Archive for category Administrative

Appendix A: Data Gathering Site Specific Methodologies (draft 1)

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 24 November, 2010

And just to mix it up today and support the idea that I actually do write things, this would be a draft of some methodologies that will be headed into my appendix. A lot of it feels really simple, already gets stated inside existing chapters as I use the data and would eat up word count in my methodology in a really unhealthy way. (I’ve got about 20 of these methodologies to do. I should really do a summary about each particular site I’m using too. We’ll see. This section first.)


Appendix A
Data Gathering Site Specific Methodologies

43 Things
User information
To get user information from 43 Things, the first step was to identify goals that related to an Australian or New Zealand based sport club.  Searching using various keywords, reading the goals that related to the keywords and determining if they related to the search accomplished this.  Once a goal was identified and people were identified as having completed the goal or intending to complete the goal, the goal was recorded on a row in a 43 Things specific spreadsheet.  In a separate column, the team and league to which the goal related to were also recorded.  After this was completed, the user pages for people with that goal were visited.  Their username, city, state, country, birthday, website, and date joined were all recorded.  The last notation to the row was to include the date that this information was gathered.
During the time that this data was gathered, 43 Things changed the information that was available on the profiles.  This was done sometime between early June 2010 and  early November 2010.  Subsequently information such as city, state, country, birthday, website were not available on user profiles.  Only data gathered prior to this time exists except in cases where the data was checked at a later date and the user’s information had previously been recorded.

Total user information
Attempts were made to benchmark the level of interest in a team by recording the number of relevant search results on 43 things.  This was done by documenting the league and team that were being searched for in a row.  After that, the keyword used for the search was recorded in the same row.  The search was then completed and the total results were recorded.  A textual analysis of the search results was conducted and the total number of relevant results was recorded.  Of those relevant results, the total number of people working to accomplish them was then recorded.  Finally, the date the search was conducted was recorded.

Alexa
Site rankings
A list of websites related to Australian and New Zealand sport was created.  This was recorded on a spreadsheet, with columns that listed the league and team that the domain featured.  For every domain on the list, the page about the domain on Alexa was checked.  The Alexa page URL for the domain was also recorded on the relevant row.  When visiting the page, the world rank was recorded.  If an Australian rank was also available, it was recorded in a separate Australian specific column.  Next, the date that this information was gathered was recorded.  After that, any notes the author had regarding the site were recorded.  This was mostly to identify the type of domain or if it ranked in a country outside Australia.  Lastly, in some cases, the paragraph of information provided by Alexa regarding the site’s traffic and demographics was recorded.

Bebo
User  information
Profile information from bebo users was gathered by running a search related to a specific team or league.  The league and team that the search was related to was documented.  Once this was done, the people search results were copy and pasted to Notepad.  The search results were then formatted for pasting to the bebo user spreadsheet. Once copy and pasted, the author attempted to convert user-inputted locations into real locations of city, state, country.  The location field results were then found in columns for city, state, country instead of a location column.  The columns that existed then were league, team, name, gender, age, city, state, and country.  A final column was added that recorded the date this data was gathered.

Videos, Groups, Band information
There are three different search tabs on bebo beyond people that have information about the community size and audience for Australian and New Zealand sport.  They are Video, Groups and Bands.  Searched related to a specific team, player or league were run.  The relationship between the searches and the league and club were recorded.  The search results were then copy and pasted to Notepad where the results were formatted so they could be pasted on to a separate bebo related spreadsheet.  Once this was done, the following headers where information could be found included type, total (fans/viewers/members), loves, profile views, group created, genre, city, state, country, uploaded, uploader, and description.   The city, state and country information was documented using the same methodology as the bebo profile information.  Finally, a column was added that included the data that this data was gathered on.

Total search results
Total search results data came by recording the search term used, and recording the team and league that connect to that search term.  Once that was done, the total results were recorded for People, Video, Music, Groups, Apps and Skins. The date the search was conducted was then recorded.  Finally, any notes regarding the search or its results were recorded.
When recording the results, in almost all cases, the total results were included.  In a few select cases, generally when the results were 20 or less, the total number of results deemed relevant were recorded.  This was deemed important for smaller sport fan communities where one or two videos or groups may represent the whole community.  An example search where this was done involved a search for “Giants Football Club” because the results picked up rugby league teams and the New York Giants.

BlackPlanet
User information
User information was gathered once a search had been conducted and resulted in a user appearing.  If a user appeared for that search, the league and team related to that search were recorded.  The user name was then recorded.  The user page was then opened and the following data was collected: Country, gender and age. Lastly, the date this information was gathered was documented.

Total user information
To gather total user information, a search phrase was thought of and recorded.  In separate columns, the league and team the search related to were recorded.  The profile search was then conducted and the total number of results were recorded.  Finally, the date the search was conducted on was recorded.

Blogger
User information
User information was gathered once a search had been conducted and resulted in a user appearing.  If a user appeared for that search, the league and team related to that search were recorded.  The user name was then recorded.  The user page was then opened and the following data was collected: Age, Gender, Astrological sign, City, State, Country. Lastly, the date this information was gathered was documented.

Total user information
To gather total user information, a search phrase was thought of and recorded.  In separate columns, the league and team the search related to were recorded.  The profile search was then conducted and the total number of results were recorded.  Finally, the date the search was conducted on was recorded.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-11-21

