Hegemony, Media, & Sport: Discourse analysis of soccer matches in media Iran: 1960 to 1990

This research aims to study media reflections of some soccer matches that have been played in the sensitive political and social situation in the 60s, 70s and 80s. First, it discusses an analysis of the struggles between the discourses of each period. Second, it identifies Hegemonic discourse in each decade. In addition, the following research aims to analyze and comment on the discourses that seek after a national identity that has been formed in different historical ages.
For this purpose, we have chosen three soccer matches of these three decades with targeted sampling method to be discussed based on Laclau and Mouffe's discourse analysis.
These three matches are Iran vs. Israel on May 1968, Iran vs. Netherlands on June 1978 and Iran vs. South Korea on October 1990. The way of reporting Iran, Israel match is in a more realistic view and the mythical tone is naïve and without any ranting, whereas the texts on June 1978 are narrated in a revolutionary way with idealistic elements and in the 1990s it gets more ideological and experienced.
In conclusion, based on the result of this research, between the 1960s and 1970s we can see a vacillation in discourse between "Realistic View" and "Idealistic View", after the Islamic revolution "National Identity" changes into "Religious Identity" and "Ideological Borders" replace "Geographical Borders" in idealistic discourse.Also definitions like "The Ummah" and "Islamism" replaced "nation" and "Iranism". Accordingly, in the texts of the 60s, 70s and 80s "Realistic", "Idealistic" and "Religious" discourses can be identified.