Mediating culture, identity, and state soft power aspirations in philippine digital news narratives of the 30th Southeast Asian Games

Sport mega-events are widely conceptualised as platforms for mediating prestige and nation branding, as well as projecting soft power aspirations, with much of this discussion focused on globally prominent events such as the Olympics. This article shifts attention to digital news coverage of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, a regional sport mega-event, whose smaller scale demonstrates that soft power can be aspired and pursued through regional recognition, cultural visibility, identity projection, and mediated national image-making. Using the Philippines’ hosting of and participation in the 30th SEA Games as its empirical case, this article features qualitative framing and textual analyses of Philippine digital journalistic materials produced from 2017 to 2019. The findings show that Philippine digital news outlets participated in the state’s aspiration and pursuit of prestige and positive nation branding through mediated portrayals of national culture, identity, organisational capacity, and pride that may potentially be converted into tools for building regional soft power. However, separate strands of reportage utilised critical framings by reporting on controversies and issues surrounding the event. These alternative narratives indicate a ‘risk dimension’ because such coverage shifted attention to social, political, and organisational shortcomings that may affect the nation’s credibility, attractiveness, and, potentially, soft power.