Posted by Laura on Sunday, 21 November, 2010
  • Looking at digg data this morning. I'm so confused in terms of how meaningful this is. Did Aussies not use digg much circa 2009? #
  • Characteristic of AFL diggers : bit.ly/9gJiJY #afl #wce #gosaints #gopies #
  • I'm a Fan of Community on @GetGlue bit.ly/bNvGTc #
  • Debating writing about the name announcement for @teamgws and impact on growth of interest on social media. Need data. #
  • Just the issue of benchmarking before and not sure there will be a bump. #
  • Is it better to post as separate articles to a blog "Most popular as of X date" lists? Or to have a static page and just update it often? #
  • Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (November 16) : bit.ly/b8O8dy #afl #nrl #nbl #a-league #
  • Most popular *female* Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (November 16) : bit.ly/925w3i #
  • I just ousted Sally C. as the mayor of The Marketplace Gungahlin on @foursquare! 4sq.com/aOh9MQ #
  • I just ousted @bruce1979 as the mayor of Big W (Gungahlin) on @foursquare! 4sq.com/cITwBo #
  • I am wearing my Chicago Cubs shirt today in honor of the Giants Football Club. #
  • Are there any blog entries out there about fan response to the Team GWS colors and name? #
  • I'm a Fan of The Daily Show with Jon Stewar… on @GetGlue bit.ly/bNvGTc #
  • I've been a little happy bouncy of. Some one accused me of being on a week long intravenous sugar line. MWA HA HA. #
  • some one pointed out that I let the oven smoke away while I went about my work. really. I was concentrating and I thought it was supposed 2 #
  • Australian sport federations and social media policies: bit.ly/bJpqcR #
  • Most popular AFL related Twitter accounts (November 18) : bit.ly/aWruTC #afl #gopies #
  • Most popular NRL related Twitter accounts (November 18) : bit.ly/bZxbfC #nrl #
  • Most popular female Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (November 18): bit.ly/cD0dZq #
  • I feel done with Twitter blogging for the day. I should move on to something else, like blogging about GWS and getting data there. #
  • And my Twitter follower location tool is being run. It should take at least a week with about 800 accounts. :D #
  • I don't want to spend three days writing a paper where the conclusion is: Name and logo reveal did little to grow fanbase. :/ #teamgws #afl #
  • Twitter follower information: bit.ly/axDahI #AFL #
  • 3G in Mollymook NSW is slow. Not going to be on much until tommorow. :/ #
  • I just unlocked the "Great Outdoors" badge on @foursquare! 4sq.com/dz9gGM #
  • I just unlocked the "Swimmies" badge on @foursquare! 4sq.com/cqK25t #
  • I just became the mayor of Public Toilets on @foursquare! 4sq.com/ais6fq #
  • How would I get from Sydney to the lower 48 not via plane? Is not flying even an option? #
  • More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups : bit.ly/cSwLif #afl #nrl #nbl #
  • I'm a Fan of Top Chef: Just Desserts on @GetGlue bit.ly/bNvGTc #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-11-14

Posted by Laura on Sunday, 14 November, 2010
  • I earned the Check-in Hall of Famer sticker on @GetGlue! bit.ly/coHvS2 #
  • Looking at more data? Not much need to follow up bit.ly/anBAGV Monaghan/Raiders/NRL story as no real behavioral shifts happened. #
  • Doing a trip around Australia is not easy. 10 cities and I've got a month and a week for one itinerary, month and three weeks for another. #
  • I feel guilty asking for funding for that… #
  • I earned the Gleek sticker on @GetGlue! bit.ly/d7Su7C #
  • I'm a Fan of Glee on @GetGlue bit.ly/bNvGTc #
  • I've collected more random data for the day. :) I should really upload it and make available. #
  • Is there an Australian sport team that you might like an idea of the size of their online fan base? Bit bored & may be happy to data up. :) #
  • In my compiling data about @Collingwood_FC , @HawthornFC , @PAFC , I am alphabetically up to Facebook. Pleased. More data than I thought. #
  • Networks I have data so far included? 43Things, Alexa, Bebo, BlackPlanet, Blogger, care2, Compete, Delicious, ecademy, Foursquare. #
  • Bathroom writing @unicanberra twitpic.com/35ysd1 #
  • Americans: more important family holiday? Thanksgiving or Christmas? #
  • In my alphabet of social media sites? Twitter follows orkut. This is not good! Woe! I don't want to do Twitter. :( #
  • Most popular female Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts : bit.ly/auCLjC #
  • Picked up my registration packet for the Tour de Femme tomorrow. Meep! Riding in a 20km bike race. #
  • Exercise in frustration: Not being able to find page history on a wiki. :/ How can I do research with out that? #
  • I am watching Goal! 2: Living the Dream #Goal2 (via @GetGlue) bit.ly/a5zdnh #
  • I finished! 20km bike race in about 50 minutes. That was 10 minutes faster than i thought. :) #
  • I earned the Shareaholic(50) sticker on @GetGlue! bit.ly/9sWxG8 #
  • A social media/web snapshot of Collingwood, Hawthorn and Port Adelaide : bit.ly/bPgDiq #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-11-07

Posted by Laura on Sunday, 7 November, 2010
  • Online Activity in the Wake of the Melbourne Storm Controversy Revisited (incomplete) : bit.ly/a60Gen #nrl #melbournestorm #
  • Auckland's public library has a surprisingly good collection of books about Rugby League. Major problem? Still little insight about fans.:( #
  • I just became the mayor of Champions on @foursquare! 4sq.com/c9XHFY #
  • I just became the mayor of The Famous Victoria Street West Billboards on @foursquare! 4sq.com/cU6OqZ #
  • I just ousted @scottfromnz as the mayor of Pier 2 Ferry Terminal on @foursquare! 4sq.com/99SnmC #
  • E-mailing tweets on Tweet removes who a person was RTing AND gives garbage API url. :( #
  • I'm at Auckland's library and the security guy just came through to tell people to watch their stuff as four laptops were stolen yesterday. #
  • I posted a photo at Starbucks – gowal.la/c/2P72Y #
  • What is the best free iPhone app, mobile enabled website, twitter account or Facebook account to follow US election results? I has no TV. :( #
  • When planning to meet people, learn names and what they will be wearing… #
  • Missed flight to Canberra. Overnighting here. (@ Stamford Plaza) 4sq.com/5awLYu #
  • On shuttle bus to SYD to get back to canberra… How i've missed you Canberra! #
  • This bit.ly/dxBdP8 is a pretty good article on junk research being done by some social media marketers. #
  • Raise your hand if you want data on how Joel Monaghan's alleged animal sexing didn't hurt existing Canberra Raiders fanbase. #raiders #nrl #
  • Boring conclusions are interesting/boring. #
  • Writing my Joel Monaghan paper. Finished with Twitter and Facebook sections. #
  • And looking at this article compared to the one I wrote about Akermanis? It is full of suck. :( #
  • I just ousted Drew D. as the mayor of IGA on @foursquare! 4sq.com/aKO2aQ #
  • Joel Monaghan’s Mad Monday and the Online Canberra Raiders Fan Base : bit.ly/anBAGV #
  • Lunch at Koko Black twitpic.com/34m773 #
  • Most popular Australian athletes, clubs, leagues and sport organizations on Twitter (November 7) : bit.ly/925w3i #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-10-31

