Part 1: Nick Dal Santo, Part 2: Zac Dawson
In writing up the St Kilda Nude Photo Controversy, it became obvious that the best way to approach this was to look at it from multiple perspective: Each athlete and the team. This paper thus has an introduction, four sections and a conclusion. I’m posting this as a draft as I finish each section. When it is eventually completed and fully edited, it will become a chapter in my dissertation. A copy of the complete, current draft of the paper can be found at StKildaChapter.pdf and the data for this paper beyond what is found in the paper and appendix can be found at StKildaData.xls. The paper includes footnotes that are not found in the html version and edits made to other sections since the html versions were first posted.
Nick Riewoldt
Nick Riewoldt is one of the superstars of the AFL. In 2009, he broke up with long time girlfriend Stephanie McIntosh, a well known Australian actress and singer. (Stephanie McIntosh, 2010, December 22) A December 27, 2010 search on Google.com. au brought up 258,000 results when the search term “Nick Riewoldt” was used. A search for Riewoldt Kilda brought up 383,000 results. As of December 26, 2010, a Nick Riewoldt fan page on Facebook has over 4,000 fans. When he went down with an injury during the 2010 season, so important is he to that team that people wondered how the team would do with out him. He has the popularity, all around good looks and television presence that he regularly appeared as an analyst while convalescing. He is the current captain of the St Kilda Saints. Of the three players involved in this controversy, he had the most visibility prior to the start of the controversy. During the controversy, he was the player that the press chose to focus on above all others including Sam Gilbert, the player who took the pictures.
Riewoldt’s pictures was described by Hinch (2010, December 24) of 3AW News Talk radio:
Riewoldt says Gilbert snapped the unauthorised pic of him naked as he got out of bed. Sleeps in the nude like most people.
Look at the picture. As thousands of you have. What do you notice, apart from the fact that Riewoldt has waxed his pubic area. And, perhaps, that he is well-endowed.
Any normal man, sprung like that, would instinctively, inherently, try to cover his genitals. Riewold does not. His hands are on each side of his penis. As if posing.
The picture is not as bad as that of Nick Dal Santo, and is worse than of Zac Dawson.
Beyond the release of the picture featuring Riewoldt, the player has had greater visibility and involvement during the controversy because of his actions in response to the controversy and because of the alleged actions of his agent. His involvement in the situation has also been elevated because St Kilda drew the greatest amount of attention to the picture involving him, choosing to ignore the more sexually explicit picture of Nick Dal Santo that showed Dal Santo masturbating. Riewoldt held a press conference on December 21 to explain the pictures. A club spokesperson was quoted by Bryce Corbett (2010, December 22) on The Punch as saying: “Let’s not forget” that “he is the five-time best and fairest winner of this football club and was all-Australian captain last year”. During the press conference, Riewoldt told reporters “This photo was taken on a holiday by a teammate when I got out of bed over 12 months ago … by a teammate who I trust. And I asked that it would be deleted then and there and clearly wasn’t. And I’m bitterly disappointed at my teammate for that.” (Brodie, 2010, December 21) During Riewoldt’s press conference, St Kilda’s CEO jumped in to clarify that Riewoldt’s picture was taken from Sam Gilbert’s computer with out Riewoldt’s knowledge or consent. During Riewoldt’s press conference, aired live on some Australian television and radio stations, Riewoldt also affirmed his support for his team mate and the club: “Sam and I are both professionals, and we will both give everything we’ve got to the St Kilda football club and we will have a great working relationship going forward.” (Brodie, 2010, December 21) While this saga was going on, Riewoldt’s agent repeatedly referred to the 17-year-old girl at the heart of the situation was “that woman.” (Hinch, 2010, December 24) This type of phraseology aggravated a number of people observing the situation. (Hinch, 2010, December 24)
Riewoldt’s fame, Riewoldt’s full frontal nudity, Riewoldt’s press conference and St Kilda’s actions as they pertained to Riewoldt’s involvement are likely contributing factors in how the controversy played out. These variables provide a backdrop from which to explore how the controversy effected Riewoldt’s fan base, and by extension, St Kilda’s fan base. This section will explore demographic changes, community size changes, and comparative growth of pro-Riewoldt and anti-Riewoldt groups on Facebook and LiveJournal. Facebook was chosen over other social networks because it is Australia’s most popular social network and because the controversy started there. Outside of Twitter, it is probably the social network that is most involved in discussing the situation. Twitter’s lack of groups for people to join, lack of demographic data available on the site and the necessity of doing more of a textual analysis are why it is not explored more in this section. Beyond Facebook, LiveJournal is the only other site to be analyzed as it provides some demographic information about its users. The purpose section is to understand who Riewoldt’s fans are and how the controversy effected or did not effect demographic shifts.
