‘We Beat ’em’: Nationalism and the Hegemony of Homogeneity in the British Press Reportage of Germany versus England during Euro 2000

Abstract

This article analyses the press reportage (written texts and visual images) of the football game between Germany and England during Euro 2000. We examine how the press construct the nation as a homogeneous collective within which the (implied) reader is positioned as belonging. The article also examines the press coverage of civic disturbances involving England supporters. We demonstrate how the ‘football hooligans’ undergo ‘othering’ in the press through de-authentication, pejoration, homogenization, and minoritization and universalization. In doing so, the press are able to police the moral boundaries of what is considered normative in terms of membership within the national collective. We argue that the formulation of nationalism and the homogeneity and unity of the nation in the British press in relation to the England–Germany football game takes the form of three main strategies: separation, conflict and typification. Separation is predominantly realized in the rhetoric of ‘us’ and ‘them’, whereas conflict is largely made manifest through the useof military metaphors and war imagery. Finally, typification is achieved by the use of stereotypes, representing the nation as ‘timeless’ and ‘homogeneous’, with those who do not conform being instantly ‘othered’. It is postulated that in adopting the above stances with regard to the nation, the press reproduce and maintain hegemonic social relations, and in- and outgroup distinctions on both inter- and intranational lines. In other words, the papers support and uphold a hegemonic world order of sovereign nation states, who areresponsible for the behaviour of their citizens.