Posted by Laura on Sunday, 31 October, 2010
  • Data dump: Australian sport on YouTube : bit.ly/a1O6ka #afl #nrl #socceroos #
  • Data dump: Australian sport (AFL, NRL) ranking on Alexa : bit.ly/cQB01G #afl #nrl #
  • And I thought the toilet walls at @unicanberra were interesting. Victoria university. twitpic.com/30loim #
  • Any sport/social media people in Melbourne want to meet up this afternoon/tomorrow for coffee and a chat? #
  • "Congratulations. Your iPhone is unlocked." <– It is magic. :D #
  • I just ousted Hannah W. as the mayor of Coffee HQ – Flinders St on @foursquare! 4sq.com/aqUurX #
  • I'm at EK406 Melbourne To Auckland. 4sq.com/9BguEa #
  • I just earned the New Zealand Pin on @gowalla! gowal.la/r/242E #
  • Many thanks to @timbull for putting me up in Melbourne! #
  • Arrived safely in Aucklsnd! #
  • Countdown to Rugby World Cup. twitpic.com/317jxz #
  • My hostel room has no windows. This is so weird. #
  • I just became the mayor of Caltex on @foursquare! 4sq.com/aA1w8P #
  • I just became the mayor of The Tamara Backpackers Lodge Wanganui on @foursquare! 4sq.com/bwOuCI #
  • Topped up with 100 MBs! Yay! (@ Vodafone) 4sq.com/ci42FZ #
  • Still in New Zealand. Weird but fun trip. Still, want to get back to Canberra to write… #
  • If there are any Auckland social media/sport people who want to have coffee, let me know… #
  • I just became the mayor of Whitebait Inn Mokau on @foursquare! 4sq.com/b9VtKH #
  • I just became the mayor of Public Toilets on @foursquare! 4sq.com/d8kIxw #
  • I just became the mayor of Naked Bus on @foursquare! 4sq.com/9Xn2Zb #
  • Sexing cows. Sexing sheep. Dead sheep being eaten by bird. Sheep grazing on golf course. Welcome to New Zealand? #
  • I think i went from bad Auckland hostel to worse… Arg! #
  • I just became the mayor of Ski & Surf Hostel on @foursquare! 4sq.com/d9Mhjn #
  • Every library / bookshop has its own unique collection of sport books. My want list for @unicanberra library grows… #
  • How is it that youcan tell the history of a sport and rarely mention the fans, except for how many pay at the gate? No fans? No pro sports. #
  • I just became the mayor of Whitcoulls on @foursquare! 4sq.com/8Yf8sR #
  • I just became the mayor of Borders Outlet on @foursquare! 4sq.com/9eU0Pp #
  • I just became the mayor of Surf N Snow Backpackers on @foursquare! 4sq.com/bAK6Xk #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-10-24

Posted by Laura on Sunday, 24 October, 2010
  • If I kept adding to my list of Australian sport related Twitter accounts, I think I could easily hit 1000. #
  • The problem then is who cares at that size? (Side note, if you are on my list and want your follower info in csv format, let me know.) #
  • Using a list of 32,435 Aussie Twitters: Mean followers: 208. Median: 22 Mode: 3. #sminoz #
  • Using a list of 32,435 Aussie Twitters: Mean follows/friends: 234. Median: 86. Mode: 27. #sminoz #
  • Using a list of 32,435 Aussie Twitters: Mean updates: 581. Median: 48. Mode: 0. #sminoz #
  • If I see another user entered Twitter location that isn't standard, the perfectionist in me may scream in pain. #
  • I'm a Fan of Mad Men on @GetGlue bit.ly/bNvGTc #
  • I earned the Mad Men Fan sticker on @GetGlue! bit.ly/bwFJgE #
  • Where do followers of Australian sport on Twitter come from? bit.ly/bVxiVV #
  • Is it worth it to book a last minute ticket to New Zealand to interview for volunteer position for #RWC2011 #
  • One week away morphed into two. Leave tomorrow morning. Not packed. Meep! #
  • I just ousted @bforsyth as the mayor of Gus' Cafe on @foursquare! 4sq.com/buYjRr #
  • Weee. Off to Melbourne soon. :D Been very productive on the phone. Life is grand. #
  • I'm at Melbourne Sports Books (80 Flinders Street, Melbourne). 4sq.com/ao1OPl #
  • I'm at AFL House (140 Harbour Esplanade, Melbourne). 4sq.com/8ogYVu #
  • I earned the Marathoner(14) sticker on @GetGlue! bit.ly/dAveSe #
  • Any Melbourne sport people want to get together for coffee Satuday or Sunday? #
  • Scott Lee Cohen appears to be really hurting the Green's Whitney this election cycle. :( Not good for Illinois that. #
  • Getting cranky. Where is The Gap in Chadstone Mall? #
  • Found The Gap. Life is good! #
  • Most popular NRL team on LiveJournal? Newcastle Knights. Least popular? Gold Coast Titans. #
  • Sydeny Swans are the most popular team on LiveJournal. WCEagles number 2. Port Adelaide Power & Gold Coast Suns are the least popular. #afl #
  • Feels like bebo population for #AFL and #nrl is stagnant/moved on to other sites… bit.ly/bdUqW0 #
  • Data dump: Australian sport on LiveJournal and its clones : bit.ly/bAWW9r #
  • Weeee… I've written 1,000 words. :D I'm revisiting an earlier paper I wrote. Not good writing but meh! Doing! #

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Where do followers of Australian sport on Twitter come from?

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 20 October, 2010

For the past two, almost three months, I’ve been focused on Twitter to the exclusion of almost all other social networks. This is because of the size of the Twitter audience and because of the complexities of trying to determine the location of those Twitter followers. I’d really like to move on but I’ve ended up in a perfectionist loop where I can’t seem to find the command for breaking it.

My over riding goal of sorts, in regards to Australian sport on Twitter, is to determine the size and location of the Australian sport community on Twitter as expressed by following Australian sport athletes, clubs, leagues and organizations. The methodology is relatively simple: 1) Develop a list of the major Australian sport related Twitter accounts. 2) Get a list of all the followers for those accounts. The list should include as much profile information as possible, including the user inputted location and time zone. 3) Translate user inputted locations into actual locations. When no user inputted location exists, attempt to use the time zone field to get this location.