Facebook provides demographic details about people who are interested in keywords that advertisers enter on their “What do you want to advertise?” page located at http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/ . On December 20, 26, 28 and 30, this page was checked, with various demographic data collected about people on Facebook who are interested in Nick Riewoldt. This data can be found in Appendix 13. Facebook’s data is pulled from people who list people on their profile, group membership and fan page likes. Given that, it is fair to assume that some people who are counted as Riewoldt fans may belong to anti-Riewoldt groups; the two types of fans cannot be separated. At times, numbers do not add up, such as the total number of Australian men and Australian women interested in Riewoldt may not add up to the total number of people in Australia interested in Riewoldt. This is because not everyone puts all their demographic details in their profile. The absence of this may skew actual results, but it is the authors belief, despite the lack of evidence, that non-inclusion of demographic data is consistent across all groups; consequently, the author draws conclusions based on that assumption.
The first group to be looked at is the international reception for Riewoldt. On December 20 and 30th, the total number of fans in New Zealand and the United States were checked. For New Zealand, on December 20, there were fewer than 20 fans of Riewoldts. This was unchanged by December 30, 2010. In the case of the United States, there were also fewer than 20 fans on December 20. By December 30, this number had changed to 100. Interest in Riewoldt had not grown in New Zealand, but it had grown in the United States, where the AFL has been trying to grow the game and where the local leagues have been semi-successful in using social media to help Australian expatriates play and to get Americans interested in playing the game. That Americans took an interest in Riewoldt may be a negative, because it could hurt the league’s ability to grow their international audience by making a joke of one their most visible players.
Across the whole of Australia, there were 11,880 people on Facebook who were interested in Riewoldt on December 20. By December 26, this number had gone up to 12,060. It went up again on December 28 to 12,180. By December 30, the number was again down to 11,880. The overall fluctuation was 300 total people, or 2.46% of totals fans based on the December 28 high. That number is not particularly significant. It is when Australian fans are broken down more that the results get more interesting.
Across Australian states, there was no change in the total number of people on Facebook interested in Riewoldt between December 20 and December 30 in the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia, a 20 person increase in New South Wales, and an 80 person increase in South Australia. The two states that saw growth in interest in Riewoldt are very different in terms of their relationship with the AFL: One is a traditional AFL strong hold and one is not. That interest in Riewoldt was not higher in New South Wales is likely a good thing because the AFL is hoping to grow the game there, with an expansion team from the area set to start playing in the league in 2012.
Information about the total people interested in Riewoldt on Facebook was also collected on December 20 and December 30 for the following cities: Adelaide, Alice Springs, Broome, Cairns, Darwin, Devonport, Goulburn, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, Rockhampton, Townsville, Warwick. Of these cities, three saw a change in the number of people interested in Riewoldt: Adelaide and Melbourne both saw an increase of 20 people, and Hobart saw an increase of 40 people. The other cities remained unchanged. These three cities are all in AFL territory. Riewoldt originally being from the city may explain the increase in interest from people living in Hobart. (Nick Riewoldt, 2010, December 23)
The controversy appeared to create additional interest in Riewoldt amongst women. There were 5,400 female Australian fans on December 20, 5,520 on December 26, 5,420 fans on December 28 and 5,560 female Australian fans on December 30, 2010. This is an increase of 2.87% and, percentage wise, is slightly above the overall interest increase. The numbers for women interested in men remained unchanged. The numbers for women interested in women increased by 20. Thus, homosexual female fans were more likely to be interested in Riewoldt as a result of the controversy than their heterosexual counterparts. This may suggest that heterosexual female fans were more upset by the controversy than their lesbian counterparts because they did list Riewoldt as an interest at the same rate as the whole Australian population.
