tampa stadium was played. Popular singer Whitney Houston, dressed in a red, white, and blue tracksuit, performed an unforgettable national anthem, while there were American soldiers and sailors standing at the 25-yard lines holding giant flags of foreign allies or saluting the American flag. When Houston finished singing, four F-16 fighter jets roared overhead, the result was “a pep rally to cheer on the American military.”
2002 Super Bowl XXXVI
The pre-game show featured cut-away shots of United States troops stationed in Afghanistan, archived footage of the Vietnam War, reading excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, juxtaposed with a reading of the Declaration of Independence by past and present NFL players which have become a part of all subsequent Super Bowls carried by Fox Sports.
2009 Super Bowl XXXVI
Fox's NFL Sunday broadcast from Bagram Air Field in, each member of the Fox on-air crew wore a uniform commemorating a different branch of the service. It was playing to a crowd of real warriors locked in an eight-year-old conflict, the war in Afghanistan. Oriard (2009) presents it as “high on patriotism but low on militarism, leaving out any hint of blood or fighting”, and it was an opportunity to explain the humanitarian mission in Afghanistan and soften the harsh realities of war.