The first step is a manual step. I’ve got to look around at other people’s lists, check follow lists and develop that list. My current list is around 450. It is constantly in a state of flux as people and organizations occassionally delete their accounts or get new ones with new names. (This leads to massive drop offs that I can’t always explain or notice in the moment. Sources to document the disappearance of accounts don’t always exist. Asking a month or two after the fact means that people can’t always recall what happened.)

The second step is automated. I’ve had a friend (@Hawkeye7) develop a tool that pulls that information for me. It is relatively simple once executed but its success largely depends on the input from step one. From October 14 to October 18, we got the follower list for every single account on that list of 450 people. It took four days because there are API limits on Twitter. We’d run across them, wait an hour and then get the next page of followers or next person’s followers. In the case of @warne888, this took at least 8 hours.

The third step relies both on manual input and automation. I’ve spent probably in the neighborhood of 60 hours working on creating a list of about 85,000 variants of user inputted locations. The tasks for doing this included reverse geocoding, creating lists of city/state/country patterns for Australia based on observations for patterns that I saw as repeating, individually evaluating user inputted locations to try to make an accurate guess as to what the user meant in terms of their location. My focus was on getting as much of the city/state/country information for Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and Ireland. For countries other than those listed, I just tried to identify that the account came from a country. The selection of countries for most specific location data was based on where I saw Australian sport followers as coming from and my own understanding of a country’s geography. I don’t understand the geography of South Africa and Costa Rice as much as I could. I didn’t want to spend the time to completely understand it to better label those accounts. The time to overcome my learning curve felt better used by continuing to improve the list of unknowns to relatively known. Despite the huge amount of time spent on this, I have a list of over 50,000 user inputted locations that I haven’t begun to look at. As a perfectionist, this drives me absolutely nutters. I can’t possibly translate every user inputted location into a usable location. (I’m still working on improving it anyway.) The more accurate this list, the better my results. (And given the size of the data sets involved, I have my own user input errors that I don’t always find until I run the locations.)

To give this perspective, let’s look at @warne888. He had over 198,000 followers. I found over 50,000 user inputted locations which did not have a location I had appended to that variant. This, when it was pulling from a list of 65,000 variants. India turned out to be the big problem in that I didn’t have that many variants for cities in the country. Out of a list of 50,000 followers for @warne888, 17,000 of those followers listed neither a user inputted location nor a useable time zone for determining their location. Roughly 34% of his followers I’m never going to determine where they are from.

That said, understanding the conditions of this data set, let me get to the actual results. These were found by combining all the follower results from all 450+ different accounts. By combine, only the UserID (A unique number Twitter has assigned for every account) and the country were put in the new file. The duplicate rows were then removed to insure that people who followed multiple accounts were only counted once. This should begin to give an idea as to the comparative distribution globally of Australian sport fans.

Country Count
Australia 77682
India 46174
United States 26515
Unknown 19717
United Kingdom 17547
South Africa 8456
New Zealand 4806
Canada 2004
Ecuador 1819
United Arab Emirates 1325
Ireland 1318
Brazil 1139
Chile 1101
Bangladesh 1085
Pakistan 1062
Argentina 909
Singapore 850
Germany 760
France 712
Japan 670
Indonesia 579
Philippines 535
Spain 430
Netherlands 413
China 310
Sri Lanka 280
Thailand 275
Malaysia 257
Hong Kong 230
Mexico 214
Italy 190
Portugal 159
Qatar 156
Belgium 152
Sweden 140
Kuwait 139
Saudi Arabia 136
Nepal 132
Switzerland 124
Iran 121
Bahrain 119
Norway 119
Venezuela 119
Turkey 108
Colombia 105
Israel 96
Denmark 90
Peru 90
Egypt 73
Costa Rica 72
Romania 67
Russia 62
Greece 61
Puerto Rico 59
Poland 56
Austria 54
Uruguay 48
Finland 44
Jersey 41
Vietnam 38
Serbia 33
Oman 32
South Korea 32
Barbados 30
Cyprus 29
Taiwan 28
Malta 26
Fiji 24
Kenya 24
Mauritius 22
Paraguay 22
Slovenia 22
Panama 21
Vatican City State 21
Nigeria 20
Maldives 19
Morocco 19
Croatia 18
Ghana 18
Guatemala 18
Ukraine 18
Czech Republic 17
Jamaica 17
Jordan 17
Latvia 17
Papua New Guinea 16
Gibraltar 15
Guernsey 14
Guyana 14
Bermuda 13
Botswana 13
Brunei 13
El Salvador 13
Hungary 13
Namibia 12
Dominican Republic 11
Bulgaria 10
Macedonia 10
Mongolia 10
Lebanon 9
Lithuania 9
Luxembourg 9
Honduras 8
Iceland 8
Monaco 8
Tonga 8
Afghanistan 7
Slovakia 7
Tanzania 7
Tunisia 7
Zimbabwe 7
Bolivia 6
Estonia 6
Iraq 6
Kazakhstan 6
Mozambique 6
Nicaragua 6
Trinidad and Tobago 6
Uganda 6
Algeria 5
Cayman Islands 5
New Caledonia 5
Swaziland 5
Antarctica 4
Aruba 4
Bosnia and Herzegovi 4
Cambodia 4
Haiti 4
Isle of Man 4
Samoa 4
Sudan 4
Zambia 4
Andorra 3
Armenia 3
Cameroon 3
French Polynesia 3
Guam 3
Laos 3
London 3
Seychelles 3
Albania 2
Azerbaijan 2
Belarus 2
Bhutan 2
Djibouti 2
Guadeloupe 2
Malawi 2
Marshall Islands 2
Solomon Islands 2
Suriname 2
Angola 1
Ballarat 1
Belize 1
Bendigo 1
Benin 1
Burkina Faso 1
Chad 1
Christmas Island 1
Congo 1
Cook Islands 1
Cuba 1
Ethiopia 1
Faroe Islands 1
Georgia 1
Greenland 1
Grenada 1
Ivory Coast 1
Kyrgyzstan 1
Liberia 1
Libya 1
Liechtenstein 1
Madagascar 1
Moldova 1
Nauru 1
Norfolk Island 1
Northcote 1
Reunion 1
Rwanda 1
Senegal 1
Sierra Leone 1
Somalia 1
Syria 1
Turks and Caicos Isl 1
United Kindom 1
Vanuatu 1
Virgin Islands 1
Western Sahara 1

