Archive for category YouTube

Online Activity in the Wake of the Melbourne Storm Controversy Revisited (incomplete)

Posted by Laura on Monday, 1 November, 2010

This isn’t actually fully revisited. I started writing this about a week ago and then have had extremely limited internet access. Given that, I thought I would post what I have so far and finish the rest later.


Online Activity in the Wake of the  Melbourne Storm Controversy Revisited (incomplete)

On April 22, 2010, the news of salary cap violations on the part of the Melbourne Storm broke online in such publications as the Fox Sports, on television including ABC news and on multiple social networks including Facebook and Twitter. By April 23, the news was available in various print publications including The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald. During the news coverage, NRL fans learned that the team had been fined $1.8 million, stripped of two premiereships and were not eligible to earn points towards 2010’s premiership. (“Melbourne storm stripped,” 2010) The team was being punished for salary cap violations over the past five years, where the total cap violation in that period was $1.7 million with $400,000 of that total cap violation occurring in 2009. (“Melbourne storm stripped,” 2010)

The consensus at the time in the media was that this would hurt the team in terms of maintaining a fan base. In the three-week period after the news broke, this did not appear to be the case: The team maintained or grew its online fan community. In addition, there was more fan interactions in the Melbourne Storm fan community than there had been prior to the controversy. This defied conventional wisdom. The numbers deserve a followup to determine if the Melbourne Storm managed to capture short-term interest and translate it into long-term, season long, interest in the club.

This article will revisit numbers from May to determine how successful the club was. Specifically, interest patterns as expressed on networks like 43things, bebo, Facebook, LiveJournal and its clones, Twitter, Wikia, Wikiedia, Yahoo!Groups and YouTube. The article will prove that as the season progressed, interest in the Melbourne Storm declined relative to other teams in the National Rugby League.


43things

In the May analysis, a goal setting site called 43things was looked at. The site has a small group of Australians on it who have set professional sport related goals.

On April 1, 2010, the site was searched for any goals that connected to the Melbourne Storm. Only one goal related to the Melbourne Storm was found. It is “Go to a Melbourne Storm Game.” (1) Two people, erynne and mmcpharlane, had listed this as a goal they were working towards completing. When checked again on May 10 and October 24, no one had added any additional goals related to the Melbourne Storm. The two individuals who had listed “Go to a Melbourne Storm Game” remained the same.


Mailing lists

During much of the 1990s, mailing lists were one of the most popular tools for fans to use in order to communicate with each other. The creation of mailing lists became much easier when sites like egroups, coollists, topica, Yahoo!Groups and Google groups were created. In some corners of Australian sport fandom, mailing lists have played an important role in helping fans support their interest in clubs.

At one point, there was a semi-active community for the Melbourne Storm community on Yahoo!Groups. (2) When Melbourne Storm Yahoo!Groups were looked at in May, the controversy had no effect on the groups: No new content was posted on these lists. Only one (3) had new content posted between May and October; this new content was a generic newsletter that is sent out to several other NRL related lists and was not published specifically for this list. (4) There is no long tail effect of the club’s fan community on Yahoo!Groups as the community has long since moved on and the controversy didn’t activate a community that has largely been inactive since 2001.

YouTube

YouTube is the largest video site online. It is also the second biggest search engine online. (Hill, 2008) It is a popular site for sport fans; several teams around the world for different sports capitalize on this by having their own official accounts including the Chicago Red Stars (5), Real Madrid (6), and Perth Glory (7). Beyond the presence of official team accounts, fans upload many videos. Fan videos can be music videos, news clips, and video blogs. The frequency of uploads is one way to determine interest in a club.

When the original analysis was completed in May, it did not include YouTube data. Data was only gathered in June and October, several months after the controversy went down. In addition, the total upload data gathered only included a few teams: Brisbane Broncos, Canberra Raiders, Gold Coast Titans, Melbourne Storm, Parramatta Eels, and Wests Tigers. Despite the lack of pre-controversy data, interesting post controversy numbers were discovered.

