TY - JOUR
T1 - Perceptions of FIFA Men's World Cup 2022 Host Nation Qatar in the Twittersphere
AU - Dun, Susan
AU - Rachdi, Hatim
AU - Memon, Shahan Ali
AU - Pillai, Rohith Krishnan
AU - Mejova, Yelena
AU - Weber, Ingmar
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Human Kinetics, Inc.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - The FIFA Men's World Cup Qatar 2022 has been analyzed through the frameworks of nation branding and soft power. As the world's most popular sport event, the World Cup has the possibility to enhance host nations' images internationally, but we are not aware of empirical work attempting to assess public perceptions of Qatar, despite the considerable attention it has been paid. Accordingly, we assessed the discussion in the Twittersphere to shed some light on whether Qatar's nation-branding and soft power attempts are reflected in public perceptions. We collected, geotagged, and analyzed 4,458,914 tweets with the word "Qatar."We found that, contrary to the expectations of the organizers in Qatar, host nation status has not necessarily brought better nation branding or enhanced soft power, especially in the Global North. We conclude that socialmedia's interactive nature, which enables users to influence the discussion agenda, should have been considered by event organizers.
AB - The FIFA Men's World Cup Qatar 2022 has been analyzed through the frameworks of nation branding and soft power. As the world's most popular sport event, the World Cup has the possibility to enhance host nations' images internationally, but we are not aware of empirical work attempting to assess public perceptions of Qatar, despite the considerable attention it has been paid. Accordingly, we assessed the discussion in the Twittersphere to shed some light on whether Qatar's nation-branding and soft power attempts are reflected in public perceptions. We collected, geotagged, and analyzed 4,458,914 tweets with the word "Qatar."We found that, contrary to the expectations of the organizers in Qatar, host nation status has not necessarily brought better nation branding or enhanced soft power, especially in the Global North. We conclude that socialmedia's interactive nature, which enables users to influence the discussion agenda, should have been considered by event organizers.
KW - discussion agenda
KW - nation branding
KW - public perceptions
KW - soft power
KW - Twitter
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139563505&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85139563505&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1123/ijsc.2022-0041
DO - 10.1123/ijsc.2022-0041
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85139563505
SN - 1936-3915
VL - 15
SP - 197
EP - 206
JO - International Journal of Sport Communication
JF - International Journal of Sport Communication
IS - 3
ER -