Impact of social media engagement on users' nationalist sentiments

The Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, which was successfully held earlier this year, was held against the backdrop of the COVID-19, and the vast majority of audience were unable to attend the event in person and had to use media channels to participate. While traditional media such as newspapers and television provided channels for sports viewers to learn about information and watch broadcasts, new media channels such as the Internet and social media provided platforms for sports viewers to exchange views and express their emotions. During the Olympic Games, sports viewers also took to social media in a patriotic frenzy under the stage of country-based sports competition. Whether it was cheering for their athletes in the live comment section of the Internet broadcast platform, collectively posting social media posts or comments congratulating athletes on their achievements, or posting articles about the rules of the sport and commenting on the judges’ decisions, the interactive use of new media was an important form of participation for the general audience during the Olympics. The Olympics are no longer just a sporting event; they also provide entertainment, including both reality TV and international news coverage. Yet the most common motivation for audience to consume the Olympics remains nationalism, i.e., people choose to follow Olympic events in order to watch their own competitors compete. The slogan of this year’s Beijing Winter Olympics is “Together for the Future”, which is an international sporting event advocating peaceful communication, but we witnessed an orgy of nationalism on social media, and the role of media use in such phenomena, especially social media participation, deserves discussion.

The media coverage of the Olympic Games provides the greatest precondition for Benedict Anderson’s concept of “imagined political communities”, as people define their heroes and imagined opponents of the event primarily on the basis of nationality, rather than on the basis of the audience know or have met any of the athletes themselves. Nationalism can be seen in many ways, both in a positive and negative sense, as we can see nationalism as “democratic or authoritarian, backward-looking or forward-looking, socialist or conservative, secular or religious, generous or chauvinistic”. What is already known about the influence of the media during the Olympics is that people may have an exaggerated perception of the importance of their own country due to the media focus on the athletes from their home country. In measuring the impact of nationalism, an attempt will be made to avoid this supposed distinction between good and bad nationalism. Instead, the goal is to determine the relationship between media consumption during the Olympics and respondents’ attitudes and the broader concept of nationalism. 

Over the period of 18 days, the Olympic Games provide a platform for a wide variety of competition among the many nations participating, as well as a platform for individuals to categorize their identities. For example, a person who strongly identifies with his or her home country chooses to focus only on the competition and performance of his or her own country's competitors, while advocates and followers of the Olympic spirit may care about the performance of all participating athletes. 

How social media participation is linked with audience’s strength of nationalism? Different from the solid perspective provided by media such as TV broadcasting and news sites, social media provides diverse opinions and a platform where people could interact with others. In this situation, will social media consumption affect nationalistic sentiment more significantly compared to other media types? And will interaction with others on SNS will significantly affect the strength of user’s nationalist sentiments?