Table 1
YouTube Video Search Results by Date and Keyword
Team Keyword 16-Jun-10 21-Jun-10 24-Oct-10 Difference: 16-Jun to 24-Oct Difference: 21-Jun to 24-Oct
Brisbane Broncos “Brisbane Broncos” 509

520

525 16 5
Melbourne Storm “Melbourne Storm” 910 925 889 -21 -36

Parramatta Eels

“Parramatta Eels” 479 485 527 48 42
Parramatta Eels “Timana Tahu” 36 36

31

-5 -5
Wests Tigers “Wests Tigers” 390 404 464 74 60
Canberra Raiders

“Canberra Raiders”

274 403 129
Gold Coast Titans “Gold Coast Titans” 260 302 42
Brisbane Broncos “Darren Lockyer” 198 187 187 -11

When compared to all other teams, the Melbourne Storm were the only team where the number of videos mentioning them decreased. The two players looked at both faced losses in the total number of videos that mentioned them. Like the Storm, both of these players were involved in a major controversy during the season.

There are likely three reasons that could be attributed to the decline in videos. The first is that YouTube removed the videos because of copyright issues. This is plausible and if it is the case, it may not be the fault of the Storm as many of the copyright disputes on YouTube involve the background music. Given the lack of discussion in the NRL community about YouTube crackdowns in terms of NRL content or music, this reason just seems unlikely. The second reason is the creators may have deleted their content and their videos. This feels more plausible. Many people delete their online content when they are job hunting, because they are embarrassed by it or because of privacy concerns. The third reason is that the uploader no longer likes the team: They do not want to be associated with them or embarrassed by their previous support of them. This reason seems the most plausible. In the context of the Melbourne Storm, it fits given the patterns with the individual rugby league players who endured major controversies. In actuality, the reduction in videos is probably a combination of the second and third reasons. If true, it suggests that controversies lead to a reduction in user-uploaded content and the deletion of existing material: The YouTube audience for the team contracts.

References

Hill, J. (2008, October 16). YouTube surpasses Yahoo as world’s #2 search engine. TG Daily. Retrieved October 24, 2010, from http://www.tgdaily.com/trendwatch-features/39777-youtube-surpasses-yahoo-as-world%E2%80%99s-2-search-engine

Melbourne storm stripped of two premierships for salary cap breach. (2010, April 22). Fox Sports, Retrieved from http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,27022196-5018866,00.html

Footnotes

1. The page for the goal can be found at http://www.43things.com/things/view/2535563/go-to-a-melbourne-storm-game .
2.Yahoo!Groups is the most popular mailing list host.  Archives are also available for these lists.
The list was http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/MelbourneStorm .
3.While these e-mails were generic to the National Rugby League and might be considered spam if they were posted on a list with a more active administrator, a few did mention the Melbourne Storm.  A few even referenced the controversy.  Because of the nature of the posts, these few posts were not counted.
4.The Chicago Red Stars official YouTube can be found at https://www.youtube.com/user/ChicagoRedStars .
5.Real Madrid’s official YouTube account can be found at https://www.youtube.com/user/realmadridcf .
6.Perth Glory’s official YouTube account can be found at https://www.youtube.com/user/PerthGloryTV .

Related Posts:

Data dump: Australian sport on YouTube

Posted by Laura on Monday, 25 October, 2010

This is another data dump. I have been getting data for these data dumps to begin to get an idea as to the size and shape of the various communities on these networks. In several cases, I have demographic data from earlier dates related to these networks. I can compare who is uploading and contributing if the numbers differ. For smaller data sets, I can compare to see if the membership changed: James left but John joined.