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-10-17

Posted by Laura on Sunday, 17 October, 2010
  • I have voted. Now all I need to do is mail in my ballot. :) #
  • Mailed my absentee voter ballot. Wooten! (@ Australia Post Shop) 4sq.com/9knB6F #
  • Writing goal for this week: Finish writing my first draft of my literature review. #
  • Last section to tackle on my lit review: The Connection Between Sport Fandom and Online Activity. #
  • my cricket bat I reported stolen turned up. Now don't I feel silly with reporting that stolen. #
  • Review of literature draft: bit.ly/asHmMz Any AFL fandom sources I'm missing and should be citing? #
  • Will be in Melbourne from 21 to 25. :) Any sport people want to catch a coffee? Or anyone want to help me meet sport people? :) #
  • Most popular Australian athletes, clubs, leagues and sport organizations on Twitter (October 11): bit.ly/aJNfT3 #
  • Watching India vs. Tonga at the Comminwealth Games. #RugbySevens bit.ly/93hp7v #
  • I just ousted @kaffles as the mayor of University Of Canberra Library on @foursquare! 4sq.com/aQU5Lb #
  • Anyone have a list of best Australian sport films? I'm looking to watch a few. #
  • I love ##australia on irc.freenode.net for getting help on important cultural Aussie understanding stuff. :D #
  • Feels too small… But yum? Donut? twitpic.com/2wwswa #
  • Most popular female Aussie athletes on Twitter: bit.ly/cV432x ItsStephRice, @watsonjessica, @libby_trickett, @LayneCBeachley #
  • Today is a tasty data day. Trying to determine what to data to use to make a Twitter Aus sport follower map. Suggestions? #
  • I earned the Marathoner(7) sticker on @GetGlue! bit.ly/dAveSe #
  • Some Australian sport Twitter follower data: bit.ly/bXnOls This is a data dump. #
  • feedback on the first draft of my lit review and methodology can be delayed. LA LA LA. I can't hear you! #
  • I just became the mayor of Flip Side on @foursquare! 4sq.com/aSUdeP #
  • Rain. Rain. Go away. I want lunch! twitpic.com/2xp75c #
  • McDonalds is broken. twitpic.com/2xpl6y #
  • A great example of Australian film! #StrictlyBallroom bit.ly/cfbgn2 #
  • I just ousted Matt B. as the mayor of Baker's Delight on @foursquare! 4sq.com/9J3r0Z #
  • I'm a Fan of The Apprentice on @GetGlue bit.ly/bNvGTc #
  • Spent most of the day working on bit.ly/9KiuD1 improving the RecentChangesCamp wiki. :) #rcc11 #

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Review of Literature: Draft (3)

Posted by Laura on Monday, 11 October, 2010

This feels mostly finished in terms of content to add to it. I need to get feedback from my supervisors regarding what is missing or what could be improved. (I know it isn’t perfect. I just wanted it written so I could get on with editing it and realizing where the problems are.) Any and all feedback is appreciated.



Review of Literature

The review of literature will define what fans and sport fandom are, and examine how sport fans show allegiance to clubs they barrack for. The definitions of fandom and fans are key to understanding how and why people express interest in a team online. After that, the lit review will look at population studies of and characterizations of sport fandom in Australia.

The Definition of Sport Fandom

There are very few works that focus on the definition of fandom as it pertains to sport. Most literature presupposes that its readers understand what the concept means and then proceed to examine some aspect of sport fandom. While researching sports fandom and its definitions, four different groups were identified as offering their own perspective on how to identify and define fandom. The first group includes sports marketers and managers, who broadly speaking, define sports fandom around potential for spectatorship. The second group involves sports sociologists and historians; they tend to define sports fandom as a form of identity and as a product of a specific culture. The third group involves the media and sports fans, where the definition involves the expression of allegiance to a club that is often grounded in the moment or the short term. A fourth group was identified as doing research about sport fandom. This group includes popular culture studies academics, who tend to focus on fan interaction with the team and the game, and who focus on sport fandom as a smaller subcomponent of fandom.

Sports marketers and managers.

Stewart (1983) wrote for an audience of VFL fans, while providing a great deal of information regarding the organization of the league, its financial situation and other information that would be of more interest to people interested in sports marketing. Fans are frequently described based on their proximity to stadiums, training grounds and the location found in a team’s name. These descriptions were used to explain the potential for spectatorship: “The Club has little local support — there are few private dwellings in the vicinity — and most of its supporters are centred in the outer south-eastern suburbs.” (p. 41) In a few cases, fans are all described based on their economic status and how fans of other teams perceive them: “It is thought that while the affluent eastern suburbs residents are appreciative of the team’s success, they prefer to spend Saturday afternoon in active leisure activities like tennis or gardening.” (p. 40)

Shilbury, D., Quick, S., & Westerbeck, H. (2003) published a book about sports marketing. Much of the content is focused on fans from the perspective revenue for a club, league or sport converting them into spectators and consumers of merchandise related to the organization and its sponsors. The authors do not create their own definition of fan. Rather, the authors (p. 70) borrow from Smith and Stewart (1999) to define categories of fans: passionate fans, champ followers, reclusive partisans, theatergoers and aficionados.

Sullivan (2004) wrote for an audience of potential sport marketers. The author said “the term fan will be used in the broadest sense and will, therefore, imply a range of attachments.” (p. 131) Sullivan then characterized fans as spectators and consumers of various media who could be profiled using three key factors: Geographic, demographic and behavioral factors. The discussion around these factors involved how they impacted the potential for spectatorship and the consumption of media related to a team.

Nicholson (2004), a sport management academic, wrote to reflect on the problems the AFL faces in terms of becoming a national game. The geographic population imbalance between clubs in Queensland and New South Wales compared to Victoria was a major problem: The league was not balancing team location with population areas, nor was it financially sponsoring player development. The author rarely used the word fans to describe these problems: Spectators, the market and television audience are used instead.

Sports sociologists and historians.

Collins (2005) wrote for an audience interested in the history and evolution of several football codes in Australia. In describing a proposal to merge rugby league with Australian rules football, the different codes were described as appealing to two different views about Australia’s place in the world: transnational versus nationalistic. These differences point to a definition of sports fandom relating to identity.

Like Collins, Cashman (2002) was writing for an audience of those interested in history. Cashman (2002) differs in that his history focused on more on the connection between Australian sport and other issues in Australian life including identity, culture and parallel Australian history. Both authors connected sport to national identity. In the case of Cashman, the term fan is almost never used in the text. Words like crowds, interest, Australian with adjectives further identifying spectator culture and sport participants are used instead. Again, the author’s undefined use of fandom involves identity.