Interest in Riewoldt by Australian men on Facebook moved around: 6,340 on December 20th, 6,540 on December 26th, 6,540 on December 28th and 6,360 on December 30, 2010. Interest by men went up by 200, only to come down and be 20 more than on the day before the controversy. For homosexual men, the numbers did not change. For heterosexual men, the total number of people interested in Riewoldt increased by 20. This situation is an inverse of women and suggests that responses by gays, lesbians, heterosexual women and heterosexual men were different and that all had different concerns regarding various aspects of the controversy.
For college graduates in Australia, the total number of people interested in Riewoldt prior to the scandal on December 20th was 1,060, on December 26th when the scandal began to be ignored by the media was 1,140 and remained that amount of December 30th. For people in college, the number was 460 on December 20th and was 380 on December 26th and December 30th. The total number of people in high school interested in Riewoldt was consistent across all three dates: 1,080. During the scandal, Riewoldt gained fans who had finished college, lost fans who were in college and remained unchanged amongst high schoolers. Like orientation, this suggests that these three different peer groups had different concerns over the scandal. The loss of fans from the starting period amongst those in college is one of the only groups to experience loss amongst all populations and may signal institutional problems for St Kilda and the AFL in how its responded to the controversy. It suggests that this group of soon to be wage earners who the club and league will be dependent on in the future for revenue may dislike the tactics used. Losing this group could also be a problem because historically, the Australian rules has been depicted as the sport for the more educated and middle class while rugby league has been portrayed as the game for the more working class.
Another way at looking at Facebook demographic data for Riewoldt involves looking at the ages of fans. This data was gathered on December 20 and December 30. For the group between 20 and 29 years old, there was an increase of 140 fans over that period. For the group between 30 and 39, there was a decrease of forty fans over that period. For the group between 40 and 40, there was no change between December 20 and December 30. For the group between 50 and 59, there was an increase of sixty people interested in Riewoldt. For the group between 60 and 64, there was an increase of forty people. Older fans were more likely to be interested in Riewoldt in the period after the controversy, whereas people in their 30s were less likely to be interested in Riewoldt.
When all the Nick Riewoldt Facebook demographic data is examined together, it suggests that there are institutional problems for either the St Kilda Saints or the AFL based on who stopped being interested in Riewoldt or who became interested in Riewoldt. Heterosexual women did not respond but heterosexual men did. University students lost interest but college graduates gained interest. 30 to 39 year olds lost interest but the cohorts below and two levels above them gained interest.
Beyond Facebook’s demographic data, another way of understanding how a fan community responded is by looking at fan page and group expansion and contraction. This data was collected for Nick Riewoldt from December 20 to December 30th. The December 20th data was collected at 18:00 AEST and was found doing a search on Facebook for Nick Riewoldt. On that date, 202 total fan pages and groups were found. From December 21 to December 30th, the total number of members was recorded at 7:00 AEST using a script, facebook_followers.pl, found in Appendix 13. The results can be found in Appendix 13. The total number of groups was much higher than the total for both Dal Santo and Dawson, confirming the interest in and popularity of Riewoldt.
Of the 202 groups, at least one was subsequently deleted and two others moved from public to private. Thirteen saw a loss of between one and four members. Eighty-nine saw no growth or contraction in membership. Forty-six saw an increase of one or two followers. Five saw a growth of one-hundred members or more. Of the five that saw one hundred plus increases, two have names that suggest they are pro-Riewoldt: Nick Riewoldt and Nick riewoldt fans! The other three have names that imply a negative Riewoldt sentiment: I never cry. lol jk I’m Nick Riewoldt., I can kick a goal from 1 metre out lol jks im Nick Riewoldt, and Whats red, white and black and crys like a little girl?? NICK RIEWOLDT. Of the other groups in the top ten for most membership gains, four express a negative sentiment towards Reiwoldt in their names and one implies a positive sentiment. If the membership growth of the pro-groups and negative groups, the total is 813 and 953 respectively: Negative sentiment Riewoldt groups grew faster than positive sentiment groups.
