Formation of Media Discourse as a Mechanism for Politicization of Sports

One of the least popular topics among Russian researchers to this day is the issue of specific mechanisms used to move initially non-political relations into the political sphere artificially. The article presents the results of the analysis of communication techniques, tactics and strategies aimed at the formation of media discourse as a means of politicization of sports (exemplified by sanctions against Russian sports). The empirical base of the study are 545 media messages published between January 1, 2014 and March 31, 2025 in six quality newspapers, i.e. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Izvestia, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian and The Independent. The paper concluds that strategies of self-presentation (in a favorable light) and discrediting Western opponents dominate in Russian editions, while strategies of discrediting Russia and manipulation dominate in the foreign newspapers. Media discourse formed in this way often becomes a basis for making biased political and managerial decisions in the sports sphere. Once specific narratives have been introduced into the mass consciousness, the images needed by the subjects of politicization have been created, and the cause-and-effect relationships that are beneficial to them have been imposed, it becomes much easier to ensure that an initially illogical, unnatural, and in some cases not entirely legal idea is perceived by the public as completely normal, absolutely adequate to reality, or even a long-overdue initiative.