League Team Interest Videos Date gathered
AFL Adelaide Crows Adelaide Crows 909 16-Jun-10
AFL Adelaide Crows Adelaide Crows 915 21-Jun-10
AFL Adelaide Crows Adelaide Crows 999 24-Oct-10
AFL Brisbane Lions Brisbane Lions 587 16-Jun-10
AFL Brisbane Lions Brisbane Lions 594 21-Jun-10
AFL Brisbane Lions Brisbane Lions 682 24-Oct-10
AFL Carlton Blues Carlton Blues 531 16-Jun-10
AFL Carlton Blues Carlton Blues 532 21-Jun-10
AFL Carlton Blues Carlton Blues 576 24-Oct-10
AFL Collingwood Magpies Collingwood Magpies 828 16-Jun-10
AFL Collingwood Magpies Collingwood Magpies 841 21-Jun-10
AFL Collingwood Magpies Collingwood Magpies 1,060 24-Oct-10
AFL Essendon Bombers Essendon Bombers 484 16-Jun-10
AFL Essendon Bombers Essendon Bombers 499 21-Jun-10
AFL Essendon Bombers Essendon Bombers 556 24-Oct-10
AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 329 16-Jun-10
AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 340 21-Jun-10
AFL Fremantle Dockers Fremantle Dockers 421 24-Oct-10
AFL Geelong Cats Geelong Cats 583 16-Jun-10
AFL Geelong Cats Geelong Cats 585 21-Jun-10
AFL Geelong Cats Geelong Cats 764 24-Oct-10
AFL Gold Coast Football Club Gold Coast Football Club 11 16-Jun-10
AFL Gold Coast Football Club Gold Coast Football Club 11 21-Jun-10
AFL Gold Coast Football Club Karmichael Hunt 74 21-Jun-10
AFL Gold Coast Football Club Gold Coast Football Club 16 24-Oct-10
AFL Gold Coast Football Club Israel Folau 76 24-Oct-10
AFL Gold Coast Football Club Karmichael Hunt 65 24-Oct-10
AFL Gold Coast Football Club Gold Coast Suns 51 24-Oct-10
AFL Greater Western Sydney Israel Folau 99 16-Jun-10
AFL Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney 9 16-Jun-10
AFL Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney 9 21-Jun-10
AFL Greater Western Sydney Israel Folau 102 21-Jun-10
AFL Greater Western Sydney Israel Folau 79 24-Oct-10
AFL Greater Western Sydney Greater Western Sydney 16 24-Oct-10
AFL Hawthorn Hawks Hawthorn Hawks 605 16-Jun-10
AFL Hawthorn Hawks Hawthorn Hawks 616 21-Jun-10
AFL Hawthorn Hawks Hawthorn Hawks 736 24-Oct-10
AFL Melbourne Demons Melbourne Demons 250 16-Jun-10
AFL Melbourne Demons Melbourne Demons 249 21-Jun-10
AFL Melbourne Demons Melbourne Demons 289 24-Oct-10
AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos North Melbourne Kangaroos 160 16-Jun-10
AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos North Melbourne Kangaroos 159 21-Jun-10
AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos North Melbourne Kangaroos 178 24-Oct-10
AFL Port Adelaide Power Port Adelaide Power 227 16-Jun-10
AFL Port Adelaide Power Port Adelaide Power 225 21-Jun-10
AFL Port Adelaide Power Port Adelaide Power 274 24-Oct-10
AFL Richmond Tigers Richmond Tigers 412 16-Jun-10
AFL Richmond Tigers Richmond Tigers 411 21-Jun-10
AFL Richmond Tigers Richmond Tigers 462 24-Oct-10
AFL St. Kilda Saints St. Kilda Saints 273 16-Jun-10
AFL St. Kilda Saints St. Kilda Saints 267 21-Jun-10
AFL St. Kilda Saints St. Kilda Saints 411 24-Oct-10
AFL Sydney Swans Sydney Swans 697 16-Jun-10
AFL Sydney Swans Sydney Swans 720 21-Jun-10
AFL Sydney Swans Sydney Swans 861 24-Oct-10
AFL West Coast Eagles West Coast Eagles 785 16-Jun-10
AFL West Coast Eagles West Coast Eagles 789 21-Jun-10
AFL West Coast Eagles West Coast Eagles 871 24-Oct-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 812 16-Jun-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Jason Akermanis 131 16-Jun-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 612 16-Jun-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Jason Akermanis 127 16-Jun-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Jason Akermanis 128 21-Jun-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 615 21-Jun-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 670 21-Jul-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Jason Akermanis 135 21-Jul-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 974 24-Oct-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Jason Akermanis 114 24-Oct-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 753 24-Oct-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Jason Akermanis 111 24-Oct-10
AFL Western Bulldogs Jason Akermanis 111 24-Oct-10
AFL Canberra Ainslie Football Club Ainslie Football Club 5 16-Jun-10
AFL Canberra Ainslie Football Club Ainslie Football Club 5 21-Jun-10
AFL Canberra Ainslie Football Club Ainslie Football Club 10 24-Oct-10
AFL Canberra Belconnen Magpies Belconnen Magpies 4 16-Jun-10
AFL Canberra Belconnen Magpies Belconnen Magpies 4 21-Jun-10
