Sport in Melbourne

To me the concept of globalisation has always been about the sharing and amalgamation of cultures, ideas, physical space and goods. While watching the Liverpool v Melbourne Victory match on TV Wednesday night I could not help but consider the impact globalisation has had, and continues to have, on the Melbourne sporting psyche. While the number of definitions of globalisation does not quite correspond with the 95,446 people who attended the aforementioned contest at the MCG, there are nonetheless too many to consider here.
One definition given by Giddens (cited in Rantanen, 2005), however, states that globalisation is ‘the intensification of world-wide social relations, which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.’ With regards to the Liverpool v Melbourne Victory match, one needed only to listen to the vocal performance of the masses in singing You’ll never walk alone, Liverpool’s famous anthem, to gain an appreciation of this intensification of social relations.
Supporters from the UK had travelled to Australia to watch their team, and supporters still in the UK, and many other countries, were watching via various media outlets such as Liverpool FC TV and online streaming sites, linking these events from Melbourne to places right across the globe. The travelling supporters are of course an example of the physical flow of globalisation, whereby individuals and or groups move beyond their borders.
As Strivastava et al. (2013) write, ‘not all movements are for the purposes of permanent resettlement,’ and it is in this sense that the sporting psyche of Melbourne is continually shaped by globalisation. You just have to think of some of the major sporting events such as the Formula One races, the Australian Open tennis, the Melbourne Cup and the Boxing Day test match, to name a few, and you begin to realise that when athletes and fans come here, they bring with them part of their culture and their own ideas on life and sport. As well as this, they share space with locals and foreigners alike, and while their presence may not be permanent, the imprint they leave on us as a city and a community certainly can be.
Reference List
Rantanen, T 2005, ‘Theorizing media and globalization’, Media and globalization 2005, Sage Publications, London, pp. 1-18
Strivastava, S, Warren, B & Moore, C 2013, Topic 2: Global flows and scapes: The flows and scapes of globalisation, retrieved 25 July 2013, ‹https://d2l.deakin.edu.au/d2l/le/content/143750/viewContent/1880460/View›.

The MCG plays host to many major worldwide sporting events

Introduction

Hi, my name is Lachie Young and I am a second year Media and Communication student majoring in journalism and public relations at Deakin University. This blog has been created for the ALC215 Globalisation and the Media unit, and it will be here on a weekly basis that I will upload posts in relation to the course content for this unit.