Public diplomacy, international news media and London 2012: cosmopolitanism^TM

Abstract

This article investigates the nature of cosmopolitanism in the production and reception of public diplomacy discourse surrounding London 2012. It focuses on three actors: the UK Government, the International Olympic Committee and the international news media. It finds that UK public diplomacy actors and their partners were focused more on the promotion of a competitive identity, albeit a cosmopolitan one, than engagement. It argues that the cosmopolitanism evident in the discourse was a form of branded cosmopolitanism, and, ultimately, this limited the success of UK public diplomacy in achieving its aims. This style of communication – that was evident across the discourse surrounding London 2012 – was exclusionary of key actors to UK public diplomacy objectives. Applying a form of critical discourse analysis, the ideology surrounding the Olympic ideal is revealed as significant to maintaining uncritical acceptance of exclusions and conspicuous contradictions.

Notes

^1. The selection of news media publications is informed by the ‘Lord Carter of Coles Public Diplomacy Review' (Lord Carter of Coles 2005, para. 4.2) where public diplomacy geographical priority areas are listed. These included: major transitional countries (China, India); key Islamic countries (Pakistan); and major developed countries (the USA). Output from two news outlets from each of the above countries and the UK were assessed between 22 July 2012 and 29 July 2012. These dates were chosen to include the lead up to the Games and also the start of substantial sporting competition from 25 July 2012, to allow for both sporting and non-sporting comments to be covered. From China, the English output from the Xinhua news agency (the official press agency of the People's Republic of China), Shanghai Daily (an English language daily news article); from Pakistan The Nation (an English language news article based in Lahore) and The Daily Times (an English language news article); from the USA The New York Times and The Washington Post; from the UK The Guardian and The Times. A total of 3051 articles that included the word ‘London 2012' or ‘Olympic' published between 22 July 2012 and 29 July 2012 were downloaded from the Nexus database. From this sample, 108 articles with headlines that suggested a focus beyond sport were analysed. This time frame was chosen to include the opening ceremony and the lead up to it.