Adair, D. & Vamplew, W. (1997) are sports historians that tried to debunk some historical myths about sports culture in Australia. One of these myths involved the defining of Australians as sports obsessed. This definition, where fans are defined as people obsessed with sports, is reinforced by talking about match attendance compared to the total population, and by the consumption of sport on television. Spectatorship plays a role in the definition with less frequency than that of the identity of a nation obsessed with sports and as an important component of Australian popular culture.

Hess (2000) wrote specifically about the history of female fans of Australian rules football. In his text, he offered a topology of the female fan types. These included women as passive onlookers, voyeurs, socialites, barrackers, civilizers. Hess (2000) claims it is possible to “categorize female spectators on the basis of their behavior and their seating arrangements” (p. 127) but “it should also be noted that it was certainly acceptable for different social groups of women to be present at football games”. (p. 127) The author uses the term fan, spectator, supporter and barracker almost interchangeably. The definition that gets offered often ties into the type of fan to other types of identities such as class, social standing and occupation. Spectatorship plays a role in these definitions but often in the context of where female fans sit relative to those other identities.

Stewart (2005, p. 117) wrote for an audience Australian sport historians interested in the Australian Football League. In this work, for this audience, he referred to fans based on their sense of identity, their relationships with management and the behaviors they expressed. Like sport marketers, he too borrowed from Smith and Stewart (1999) to offer a paradigm for classifying fans. Stewart argues that there was a paradigm shift from away using the term barrackers and supports that occurred during the 1980s and 1990s. (Stewart, 2005, p. 115) The term fan was used to distinguish define the type of supporter and loyalty to the club. This type of issue had an impact on how Australian sport historian and sociologists used the term in their own research.

The media and sport fans.

The Canberra Times (2009, September 12) defines fandom based around personal identity of individual fans. They reference scholars who talk about supporting a club being similar to having religious experiences. The article goes on to talk about how modern fans express their identity. The actions they describe are fixed in short term expressions of allegiance: Buying and wearing a jersey, attending a match, crying or cheering depending on a club’s performance.

Monteverde (2010, October 11) wrote about the Harry Kewell’s fans in the Courier Mail (Brisbane). In the article, he talks about how fans responded to Kewell’s performance at two specific events: An A-League match and the World Cup, not on fan allegiance across Kewell’s career. Actions that were described were also temporal: Getting items signed, cheering for Kewell as he did things on pitch and applauding Kewell when he took the field.

The Gold Coast Bulletin (2010, October 9) described fans using a short-term indicator of Melbourne Heart fans getting heart when the Heart beat the Melbourne Victory. The Central Coast Express Advocate (2010, October 8) also used fans in a context of an extremely limited time period when the newspaper talked about how fans had been promised that the pitch would be in good condition for an A-League match. Garvey (2010, October 10) in The Sunday Age had an article titled, ” ‘Rekindled’ does enough to keep his fans interested.” This title supports the idea that sport fandom is defined by newspapers around short term events.

Popular culture studies academics.

Popular culture studies scholars like Jenkins (2006) and Hills (2009) offer the last definition. They define fans as an active population who engage in activities related to an object produced by the larger popular culture. This production includes activities like writing fan fiction, creating costumes, producing fanvids and organizing conventions. The act of production goes helps in constructing a new identity. (Bennett, 2010) Popular culture academics also define fans as possessing a sense of ownership of their product that is removed and distinct from the official one, that they view actors, athletes, copyrighted and trademarked materials as communally owned by fans.

Sport fandom definition.

Almost all the definitions of sport fandom predate the rise and importance of the Internet. Those that come later often ignore the presence of sport fans online. In trying to determine what a sport fan is in the context of online fandom, bits and pieces need to be borrowed from the four definitional categories. In the context of this research, sport fandom is defined as the collective group of fans organized, formally or informally, around a particular sport, club or athlete where individual members identify as fans and express that allegiance in a way that can be observed by outsiders.

Population and Characteristics of Australian Sports Fandom

While there are many definitions and underlying assumptions as to what a fan is, there has been less work done looking at what makes these communities demographically distinct from populations. Much of the work done approaches the issue from the perspective of comparing the population of different sports or leagues. When specific clubs are looked at, the literature tends to focus less on research done about fans of those teams than it does on repeating traditional narratives about fan allegiances that may date back one hundred years.

Sports.

Delpy & Bosetti (1998) conducted a demographic study of sports fans online that found sports fans were 6% more likely to be female (36% compared to 30%) and were 1.3 years older (34 compared to 32.7) than the whole population of the Internet.

Adair, D. & Vamplew, W. (1997) cite a study that found that during the 1970s, 28 percent of men and 21 percent of women in Australia regularly attending sporting events as spectators.

The VFL and AFL.

The VFL and AFL have been attributed with having historically high levels of female fans, both as spectators and barrackers, when compared to other football codes in Australia and around the world. In the early days of the sport, female spectatorship was between 30 and 50 percent. (Cashman, 2002, p. 48) This contrasts with Australian, specifically New South Wales, rugby which is characterized as being conservative, middle class, patriarchal and often containing strains of misogyny that discouraged the growth of female spectatorship. (Cashman, 2002, p. 52) Both codes were characterized as having large white spectator bases. (Cashman, 2002, p. 56) For much of the history of Australian rules football, it was characterized as being a fundamental part of life in Melbourne; this began to change in the 1960s and 1970s as the game became more commercialized. (Stewart, 2005, p. 114)

Characteristics of sport fan communities can differ by club. A survey of research done about VFL/AFL teams reveals some of these different characteristics.

In 2001 and 2003, a nationwide survey was conducted of football fans to identify who they supported. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) The Adelaide Crows respectively had 638,000 and 699,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19). The 2009 team ranked sixth for total fans, with 629,000 fans. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19).

The Fitzroy Lions, who eventually became the Brisbane Lions, were originally from an area where their fanbase drew heavily from a population middle-class white-collar workers. (Shaw, 2006, p. 115) During the 1940s, Fitzroy Lions were similar to their counterparts at Collingwood and North Melbourne in terms of fan composition. Shaw (2006, p. 79) characterizes them as being drawn from the working classes and prone to violence similar to that of future British football hooligans. According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the Brisbane Lions respectively had 798,000 and 1,331,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19). The 2009 team ranked second for total fans, with 861,000 fans. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19).

