May 12, 2010 Meeting Notes
Research Question: What are the demographic, geographic and social characteristics of online AFL fandom and the implication of these for AFL clubs?
Tasks for May 19, 2010: Write a short research summary. It should include the research question, how I came to be interested in the topic, methodology description and some of the topics covered. Purpose is to make sure everyone understands what I’m doing and why. This can almost be an introduction for the actual thesis.
Find out about the cheer teams for the AFL. Do they have a web and social media presence?
Ongoing tasks: Check the media pages from The Australian to see what they have to say about social media and online activities in Australia.
Paper notes and tasks: Questions around how the review of literature should be done. One idea suggested was to write the thesis as a series of almost independent papers and to publish them as I go through it. When I’m done with all the various chapters, the citations can be synthesized in order to do a shorter, citation dense review of literature.
Cover bases for the literature review. It needs a clear (a)cademic statement. Possible structure for it could be:
- What are fans?
- How do fans show allegiance to a league? To clubs?
- What is the link between fans and social media?
The last part may be the most difficult as there is little available information about the topic. This is both good and bad.
Discussion about the topology of online sports fandom. Three types:
- Undefined allegiance.
- Formal membership.
- Association.
Question of: Can the different types of fans be determined on social networks?