AFL Canberra Belconnen Magpies Belconnen Magpies 6 24-Oct-10
AFL Canberra Eastlake Football Club Eastlake Football Club 2 16-Jun-10
AFL Canberra Eastlake Football Club Eastlake Football Club 2 21-Jun-10
AFL Canberra Eastlake Football Club Eastlake Football Club 10 24-Oct-10
AFL Canberra Queanbeyan Tigers Queanbeyan Tigers 3 16-Jun-10
AFL Canberra Queanbeyan Tigers Queanbeyan Tigers 3 21-Jun-10
AFL Canberra Queanbeyan Tigers Queanbeyan Tigers 13 24-Oct-10
AFL Canberra Sydney Swans Reserves Sydney Swans Reserves 30 16-Jun-10
AFL Canberra Sydney Swans Reserves Sydney Swans Reserves 30 21-Jun-10
AFL Canberra Sydney Swans Reserves Sydney Swans Reserves 30 24-Oct-10
AFL Canberra Tuggeranong Hawks Tuggeranong Hawks 4 16-Jun-10
AFL Canberra Tuggeranong Hawks Tuggeranong Hawks 4 21-Jun-10
AFL Canberra Tuggeranong Hawks Tuggeranong Hawks 14 24-Oct-10
AHL Canberra Labor Club Lakers Canberra Labor Club Lakers 0 16-Jun-10
AHL Canberra Labor Club Lakers Canberra Labor Club Lakers 10 24-Oct-10
AHL New South Wales Waratahs New South Wales Waratahs 3 16-Jun-10
AHL New South Wales Waratahs New South Wales Waratahs 9 24-Oct-10
AHL NT Stingers NT Stingers 0 16-Jun-10
AHL NT Stingers NT Stingers 10 24-Oct-10
AHL Queensland Blades Queensland Blades 1 16-Jun-10
AHL Queensland Blades Queensland Blades 10 24-Oct-10
AHL Southern Hotshots Southern Hotshots 3 16-Jun-10
AHL Southern Hotshots Southern Hotshots 10 24-Oct-10
AHL Tassie Tigers Tassie Tigers 2 16-Jun-10
AHL Tassie Tigers Tassie Tigers 12 24-Oct-10
AHL Victoria Vikings Victoria Vikings 1 16-Jun-10
AHL Victoria Vikings Victoria Vikings 11 24-Oct-10
AHL WA Thundersticks WA Thundersticks 0 16-Jun-10
AHL WA Thundersticks WA Thundersticks 10 24-Oct-10
A-League Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory 2,470 16-Jun-10
A-League Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory 2,590 24-Oct-10
Basketball Australia Australian Boomers Australian Boomers 98 14-May-10
Basketball Australia Australian Boomers Australian Boomers 104 24-Oct-10
Basketball Australia Australian Opals Australian Opals 538 14-May-10
Basketball Australia Australian Opals Australian Opals 220 24-Oct-10
First class cricket NSW Blues NSW Blues 83 16-Jun-10
First class cricket NSW Blues NSW Blues 78 24-Oct-10
NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 509 16-Jun-10
NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 520 21-Jun-10
NRL Brisbane Broncos Darren Lockyer 198 21-Jun-10
NRL Brisbane Broncos Brisbane Broncos 525 24-Oct-10
NRL Brisbane Broncos Darren Lockyer 187 24-Oct-10
NRL Canberra Raiders Canberra Raiders 274 21-Jun-10
NRL Canberra Raiders Canberra Raiders 403 24-Oct-10
NRL Gold Coast Titans Gold Coast Titans 260 21-Jun-10
NRL Gold Coast Titans Gold Coast Titans 302 24-Oct-10
NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 910 16-Jun-10
NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 925 21-Jun-10
NRL Melbourne Storm Melbourne Storm 889 24-Oct-10
NRL Parramatta Eels Timana Tahu 36 16-Jun-10
NRL Parramatta Eels Parramatta Eels 480 16-Jun-10
NRL Parramatta Eels Parramatta Eels 479 16-Jun-10
NRL Parramatta Eels Timana Tahu 36 21-Jun-10
NRL Parramatta Eels Parramatta Eels 485 21-Jun-10
NRL Parramatta Eels Timana Tahu 31 24-Oct-10
NRL Parramatta Eels Parramatta Eels 527 24-Oct-10
NRL Wests Tigers Wests Tigers 390 16-Jun-10
NRL Wests Tigers Wests Tigers 404 21-Jun-10
NRL Wests Tigers Wests Tigers 464 24-Oct-10
Rugby World Cup All Blacks All Blacks 13,200 14-May-10
Rugby World Cup All Blacks All Blacks 5,170 24-Oct-10
State of Origin Queensland Maroons Queensland Maroons 34 16-Jun-10
State of Origin Queensland Maroons Queensland Maroons 41 24-Oct-10
W-League Canberra United Canberra United 43 16-Jun-10
W-League Canberra United Canberra United 39 24-Oct-10
W-League Melbourne Victory W-League Melbourne Victory 18 2-Jul-10
W-League Melbourne Victory +W-League +Melbourne Victory 18 2-Jul-10
W-League Melbourne Victory W-League Melbourne Victory 14 24-Oct-10
W-League Melbourne Victory +W-League +Melbourne Victory 14 24-Oct-10
W-League W-League W-League 299 2-Jul-10
W-League W-League W-League 357 24-Oct-10
World Cup Soccer All Whites All Whites 429 14-May-10
World Cup Soccer All Whites All Whites 607 16-Jun-10
World Cup Soccer All Whites All Whites 810 24-Oct-10
World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 1,760 14-May-10
World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 2,080 16-Jun-10
World Cup Soccer Socceroos Socceroos 2,290 24-Oct-10