Early in the history of the Carlton Blues, most of their fans were from the Carlton area and represented the major population found there: “middle-class white-collar workers and the occasional silvertail.” (Shaw, 2006, p. 115) The Carlton Blues had one of the largest fan bases during the 1940s. According to Shaw (2006, p. 101), they could draw crowds irrespective of their on-field performance. According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the Carlton Blues respectively had 603,00 and 596,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19). The 2009 team ranked seventh for total fans, with 493,000 fans. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19).

In the period around the Magpies founding in 1892, fans were characterized as being bootmakers and working in the footwear industry. (Grow, 1998, p. 69, 77) During the clubs early part of the 20th century, the Collingwood Magpies fans were predominantly from Collingwood. They matched the characteristics of the neighborhood: Semi-skilled members of the working class that were mostly Irish Catholics. (Shaw, 2006, p. 115) The Collingwood Magpie fans are characterized as having “strong working-class origins”. (Stewart, 1983, p. 35) The club has historically enjoyed strong local support, both in terms of developing a fan base and with local businesses. During the early part of the 1900s, 70 percent of the club supporters were local and 80 percent were members of the working class. (Sandercock, 1981, p. 199) In the decade around 1900 to 1910, fans were described as being drawn from the working class. (Shaw, 2006, p. 79) During the 1940s, the club had one of the largest fan bases in terms of game attendance. According to Shaw (2006, p. 101), the team could draw crowds irrespective of their on-field performance. During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a geographic shift in the fanbase where the fanbase extended out to Melbourne’s north east suburbs. (Stewart, 2005, p. 113) There was a also demographic shift by the 1970s, with over 50 percent of the local population being not native born and Anglo-Irish-Australian; instead, the local fan base was composed largely of Southern Europeans. (Sandercock, 1981, p. 200) The characterization of working class values continued on despite these changes. According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the Collingwood Magpies respectively had 688,000 and 749,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19). According to Roy Morgan Research. (2009, July 19), the modern team has the third largest AFL fan base, with over 731,000 fans.

During the 1870s and 1880s, Essendon was one of the three big clubs in terms of the number of paying fans. (Grow, 1998, p. 55) During the early part of the 20th century, Essendon Bombers fans were drawn from the local area and fans were mostly from the lower middle-class. (Shaw, 2006, p. 116) Essendon Bomber fans are from the “moderately affluent north-west suburbs” who have a reputation “for being conservative and responsible.” (Stewart, 1983, p. 36) According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the Essendon Bombers respectively had 862,000 and 796,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19). The team has the fourth largest AFL fan community in 2009 with 638,000 barrackers. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19).

According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the Fremantle Dockers respectively had 237,000 and 367,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) The team has the eleventh largest AFL fan community in 2009 with 337,000 barrackers. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19).

During the 1870s and 1880s, Geelong was one of the three big clubs in terms of the number of paying fans. (Grow, 1998, p. 55) According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the Geelong Cats respectively had 357,000 and 345,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19). The team has the eighth largest AFL fan community in 2009 with 488,000 barrackers. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19).

The Hawthorn Hawks fans are characterized as being from the affluent eastern suburbs, but who were not as interested in attending matches as fans of other teams. (Stewart, 1983, p. 40) According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the Hawthorn Hawks respectively had 362,000 and 390,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19). The 2009 club ranked tenth in the AFL for most fans, with 381,000. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19).

The Melbourne Demons are characterized as not being able to draw local support, with most of the team barracking for the team being “centred in the outer south-eastern suburbs.” (Stewart, 1983, p. 41) According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the Melbourne Demons respectively had 226,000 and 205,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19). The team had the fewest people barracking for them of any team in the AFL during the 2009 season; only 187,000 people identified themselves as fans in research conducted by Roy Morgan (2009, July 19).

The North Melbourne Kangaroos fans during the early part of the 20th century are described as being from the working class and being a precursor of the British football hooligans. (Shaw, 2006, p. 79) During the 1900s and 1910s, many barrackers and players were butchers. (Fiddian, 1977, p. 132) During the 1920s, this occupation continued to compromise an important part of the team’s supporter base. (Shaw, 2006, p. 83) According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the North Melbourne Kangaroos respectively had 268,000 and 249,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) The 2009 club ranked second to last in the AFL for most fans, with 219,000. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19).

Port Adelaide Power membership peaked in 1998 with 38,305 members. (Ruccie, 2010, October 7)According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the Port Adelaide Power respectively had 274,000 and 315,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19). The 2009 club ranked thirteenth in the AFL for most fans, with 245,000. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19).

At the Richmond Tigers founding in 1885, fans were characterized as being larrikins who threatened the club’s existence by keeping away paying customers. (Grow, 1998, p. 72) During the early 20th century, Richmond Tigers fans were mostly semi-skilled Irish Catholic members of the working class. (Shaw, 2006, p. 115) The Richmond Tigers supporters are characterized as “defiant and arrogant.” (Stewart, 1983, p. 42) Prior to the 1950s, being born in Richmond meant being a Richmond Tigers fan. This pattern of fans being located close to the historical home of the team changed with in the post war era. (Sandercock, 1981, p. 183) According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the Richmond Tigers respectively had 398,000 and 401,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) The 2009 team ranked ninth for total fans, with 392,000 fans. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19).

During the 1870s and 1880s, South Melbourne was one of the three big clubs in terms of the number of paying fans. (Grow, 1998, p. 55) The South Melbourne Football Club, that eventually became the Sydney Swans, began with most of their supporters being aspirational members of the lower-middle-class. (Shaw, 2006, p. 116) During the 1930s, the club was considered a Catholic one. (Shaw, 2006, p. 116) According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the Sydney Swans respectively had 1,305,000 and 1,341,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) During 2009, the club ranked first in the AFL with 1,217,000 fans. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19)

During the 1880s, St. Kilda fans were characterized as being stockbrokers. (Grow, 1998, p. 69) During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a geographic shift in the location of St. Kilda’s supporters where the fanbase extended into the southern bayside suburbs. (Stewart, 2005, p. 113) According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the St. Kilda Saints respectively had 321,000 and 282,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) The 2009 team ranked twelth for total fans, with 311,000 fans. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19).

