Faster, higher, stronger: Sports fan activism and mediatized political play in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games

Viktor Chagas; Vivian Luiz Fonseca

doi:10.3983/twc.2020.1707

Faster, higher, stronger: Sports fan activism and mediatized political play in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games

Viktor Chagas Universidade Federal Fluminense https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1806-6062
Vivian Luiz Fonseca Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2020.1707

Keywords: Fan activism, Mediatization, Political play, Rio 2016 Olympics Games, Sports fans

Abstract

In an analysis of sports fans activism and theoretical approaches to understand experiences of mediatized political play, we address groups of activists who protested using fan usual resources and repertoires. We focus on some episodes of protests performed by casual sports fans against the then acting Brazilian president, Michel Temer, during the Rio 2016 Olympics. The category of fan must also be further discussed when applied to sports and political fandoms, considering the disputes and competition background for which they are not only fans but also rooters.

Author Biographies

Viktor Chagas, Universidade Federal Fluminense

Professor and researcher at Communication Graduate Program at Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil. Associated member of National Institute of Science and Technology on Digital Democracy (INCT.DD). Visiting Scholar at Universidade Federal da Bahia. PhD in History, Politics, and Cultural Assets (Getulio Vargas Foundation).

Vivian Luiz Fonseca, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Professor and researcher at Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Uerj). PhD in History, Politics, and Cultural Assets (Getulio Vargas Foundation).

HTML

Published

2020-03-15

Issue

Vol 32 (2020): Fandom and Politics

Section

Theory

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

TWC Nos. 25 onward are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For an explanation of the journal's reasoning, see the editorial, Copyright and Open Access.

TWC Nos. 1 through 24 are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License with TWC, not the author, retaining copyright. For more information, see the Copyright Section.