Related Posts:

Video: ACT for Team Greater Western Sydney

Posted by Laura on Friday, 10 September, 2010

This is another video I made.  (By made, I created it using Microsoft Paint, PowerPoint and Windows Video Maker.)  It is a really crude appeal to patriotism and local community identity.  I don’t suppose anyone could make a better video, have it go viral, prove that social media has value for Team GWS (and that they should control it rather than the fans) and most importantly: Get Team GWS to the ACT?

Related Posts:

Socceroos: A creative research data dump (part 3)

Posted by Laura on Saturday, 12 June, 2010

This is the third post in a series of creative research data dumps that relate to the Socceroos.

LinkedIn

League Team Name URL Owner Members Type Access Created Date checked
World Cup Soccer Socceroos Australian Socceroos – Supporters in Business http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1155907 Luis Aleixo 6 Networking Group 1-Nov-08 15-May-10
World Cup Soccer Socceroos Australian Socceroos – Supporters in Business http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1155907 Luis Aleixo 6 Networking Group 1-Nov-08 3-Jun-10

LiveJournal and clones

Service League Interest Date checked People Communities
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 102
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 3
Blurty World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 0
InsaneJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 3
DeadJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 1
JournalFen World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 0
scribbld World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 0
Inksome World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 0
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 15-May-10 102
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer australian national soccer team 15-May-10 0
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer aussie national football team 15-May-10 0
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 28-May-10 102
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos 28-May-10 3
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 3-Jun-10 102 6
Dreamwidth World Cup Soccer Socceroos 7-Jun-10 3 0

This table looks at activity patterns for LJ comms…

Service League Interest Date checked Community name Created on Last updated Comments received Account type Journal entries Tags Memories Virtual gifts Userpics Maintainers Members Watched by
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 the_socceroos 23-Jun-06 Never updated 0 Basic 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 4
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 tim_cahill 18-Nov-05 1-Jul-07 83 Basic 26 0 0 0 1 1 29 25
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 ozsoccer 1-Jun-06 20-May-08 620 Basic 78 0 0 0 3 1 76 65
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 14-May-10 harrykewell_7 4-Jan-07 3-Nov-08 271 Basic 137 13 0 0 5 1 72 68
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 28-May-10 tim_cahill 18-Nov-05 1-Jul-07 83 Basic 26 0 0 0 1 1 29 25
LiveJournal World Cup Soccer Socceroos 28-May-10 the_socceroos 23-Jun-06 Never updated 0 Basic 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 4
LiveJournal AFL Brisbane Broncos 1-Jun-10 brisbanelions 30-Apr-05 30-Apr-05 1 Basic 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 6

