“True fan = watch match”? In Search of the ‘Authentic’ Soccer Fan.

Academics have created typologies to divide association football (soccer) fans into categories based upon the assumed ‘authenticity’ of their fandom practices. One of the main requirements of ‘authentic’ fandom has been assumed to be match attendance. The goal of this paper was to critically assess this assumption through considering how fans themselves talk about the significance of match attendance as evidence of ‘authentic’ fandom. In light of the fact that the voices of English non-league fans on the ‘authenticity’ debate have so far been overshadowed by the overbearing focus of much previous research on the upper echelons of English soccer, an e-survey was conducted with 151 members of an online community of fans of English Northern League (NL) clubs (a semi-professional / amateur league based in North East England). Findings revealed that opinion was divided on the constituents of ‘authentic’ fandom and match attendance was not deemed to be the core evidence of support for a club by 42% of the sample. Elias (1978) suggested that dichotomous thinking hinders sociological understanding and it is concluded that fan typologies are not sufficient for assessing the ‘authenticity’ of fan activities

An Examination of How Much Product Extensions Play A Role In Fandom

Executive Summary The purpose of this study was to determine if product extensions played a role in fandom so sport organizations could see what extensions they could use to gain more fans, generate revenue, and enhance their relationships with their fans. This research was important because sport organizations could use the product extensions that play a role in fandom to enhance their relationships with their fans. It was known that the development of fandom, product extensions, and the growth of sport programing along with the plethora of options for fans to use have been examined and researched individually. The method to draw conclusions were made by the testing results of a likert scale survey that was created of a list of product extensions asking the participants what extensions make the sport fan more of a fan of their favorite team. The survey was on a scale from 1 to 5. The survey was administered through twitter and emailed to a list of individuals at a private Division III university who are involved in sport. It was found that product extensions did not play a huge role in fandom. It was also found that out of the list of product extension variables team merchandise, gameday tv programming, and team specific social media accounts played the biggest role in fandom. It was important to do this research because there were many product extensions that played no role in fandom and some that played a great deal. Sport organizations were able to use the product extensions that played a role in fandom consistently and kept them updated while getting rid of and not spending as much time and money on the ones that did not play a role in fandom

Exploring Identities in Online Music Fandoms: How identities Formed in Online Fan Communities Affect Real Life Identities

This thesis set out to explore the identities formed by members of online fandom communities, and to determine the ways in which those identities affect their real life, offline identities. This qualitative study encountered elements related to stereo types of young women who are fans of mainstream pop music, and provided insight on their experiences through interviews with five long time boy band online fandom members. This study asked if fans prefer to keep their fandom identities internal or let them reflect outward, how one\u27s online identity affects or translates to their real life identity, and what experiences in the online fandom were the most impactful to the individual\u27s real life identity or led to new knowledge. It was revealed that online community platform is the place where fans gather to enjoy a similar passion, but it is the relationships and discussions held on the site between fans that truly affect an individual and their identity, rather than the more superficial elements of being in a fandom. Through fandom discourse, members found social support and solidarity with one another

Fandom: A Study on How College Students Selected a Favorite Professional Sports Team

This research aimed to uncover key factors in how college students select a favorite sports team. An important issue in today’s sport industry is recognizing fans motives for supporting their favorite sport teams. Sport managers need to better understand fan’s motives in order to address the team\u27s needs and increase the fan base. Also, the team needs to cultivate a relationship for fan involvement to garner economic benefits. The subjects for this study were college students at St. John Fisher College. Using an online survey, the results of this uncovered that team factors were the most important in someone supporting their favorite sports team

Modern ‘live’ football: moving from the panoptican gaze to the performative, virtual and carnivalesque

Drawing on Redhead's discussion of Baudrillard as a theorist of hyperreality, the paper considers the different ways in which the mediatized ‘live’ football spectacle is often modelled on the ‘live’ however eventually usurps the ‘live’ forms position in the cultural economy, thus beginning to replicate the mediatized ‘live’. The blurring of the ‘live’ and ‘real’ through an accelerated mediatization of football allows the formation of an imagined community mobilized by the working class whilst mediated through the sanitization, selling of ‘events’ and the middle classing of football, through the re-encoding of sporting spaces and strategic decision-making about broadcasting. A culture of pub supporting then allows potential for working-class supporters to remove themselves from the panoptican gazing systems of late modern hyperreal football stadia and into carnivalesque performative spaces, which in many cases are hyperreal and simulated themselves

