From Local to Global: Qatar Invests in sports and uses soft power to conquer the world
With a funding from Qatar National Research Fund (Grant No. CWSP17-W-0915-19028) obtained by Dr. Moez Ben Messaoud from Qatar University (QU), the Mass Communication Department of the College of Arts and Sciences at Qatar University organized, a two-day international scientific conference on “Media, Sports and Marketing Mechanisms of Qatar 2022: Challenges and Potentials”.
This conference which was coordinated by Dr. Moez Ben Messaoud, Associate Professor of Strategic Communication at the Department of Media at Qatar University – brought together a number of Arab and non-Arab intellectuals and professionals working in the media, marketing and advertising sectors to present their perceptions regarding the promotion and marketing mechanisms of the 2022 World Cup and highlight its impact on the image of the State of Qatar and the ability to promote it as a tourist destination and a cultural capital. Apart from its being an opportunity to build communication bridges between academics and professionals in various disciplines such as media and communication, sociology, international affairs, marketing and advertising, the symposium centered on axes such as the institutionalization of sports and media, Qatar’s experience in sports media and its role in re-crystallizing the concept of entertainment, and the emergence of a new concept of sports media geopolitics. Needless to say that the symposium discussed the importance of international sporting events in promoting the image of Qatar as a World Cup organizing country and consolidating it’s national and regional identity rooted in its Arab and Islamic affiliation. The recommendations will certainly serve the World Cup 2022 communication and marketing activity.
Qatar 2022, managing media performance and shaping national identity
During his presentation in the first session, Dr. Jamel Zran from Manouba University, Tunisia, asserted that sports, like communication, are social phenomena that are strongly present in all societies and are constantly transforming, which makes them a scientific topic that interferes in its multidisciplinary interpretation, noting that the ambiguity that surrounds communication and sports in research reflects the societal expansion of these two phenomena. Today, Dr. Zran stressed, it is difficult to explain what is athletic and what is communicative in society. In every human movement, the communicator and the sportsman confront us. Contact with globalization is about to turn communication into an ideology, and with it sport may change into an axis of communication in all its manifestations far from the prevailing portrayal of communication as nothing but a mere marketing tool for sport. The relationship between communication and sport is a structural one.
Dr. Abdellatif Ben Sfiaa, Director of the Higher Institute of Information and Communication in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco, focused on a presentation titled “International Sports Events and Betting on the Media: Qatar 2022 and Managing Media Performance,” on the importance of Olympic Games, world and continental championships, and the role of the media in managing their potentials. He pointed out that the 2022 FIFA World Cup is of an exceptional nature and that Qatar is the first Arab and Islamic country to organize a global event of this size.
Dr. Noureddine Miladi, Professor of Mass Communication at Qatar University, indicated in his presentation, for which he chose the title “Media, Sports and the Formation of National Identity,” that some media and communication scholars believe that identity, in the modern nation-state, is no longer formed through traditional means only. The nation’s image is rather built through national institutions such as museums, educational systems, and the media.
Dr. Miladi pointed out that “international sporting events represent an important opportunity to present and market national heritage and culture and celebrate them in the host countries. Citing the 2006 Asian Games in Qatar, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as well as the 2012 Olympics in London, he attempted to analyze the representations of national identity and cultural symbols that were celebrated on these occasions. He also discussed the way in which media coverage reflects this range of interaction between national belonging and sport, which is frequently repeated at these international sporting events.
Sports and football as catalysts for building local identity
In a presentation titled “Sports and football as catalysts for building local identity and highlighting soft power: the BeIN Sport channel as a model,” Dr. Sebastian Sons, a researcher at the Center for Applied Research in Partnership with Orient (CARPO) in Germany, points out that in recent years, sports and football in particular have become relevant factors in building identity in member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He thought that the preparation for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has accelerated efforts in those countries to establish sport as an essential tool for national development, social and cultural modernization, and economic diversification.
The researcher has identified relevant theoretical considerations regarding sport as a soft area of policy making. Both sports and football were employed by the leaders of the Gulf States to enhance the visibility and unification of local power, as well as to enhance global and regional influence. According to the researcher, the relationship between the trio of sports, identity politics, and the consolidation of power plays a key role in the complex and sometimes volatile regional relations between the concerned Gulf countries, noting that “motivated by social, economic and political aspirations, sport has become an area of increased competition.”
Within the framework of this same axis, Dr. Hala Guta and Dr. Eiman Issa from the Mass Communication Department of Qatar University gave a presentation titled “Marketing the State of Qatar’s Sports Identity on Tik-Tok: #The Road Towards 2022.” The presentation emphasized the importance of using social media and the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy to promote the identity of Qatar as a sports center. The Supreme Committee created an official account on Tik Tok in 2020 and called it Road to 2022. This account uses Arabic as the main language in addition to official accounts in several other languages including English, Spanish, and French. Based on the TikTok sample, the two researchers attempted to investigate the strategies and narratives of Qatar Sports Identity marketing used by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy. The research used content analysis to compare the publications of the Supreme Committee on the Arabic Tik Tok account which targets local and regional audiences, and the English Tik Tok account, which targets international audiences.