According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the West Coast Eagles respectively had 692,000 and 746,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19) The 2009 club ranked fifth in the AFL for most fans, with 632,000. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19)

During the 1930s, when the Western Bulldogs were known as the Footscray Bulldogs, the team’s fanbase was extremely local to Footscray; much of this was owed to the fact that players came from the immediate area. (Kingston, 2005, p. 43) According to a 2001 and 2003 national survey, the Western Bulldogs respectively had 198,000 and 254,000 supporters. (Stewart, 2005, p. 111) The 2009 club ranked fourteenth in the AFL for most fans, with 226,000. (Roy Morgan Research, 2009, July 19)

Soccer.

The early history of soccer fandom in Australia was dominated by British expatriates, both as players, administrators and barrackers. (Thompson, 2003) British barracking continued on into the 1950s when their supporters began to dwindle in comparison to other ethnic tribes. (Moore & Jones, 1994).During most of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, soccer fandom in Australia was dominated by ethnic tribalism with the major barracking groups being composed of Serbians, Croatians, Italian, Portuguese, Greeks and Macedonians. (Hallinan, Hughson & Burke, 2007) (Crawford, 2003) (Moore & Jones, 1994) Some of the barracking during that period involved regional and city pride in clubs. Much of this took place in Newcastle. (Hallinan, Hughson & Burke, 2007) The patterns of ethnic tribalism began to dissipate with the emergence of the A-League in 2004. (Hallinan, Hughson & Burke, 2007) Regional allegiances began to develop around clubs like the Melbourne Victory. (Hallinan, Hughson & Burke, 2007) Ethnic tribalism continued to exist for soccer clubs in Australia after the creation of the A-League but it was relegated to the regional club levels in cities like Melbourne, where it this fan support was much less obvious to outsiders. (Hallinan, Hughson & Burke, 2007)

Demonstrating Club Allegiance

In the AFL, fans have historically expressed their allegiance to their clubs in a variety of ways. Two of the key areas for expression have involved cheersquads (Andrews, 2005) and the production of fanzines. (Wilson, 2005) Beyond that, club supporters have their own unique ways of demonstrating club loyalty.

Cheersquads have played an important roll in Australian rules football and date back to the 1880s. Cheersquads would create giant paper banners with inspirational messages for players to run through. (Andrews, 2005) Cheersquads also waved giant floggers. (Andrews, 2005) These were eventually phased out and replaced with patties, which are giant pompons on a small stick. (Andrews, 2005, p. 88) The 1970s saw a decrease in the ability of cheersquads to make and display signs as they interfered with signage by advertisers at the park. (Andrews, 2005, p. 84) By the 1980s and 1990s, fan control of cheersquads had been severely diminished as clubs and the leagues exerted increasing influence over them. (Andrews, 2005, p. 83) Despite the heavy restrictions that were eventually placed on cheersquads, membership to them is still viewed as extremely important part of barracker identity for many fans.

Many other expressions of allegiances are easier to understand: Up until about thirty years ago, if the Collingwood Magpies performed poorly, The Sporting Globe no one would buy it. (Shaw, 2006, p. 117) The morale of the city of Geelong is said to be dependent on the club’s performance. (Shaw, 2006, p. 116) According to Stewart (2005, p. 128), Hawthorn Hawks fans were so opposed to a proposed merger with the North Melbourne Demons that some traveled from Tasmania for the merger meeting.

According to the Canberra Times (2009, September 12), demonstrating allegiance to a rugby club by wearing a team jersey is a relatively new expression. Prior to this change, wearing a jersey and not being on the pitch was rather taboo. This demonstration of allegiance came into being as a club’s fanbase decentralized and was less structured around a specific geographic area.

The Connection between Sport Fandom and Online Activity

In defining sport and looking at how fans express allegiance in an Australian sport context, much of the research predates or ignores the online fan community. While the connection between online activity and sport is not clearly defined in the literature about Australian sport, it can be simply defined: According to Favorito (2007), the internet is a platform that allows “casual fans to connect with their individual favorite athlete more regularly.” The observation by Favorito, writing for people who are working with individual athlete, can also be used in application to clubs, leagues, sport in general and with other fans. Online activity and sport fandom are connected by this desire to connect to, and demonstrate allegiance to athletes, clubs, leagues and the sport by an attempt to connect with those groups and other fans of those groups.


References

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Wilson, C. (2005). ” Football Fanzines, A view from the outer.” In M. Nicholson (Ed.), Fanfare, Spectator Culture and Australian Rules Football, Australian Society for Sports History (pp. 99-108). Melbourne: Australian Society for Sports History.

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An Australian sport wiki

Posted by Laura on Monday, 11 October, 2010

I’m currently toying around with the idea of creating a large Australian sport wiki. I’ve had a lot of data for a while to allow me to do this. Some of the data I have includes:

  • A list of Australian sport teams.  List is about 3,000 teams long.  It often contains some other information like when teams were founded, team colors, etc.  This can be combined with a list of Australian sport teams on Twitter and Facebook.
  • A list of Australian sport venues.  This can be merged with a list of Australian sport venues on Gowalla and Foursquare.
  • A list of Australian athletes on Twitter and Facebook.  This is probably about 100 large.
  • A list of Australian sport organizations on Twitter and Facebook.  This is probably about 50 large.
  • A list of Australian sport fans on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal and its clones, bebo, orkut, Wikipedia.  This list is probably close to about 20,000 long.

This data could easily be supplemented with the following information that would be easily mineable:

  • A list of AFL, NRL and other Australian professional athletes sorted by team.
  • A list of other Australian athletes.
  • A list of Australian sport organizations.
  • A list of Australian sport journalists and broadcasters.
  • A list of Australian sport websites.

This list could be further supplemented by:

  • Importing Australian sport pictures from Flickr.
  • Importing Australian sport videos from YouTube.

The quality of the wiki wouldn’t necessarily be all that high.  Most of the initial content would be stub.  Still, if I had a bot programmer and I was willing to devote a month to the project, it would be reasonably comprehensive in terms of initial content for others to use to build from.  It would possibly help in terms of developing a large idea of the scope of sport in Australia by giving an idea as to the size of the fan community, the depth of the interest in various sports, the number of teams, when those teams were created and folded, where sports are more popular than others.  (Though that all depends on the data mining that goes into the initial content.)  What keeps me from doing this is the fact that I feel like it might be a time sink of a month to create this content and I’m not sure if the time sink is worth the effort.  Basically, I need external motivation.

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