MySpace

Service League Interest People Artists Music Videos Albums Songs Videos Images Date gathered
MySpace World Cup Soccer Socceroos 20 12 1 1 1 66 500 14-May-10

Age break down of some accounts’s friends…

League Team Account Date checked Total friends Age: 18-24 Age: 25-29 Age: 30-35 Age: 36-40 Age: 40+
World Cup Socceroos socceroos 28-May-10 769 303 125 42 11 66
Women’s World Cup Matildas matildasonline 28-May-10 8 5 1 2 0 0

Orkut

Service League Team Interest Users Communities Topics Date gathered Notes
orkut World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 36 14 628 5-Jun-10
orkut World Cup All Whites "All Whites" 14 1 319 5-Jun-10 Not all references are to the football team.
orkut Women’s World Cup Matildas Matildas 14 2 124 5-Jun-10 Not all references are to the football team.

Twitter
Looking for growth information…

Service League Team Account Date collected Total followers
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 8-Mar-10 353
Twitter World Cup Socceroos socceroos_news (unofficial) 8-Mar-10 1 099
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 28-May-10 1 952
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 29-May-10 1965
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 30-May-10 1 998
Twitter World Cup Socceroos socceroos_news (unofficial) 30-May-10 1 668
Twitter World Cup Socceroos socceroos_news (unofficial) 1-Jun-10 1907
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 1-Jun-10 2077
Twitter World Cup Socceroos GGArmy (unofficial) 2-Jun-10 357
Twitter World Cup Socceroos socceroos_news (unofficial) 2-Jun-10 1 701
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 2-Jun-10 2 165
Twitter World Cup Socceroos HalfTimeHeroes (soccer fansite) 9-Jun-10 293
Twitter World Cup Socceroos GGArmy (unofficial) 10-Jun-10 390
Twitter World Cup Socceroos socceroos_news (unofficial) 10-Jun-10 1 775
Twitter World Cup Socceroos Socceroos 10-Jun-10 2 661
Twitter World Cup Socceroos HalfTimeHeroes (soccer fansite) 10-Jun-10 293

YouTube

Service League Interest Videos Date gathered
YouTube World Cup Soccer Socceroos 1 760 14-May-10
YouTube World Cup Soccer "All Blacks" 13 200 14-May-10
YouTube Basketball Australia Australian Boomers 98 14-May-10
YouTube Basketball Australia Australian Opals 538 14-May-10
YouTube World Cup Soccer "All Whites" 429 14-May-10

Related Posts:

Townsville Fire on YouTube

Posted by Laura on Sunday, 28 March, 2010

The Townsville Fire are a WNBL team.  Like the Bendigo Spirit, there is a small community of people who have uploaded videos featuring the team on YouTube.  Both have three people who have uploaded a total of four videos.  There is one person in common between the two groups: bbax222.  The other two people are timtufuga and Ambalina1989timtufuga has uploaded a number of videos featuring WNBL teams.  Ambalina1989 has not.   Three of these videos were posted during 2009/2010 season: 1 in October, 1 in November and 1 in December.  The last video was uploaded in March 2008 and features the team’s dance squad.  The four videos that were uploaded have had very few views.  The most watched video is TOWNSVILLE McCAFE FIRE: Rachael Flanagan (interviewed by Jes ) and it has 60 less views than the most popular Bendigo Bombers video.  So far, people just don’t seem to be keen on watching or uploading WNBL videos to YouTube.

The YouTube community again appears to be one of the biggest outside of Facebook.  (Bebo has two people who list them as an interest.)  The Facebook community size is again not based on people listing the team as an interest (important if you are a team and wanting to direct advertising at them) and is instead based on group and fanpage size.

