A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Vinícius Júnior Representation in Global Football Narratives

This paper tackles the representation of the football player Vinicius Junior in the global media narratives through a cross-cultural analysis. The paper aims to identify and compare the cross-cultural aspects used in representing Vinicius Junior as far as European and South American sports media narratives are concerned. Moreover, it intends to Explore the roles of the racial and cultural aspects in framing Vinícius junior image in different cultural regions. The sample of the study is limited to four extracts selected from two news articles (one article is European and the other one is from South America). The model adopted involves van Dijk’s (2000) polarization framework and Hall’s (1997) representation theory. The findings of the study imply that the language used in media narratives implies cultural identity and stereotypes relying on certain lexical choices and framing. Moreover, polarization of cultural identity reinforces the in-group and out-group strategies and racial discrimination portrayed through a focus shift toward personal behavior.