Facebook users had a mixed reaction to Riewoldt related groups. A number of them joined pro groups and anti-groups. On the other hand, most groups did not see much membership change as a result of the controversy and very few saw losses. If liking or joining a fan page or group is seen as expressing allegiance or solidarity to a group or expressing interest in a specific, more people were willing to do that than the inverse of disassociating from groups by quitting them. That group willing to express an opinion is the important part here: A lot more people were willing to align themselves with some Riewoldt sentiment than they were to disassociate. The vocal support of both issues probably indicates larger problems for Riewoldt and his club: People are less content to disassociate and quietly leave but rather feel the need to be vocal in their position. This means that the issue likely will have a longer shelf life than if people had chosen to remain quiet or disassociate.
LiveJournal is a popular Australian blogging site. Its characteristics are discussed more in the section about Nick Dal Santo. One of LiveJournal’s features is that it allows people to list interests, and many people list very athletes. On December 20 and December 30th, the total number of people interested in Nick Riewoldt was checked. There was no change in totals or composition of the six people who listed Riewoldt as an interest. Of the six who listed as an interest, two listed Nick Dal Santo as an interest, with a crossover of 33%. Of the six who listed Riewoldt as an interest on LiveJournal, only one has updated since the scandal broke and in her recent updates, she has not mentioned the situation. Location wise, only two of the six list a city of residence and both are from Melbourne. Five of the six list a country of residence and all of those are from Australia. Four of the six list a year of birth: 1983, 1989, 1990 and 1990. This puts the mean year of birth at 1988 and the mean year of birth at 1989. The demographic composition puts them into a group of colleged-aged fans who are likely ideal fans in terms of who the AFL is trying to cater to.
Facebook showed a small demographic shift in terms of who was interested in Nick Riewoldt: Fans were gained for people between 50 and 64 years of age and between 20 to 29 years of age. Both men and women became fans of Riewoldt in the period after the controversy, with relatively big gains for lesbian women and heterosexual men. Riewoldt also gained fans amongst college graduates on Facebook. Interest increased around Hobart, Riewoldt’s home town. While those groups gained, Riewoldt lost fans in college and fans whom were between the ages of 30 and 39. These shifts occurred while people were active in joining groups and fan pages in support or condemnation of Nick Riewoldt. Over on LiveJournal, Riewoldt’s fans are in their early 20s and their stated interest in the athlete did not change as a result of the controversy but neither did it lead them to state a position, unlike their peers on Facebook. If LiveJournal is ignored, the Riewoldt data suggests that this is a controversy that effected his fanbase and will have long lasting consequences, as people did not remain silent, instead choosing to take sides for him or against him.
References
- Brodie, W. (2010, December 21). Nick Riewoldt Nude Photo Scandal: St Kilda ‘Bubble’ Pierced. The Sydney Morning Herald. Newspaper. Retrieved December 29, 2010, from http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/naked-photos-pierce-the-bubble-20101221-193o1.html
- Corbett, B. (2010, December 22). Ignoring the homoerotic elephant in the locker room. The Punch. Retrieved December 29, 2010, from http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ignoring-the-homoerotic-elephant-in-the-locker-room/
- Hinch, D. (2010, December 24). Hinch delves deeper into scandal. 3AW693 News Talk. Radio. Retrieved December 27, 2010, from http://www.3aw.com.au/blogs/blog-with-derryn-hinch/hinch-delves-deeper-into-scandal/20101224-196xc.html
- Nick Riewoldt. (2010, December 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:33, December 30, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nick_Riewoldt&oldid=403871277
- Stephanie McIntosh. (2010, December 22). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:41, December 27, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stephanie_McIntosh&oldid=403731082
- What do you want to advertise? (2010, December 27). Facebook. Retrieved December 27, 2010, from http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/
. The total posts per day by the person who runs the Fan Page, and comments and likes per post associated with the post for the day were recorded for the period between April 1 and May 10, 2010. (Table 4) When comparing the total posts in the period between April 1 and April 22, 2010 to the period between April 23 to May 10, two of the three Fan Pages had more posts made by the maintainers before the controversy. (Graph 1) Two of the three groups saw an increase in the total comments made after the controversy. For Melbourne Storm, a Fan Page with over 40,000 members, the increase was massive going from 54 comments to 803 comments. The increase for Best team in NRL.. Melbourne Storm !, a group with 281 members as of May 10, was much smaller. It went from 252 to 257 comments. For all three groups, there was an increase in the number of likes after the controversy took place. While posting levels by Fan Page maintainers may not have increased, the level of engagement and interest in the team for the fan population did. The controversy has created a climate where fans are more engaged with posts.