Related Posts:

Bendigo Spirit on YouTube

Posted by Laura on Sunday, 28 March, 2010

The Bendigo Spirit are a WNBL team based in Bendigo, Victoria. There aren’t many videos featuring the team on Youtube. I’ve found a total of four uploaded by three people. Of these four videos, two were uploaded in June 2008 and two were uploaded in October 2009. Dates for video uploading thus appear random or likely coincide with the start and end of the WNBL season.  The two June videos were uploaded by an account that was probably created by the team, where no one as logged into it in the past three months. The other two videos were uploaded by two different individuals.  Both of those individuals were interested in Australian basketball: Luuuc who has a lot of NBL videos and bbax222 who has a lot of Australian national basketball team videos and WNBL related videos.  The most views for a video was BENDIGO BANK SPIRIT: Kelly Wilson with 171 one views as of March 25, 2010.   It was uploaded by bbax222.

Demographic data for these YouTube members is sparse.  All that is really known is that all three are based in Australia.  This contrasts a fair bit to some other Australian teams and social networks where people outside the country make up part of the community.  This YouTube uploading community also accounts for the largest population of Bendigo Spirit fans I’ve found on the networks I’ve looked at so far: There is one account on MySpace and one account on bebo. (There are two fan pages for the team on Facebook.  One has 165 members and the other has 83 members.  I just count Facebook people based on the number of people listing a team as an interest, not based on fan page membership.  And after looking at one of those pages, they do have an official Twitter account with 20 followers.  Go follow the Bendigo Spirit on Twitter! Support women’s sport!)

Given that the biggest community of people appears to be on YouTube and that YouTube is the second biggest search engine out there, it would probably behoove the Spirit to go back to using YouTube more actively.

Related Posts:

Distribution of Australian sports fans by league and location

Posted by Laura on Tuesday, 23 March, 2010

Distribution of Australian sports fans by league and location map

I’m trying to make a map of Australian sports fandom across various social networks.  This is going to take a long time and require a long explanation to understand exactly what you’re seeing.  This map isn’t intended to be all comprehensive.  I’m still collecting data and will likely continue to collecting data for a long time.    That’s why a long explanation is needed.

Country League Rugby: Group 21 is represented exclusively by the Facebook group SCONE THOROUGHBREDS RUGBY LEAGUE CLUB. Location was identified the location of the school network members listed themselves as belonging to.

For the NWBL, amongst the social networks I’ve checked so far, only You!Tube had people who listed the league.  And that was one person.  There were several people on Facebook who belonged the Wollongong Roller Hawks group and listed a network which I could affiliate with a city.

The AHL is represented by a Facebook group for the Tassie Tigers and three people on bebo. There were no fans on LiveJournal’s clones or blogger.

The AFL includes full data from 43things, bebo, blogger, eacademy, Daniel Jackson – TIGER TUFF!, Law Hawks and No matter how bad they are, I will still barrack for the Richmond Tigers! groups on Facebook, Gaia Online (but no one was an AFL fan who listed a city), LiveJournal and its clones, only Collingwood from MySpace profile search, only Brisbane Lions, Collingwood Magpies and Carlton Blues from orkut, only the scrapheap_afl mailing list on Yahoo!groups, and only the Geelong Cats on YouTube.

For the NRL, the following Facebook groups were included: Matt Johns to coach the Newcastle Knights in 2010! , Wests Tigers NYC and Melbourne-based Wests Tigers Fanatics. Only the Brisbane Broncos were looked at on 43things. Every team was searched for on bebo, blogger, Gaia Online, LiveJournal and its clones. The sample is much smaller than the AFL. (Though the community on bebo is much larger than AFL community on bebo. It might sort of make up for that.)

WNBL totals came from YouTube, MySpace, eacademy, bebo and LiveJournal clones.

