FROM COLLECTIVE CELEBRATION TO SYMBOLIC COMMUNICATION: FOOTBALL MEDIATIZATION AS PUBLIC PEDAGOGY IN MOROCCO

Apstrakt

This article examines the mediatization of football in Morocco as a process through which collective celebration is transformed into structured symbolic communication and public pedagogy. Moving beyond conventional approaches that treat football primarily as entertainment or focus on nationalism and fandom (Tapp, 2004; Benkwitz & Molnar, 2012), the study conceptualizes it as a mediatized cultural arena where emotions, narratives, and symbols are actively produced and circulated. Drawing on qualitative media discourse analysis and symbolic interpretation, the article investigates how football-related celebrations, particularly during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, are framed, amplified, and recontextualized through media systems. It argues that spontaneous collective festivities are progressively reorganized through processes of selection, framing, and repetition, producing coherent narratives of national unity, identity, and legitimacy. To theorize this transformation, this study introduces the concept of “from collective celebration to symbolic communication,” describing the shift from affective collective celebration to mediated symbolic communication. This process is further interpreted as a form of public pedagogy, whereby audiences implicitly learn meanings related to belonging, citizenship, and national representation through emotional engagement with mediated football events. The study contributes to debates in media studies, sport sociology, and political communication by offering a conceptual framework that links mediatization, symbolic communication, and informal learning within contemporary football cultures.