The Motivational Factors that Influence Rugby Fandom in The United States

The purpose of this research was to understand the different factors that affect varying levels of rugby fandom. Rugby is currently very popular worldwide but faces extreme competition in the United States, especially from football. This research is important because it will help marketers and sport managers better understand fan motivation in rugby. This will allow them to better market and grow the sport in the United States to compete with American sports. A sample of 111 participants from a small private college in New York was surveyed for this study. The survey contained primarily quantitative questions, with one open ended quantitative question to end the survey. Participants were asked about the factors that motivate them to follow sport in general and what factors might lead them to follow rugby if they don’t already. Socialization and excitement of the game were found to be the highest rated motivational factors. It was also found that there was a significant difference in how men rated violence and sport higher than women, implying that rugby may struggle generating a female fanbase because of its physical and violent nature. In the analysis of the qualitative data one of the most common themes was that American sports fans compare rugby to football which reinforces the heavy competition from football in the United States. Many fans also commented on the physicality of the game, for some it was a turnoff to the sport and to others it made the sport more exciting. Other fans felt that, while expressing some interest in the sport, it was confusing and difficult to follow as well as hard to gain access to. These results show that the biggest challenge to rugby will likely be competition from other sports. As of right now there is no significant outlet for rugby in the US which makes it hard to find for potential fans. American audiences will need greater exposure to the sport in order to develop a better understanding of the game and generate fandom

Girls and the Media: Girlhood Studies Agenda and Prospects in Italy

Within the Italian context, girlhood studies can hardly be considered a specific field: adolescence and gender construction in Italy have historically been investigated by sociology and psychology, although, in recent years, media studies have also focused on youth media consumption as a cultural process in the broader sense, investigating the relevance of the media in the identity-building process. Actually, the lack of a definition of girlhood studies as such did not prevent Italian research from providing theoretical contributions and significant research on girlhood, mostly in the fields of reception studies, audience studies and textual analysis. On these premises, the article aims at discussing the relationships between girlhood and the media nowadays, keeping in mind firstly the recent transformations in media consumption within the networked society; secondly the coexistence of contradictory representations of girlhood in both the local and the global and the way it is assembled in the young audience discourse; and thirdly the phenomenon of identity co-creation in creative fandom practices.Within the Italian context, girlhood studies can hardly be considered a specific field: adolescence and gender construction in Italy have historically been investigated by sociology and psychology, although, in recent years, media studies have also focused on youth media consumption as a cultural process in the broader sense, investigating the relevance of the media in the identity-building process. Actually, the lack of a definition of girlhood studies as such did not prevent Italian research from providing theoretical contributions and significant research on girlhood, mostly in the fields of reception studies, audience studies and textual analysis. On these premises, the article aims at discussing the relationships between girlhood and the media nowadays, keeping in mind firstly the recent transformations in media consumption within the networked society; secondly the coexistence of contradictory representations of girlhood in both the local and the global and the way it is assembled in the young audience discourse; and thirdly the phenomenon of identity co-creation in creative fandom practices

It’s not all about the music:online fan communities and collecting Hard Rock Café pins

Previous studies of music fan culture have largely centered on the diverse range of subcultures devoted to particular genres, groups, and stars. Where studies have moved beyond the actual music and examined the fashion, concerts, and collecting ephemera such as vinyl records and posters, they have tended to remain closely allied to notions of subcultural distinction, emphasizing hierarchies of taste. This paper shifts the focus in music fan studies beyond the appreciation of the music and discusses the popular fan practice of collecting souvenir pins produced and sold by the Hard Rock Café (HRC) within a framework of fan tourism. Traveling to and collecting unique pins from locations across the globe creates a fan dialogue that centers on tourism and the collecting practices associated with souvenir consumption. Collectors engage in practices such as blogging, travel writing, and administration that become important indicators of their particular expression of fandom: pin collecting. Membership requires both time and money; recording visits around the world and collecting unique pins from every café builds fans' cultural capital. This indicates an internationalization of popular fandom, with the Internet acting as a connective virtual space between local and national, personal and public physical space. The study of HRC pin collecting and its fan community suggests that HRC enthusiasts are not so because they enjoy rock music or follow any particular artist but due to the physical ephemera that they collect and the places and spaces they visit