Abstract

Over the last thirty years, mediatization, popularization and hybridity have become three of the main features of sports journalism: because of them, sports newsmaking has grown, the journalistic coverage has changed, finally sports news have gained new typologies of newsworthiness. This paper aims to analyse if and with what effects these phenomena take shape when journalists have to cover a media event like the football World Cup. Through a media content analysis, the paper explains the newsworthiness of the FIFA 2014 World Cup on six no-specialized magazines, coming from Italy and France. The research shows that, when the journalistic coverage of sports is affected by mediatization, popularization and hybridity, sports news are covered also by no-specialized magazines; at the same time, a mediatized, popularized and hybrid sports tale allows a competition to turn into a conquest or a coronation.