Dr. Khaled Ghulam, Dean of the College of Media and Arts at the University of Tripoli in Libya, tried through a paper titled “The Impact of Sports Identity on the Representations of the Mental Image of the West towards Arabs” to shed light on the importance of the role of sports in changing the West’s stereotypical view of third world countries in general and Arab countries in particular. The presenter pointed out the need for both the media and academy to play their role in supporting and encouraging sports tournaments for their effective role in changing the Westerners’ prevailing image of Arabs.
Dr. Fouad Abdel Aziz focused, in a presentation titled “The Formation of the Mental Image for Viewers of Sports Pictures,” on the importance of sports in bringing people together and fuelling the feelings of the “national spirit” that sometimes aligns with chauvinistic feelings, starting with the rituals accompanying this human activity, such as choosing the uniform of any team, mimicking in one way or another the colours of the country’s flag, and ending with the emotional identification that reaches the point of shedding tears when singing the national anthem. In this study, the researcher used the semiotic analysis method of Roland Barthes to probe the depths of the vision and the “national” meaning in the still and moving images of football.
Investing in sports and entertainment: Qatar from Local to Global
During the second day of the international scientific symposium, Dr. Abdalmotalab Saddiq Makki presented a paper titled “Sports Discourse and the Dilemma of Hate and Racism.” The problematic of this topic revolved around the fact that sports are an arena for competition which calls for a commitment to honour this competition so that it does not turn into a battle of conflict, hostility and possibly fighting, as was said in many countries. Dr. Makki stressed that sports media cannot be viewed as an entertaining activity as was prevalent in the past. Today, sports have become a stand-alone industry and an important tool in diplomacy, dialogue, and rapprochement between peoples.
In his presentation on the new representations of investment in sports, Dr. Moez Ben Messaoud, Associate Professor of Strategic Communication at Qatar University, maintained that the field of sports represents one of the modern platforms that countries take to achieve political, economic, social, and cultural goals, pointing to the various forms of investment such as television broadcasting, advertisements, sponsorship rights, and the transfer market for players. Investing in buildings, stadiums, and the like has not only brought a lot of profit to countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, but also driven them to move from the local to the global.
Within the framework of this strategy, Dr. Moez Ben Messaoud confirms that some countries, including a number of Gulf countries in particular, have revived traditional sports, pushing towards concentrating the necessary infrastructure and facilities to focus on modern sports by building cities and sports complexes to increase the demand for sports. These sports cities include multi-use facilities such as sports clubs, stadiums, training academies, residential areas, shopping centers, restaurants, and others.
To institutionalize the sports sector, these countries have invested in sports, leisure, and entertainment in order to enhance the values of loyalty and national belonging among all segments of society and promote coexistence and tolerance among societies.
Dr. Mohamed Jouili, Professor of Sociology at the University of Tunis, focused, in a presentation titled “Football as a Social Demand,” on the importance of shifting interest in football as a mere competitive game to an interest in it as part of the social demand for spectacle, the states’ political challenges, and the continuous process of building local, national and international identities. And when football turns into a social demand, he noted, it is no less valuable than a demand for employment, development, and social justice. In this, he praised the role of the State of Qatar in caring for sports.
In a presentation titled “Sports diplomacy or soft power,”Mr. Adel Brinsi, explained the importance of investing in sport as a means for countries to achieve the cherished foreign policy, build their soft power, shape their mental image, and pave the right way for peoples from different cultures to exchange relations.
An exceptional World Cup Qatar 2022
During the discussion session, Mr. Khaled Al-Naama, Director of the Digital Media Department and the official spokesman for the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, pointed at the importance of the communication work carried out by the Supreme Committee to promote the World Cup activities and the work done by the digital media in this process. The presenter tried to outline the communication strategy adopted by the Supreme Committee and all the activities that accompanied the preparation of the State of Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup, noting that Qatar 2022 will be an exceptional championship by all standards.
The coordinator of the symposium hosted also Mr. Ahmed Ghassab Al-Hajri, from Qatar Media Corporation, and the journalist Amer Al-Titawi. Mr. Ahmed Al-Hajr touched on the capabilities of Qatar TV to put World Cup 2022 in the media work and on the preparations required for the coverage of this great event. All Qatari sports channels such as Al-Kas, BeIN Sport and others, he said, will be at the service of this world championship.
At the end of the symposium, Dr. Moez Ben Messaoud, the scientific coordinator of the symposium, presented the project of the book as an important outcome of the symposium and of the research grant obtained. This book, titled “Media and Sports: Representations, Approaches, and Intersections,” will include a number of chapters by prominent academics from Qatar University and Arab and non-Arab universities and will be an important addition to the Arab library due to the scarcity of writings in this field. The book will also have an added value in the field of interdisciplinary studies in various disciplines such as media and communication, education, sociology, international affairs, marketing and advertising.
Source: QATAR UNIVERSITY