For the NBL, only the Brisbane Bullets were looked at on 43 things. On Facebook for the NBL, unlike for most leagues looked at, an attempt was made to find every group connected to the team. Thus, the following groups and fanpages are represented: Townsville McDonald’s Crocodiles, Adelaide 36ers, Adelaide 36ers are the greatest team of ANY kind EVER!!, Adelaide 36ers Fan Zone, Bring Allen Iverson to the Adelaide 36ers!, Bring Dusty Rychart back to the Adelaide 36ers ~ beg, plead, grovel ;p, Cairns Taipans , Croc Nation, Early 90′s Perth Wildcats appreciation group, Gold Coast Blaze, Melbourne Tigers, melbourne tigers are the best team, Melbourne Tigers Basketball Club, Melbourne Tigers cheer squeda east and south ends , Melbourne Tigers NBL HUMMER CHAMPIONS 2007/08, Melbourne Tigers NBL supporters, New Zealand Breakers, Official Perth Wildcats, Perth Wildcats, Perth Wildcats, Perth Wildcats (Catties Fans), SAVE OUR MELBOURNE TIGERS NBL TEAM , THIS SEASON., Save Our South Dragons:www. saveourdragons.com, South Dragons 2008/09 Nbl Champions, South Melbourne Dragons, The Melbourne Tigers Fan Group, The Official Adelaide 36ers Page, Townsville McDonald’s Crocodiles and Wollongong Hawks. If this was done with other clubs and leagues, the representation for the AFL and NRL would probably be much, much bigger. Every team was looked at on bebo, blogger, LiveJournal and its clones. It also includes members of melbournetigers on Yahoo!Groups.

For the VFL, only the Geelong Cats and Coburg Tigers were checked. On MySpace, Frankston Dolphins , Sandringham Zebras , Werribee Tigers , Collingwood Magpies and Geelong Cats were checked. All teams were checked on LiveJournal and its clones, blogger and bebo.

A-League is represented by a search of all teams on bebo, blogger, LiveJournal and its clones. Orkut was searched for Melbourne Victory fans. It might not show up on the first version of this map because after about seven layers, the mapping software gets slow.

Distribution of Australian sports fans by league and location map

Related Posts:

YouTube and Australian sports

Posted by Laura on Wednesday, 17 March, 2010

I’ve been reading a number of blogs including floatingsheep.org and Pete Warden’s blog.  Both of them occassionally have very pretty charts, the likes of which I would like to make on my own to geographic map patterns for Australian sports culture.  Some of the maps that geographers do to look at social patterns are just fascinating in the extreme.

One of these geography related maps looked at YouTube.  This inspired me to look at YouTube.  I quickly realized that for big, popular teams, looking at YouTube would not be very useful.  I do all my data mining by hand.  (This includes looking up things like Brizzy and Wellywood after getting the data tableized to be able to identify a person as living in Brisbane, Queensland and Wellington, New Zealand.)  It is time consuming.  For smaller teams though, it seemed like the sample was small enough that I could get some interesting data off YouTube.  This only includes videos, not playlists.  At a later time, this may change.

This is both correct and incorrect.  It turns out that most people are not listing their hometown on YouTube.  They will often list their country though.

Anyway, the methodology I decided to use for YouTube data gathering was as follows: Search the team name.  Find videos that pertain directly to that team.  Look at and record the profile information for all individuals who have a video which mention that team.  This should give an idea as to league interest and team interest, though not always.  You can get say a Geelong Cats fan who uploads a video where the Geelong Cats play the Hawthorn Hawks and because of how I’m searching, they’d be included for both teams. It can be make interests slightly misleading, though fans of both teams will probably watch a video labeled that way.

One problem I’ve discovered (and I’m starting with the least popular teams first) involves the Geelong Cats.  I’ve mentioned them before as they are problematic in that their VFL team shares the same name.  Unlike LiveJournal and bebo where interest search makes it hard/impossible to separate the two, it is a bit more doable on YouTube as all you have to do is add a VFL to the search.  Except, well, the VFL was the precursor to the AFL and there are a fair number of videos for the VFL Geelong Cats in the days before the AFL existed.  I can separate these out a bit… but I’m opting not to at the moment.  If a video mentions the VFL Geelong Cats in the days before the AFL, I’ll count the person who uploaded it under both the AFL and VFL.

I feel like I should almost be recording information about specific videos on YouTube but that doesn’t feel practical.  It might be worth noting the total number of videos like I’m noting the information about mailing list volume for Yahoo!Groups.  I may eventually do that, but at the moment, it isn’t a priority.  I’m more interested in demographic information of people uploading videos than in the history of these videos themselves.

Related Posts: