Ozzie Sport

Research Question: What are the demographic, geographic and social characteristics of online AFL fandom and the implication of these for AFL clubs?

Tasks for June 2, 2010: Remember that not meeting next week: Next meeting is two weeks from the 19th. Work on Review of Literature.  Think about Methodology. Create a semi-structured survey questions for interview.  Update the About page on OzzieSport.  Publish paper about the Melbourne Storm controversy on OzzieSport.

Ongoing tasks: Check the media pages from The Australian to see what they have to say about social media and online activities in Australia.

Keep a list of material I am reading related to sports and social media both online and off.

Paper notes and tasks: The order of writing should ideally be something as follows:

• Write half the review of literature.

• Write methodology.

• Write individual chapters about specific aspects of online activity or about specific sites.  Publish individual chapters as unique chapters.  Develop additional sources for the review of literature.

• Complete the review of literature.

Some of this is because a lot of the work being done is very in the moment and time sensitive.  The best thing that may come out of this paper isn’t the results themselves but the establishing of a methodology that other academics and sports leagues, teams and organizations can use to further their own knowledge.  In the case of the AFL, the results may also be useful in terms of setting measurable benchmarks, which they can use in the future.

Other conversations: Discussion about the Melbourne Storm and Canberra Raiders:

• Attempt to figure out what to do with my paper.  Should it be published online?  The paper is very time sensitive.  Should a more formal outlet for publishing it be sought?  Will be published on OzzieSport by the end of the week.

• What can other teams learn from the Melbourne Storm controversy?  Better yet, how did other fanbases respond to the controversy?  Given the behavior of Canberra Raiders fans described in the Canberra Times after the team played the Melbourne Storm, it seems probable that the controversy strengthened the team’s fan base: Fans felt the need to reaffirm their attachment to a team that is not connected to cheaters.  Some evidence of this may be seen on Twitter, where the Raiders saw the next highest growth in percentage of new total followers.

Related Posts:

• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (November 24)
• More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups (November 23)
• More popular Australian (and Kiwi) sport related Facebook fanpages and groups
• Most popular Australian (and New Zealand) sport related Twitter accounts (November 18)

I’ve been busy going to the library to get books to find out about research degrees, being an international student, Australian sports and reading areas that I’ve been recommended to be more familiar with.  The following list includes some of the books I’ve been reading and browsing through:

• The business of sport management / edited by John Beech and Simon Chadwick.  Checked this out today.  Goes into some of the topology of sports fans.  Mentions the AFL in a case study.  Still skimming the book.
• The international student’s handbook : living and studying in Australia / Danny Ong.  Not useful for international research students who have a native language of English who come in mid-term.  Less useful in general for research students.  Separately, less useful for students who speak English.  (At the same time, written at a level that seems like it could be out of reach for non-English speakers.)   The book is mostly aimed at non-English speaking 18 to 19 year-olds who have never lived on their own before and are first time undergraduates.
• Excellent dissertations! / Peter (something).   Did not find it useful.
• The postgraduate research handbook: succeed with your MA, MPhil, ED and PhD / Gina Wisker.  Written for an American audience.  Focuses a lot on coursework underlying the research.  Timelines along that.  Not so helpful for an international student inside the Australian system.
• Inside sports / edited by Jay Coakley and Peter Donnelly.  Skimmed a bit.  Did not seem particularly relevant to my interests.
• Fanfare: spectator culture and Australian rules football / edited by Matthew Nicholson.  Slowly reading this for content and to learn about the fans and underlying behaviors, demographic patterns and allegiances.  This would be helpful as background knowledge to explain social media patterns.  Section on the cheer squads was interesting.
• The research student’s guide to success / Pat Cryer.  Best of the books about this topic.  I’m reading parts mostly to understand parts of the process, figure out if there is anything I’m obviously missing and to get an idea for what the text should generally look like in terms of organization.  Helpful for that.  Mostly skimming when I’m not doing other things.

Related Posts:

• University of Canberra on Foursquare
• May 12, 2010 Meeting Notes
• May 5, 2010 Meeting Notes

This isn’t related to sports or academics at all.  It mostly has to do with my Foursquare obsession and adding buildings and places at the University of Canberra to Foursquare.  If you are on campus, there are a number of locations that have already been created that you can check in to.  They include:

• University of Canberra
• University of Canberra Library
• University of Canberra, Coffee Lounge
• University of Canberra, Building 12
• University of Canberra, Post Office
• Cafe Mizuna

There seems like there should be a way for universities to use Foursquare but I’m not certain what at the moment.  I’m more me centric of yay! Lots of university buildings for me to become the mayor of as I go from place to place around campus.

Related Posts:

• An Australian sport wiki
• World Cup, through quarter finals: Foursquare and gowalla checkin totals
• Canberra Raiders data
• An interview with Ben Pollack from the Canberra Raiders

Research Question: What are the demographic, geographic and social characteristics of online AFL fandom and the implication of these for AFL clubs?

Tasks for May 19, 2010: Write a short research summary.  It should include the research question, how I came to be interested in the topic, methodology description and some of the topics covered.  Purpose is to make sure everyone understands what I’m doing and why.  This can almost be an introduction for the actual thesis.

Find out about the cheer teams for the AFL.  Do they have a web and social media presence?

Ongoing tasks: Check the media pages from The Australian to see what they have to say about social media and online activities in Australia.

Paper notes and tasks: Questions around how the review of literature should be done.  One idea suggested was to write the thesis as a series of almost independent papers and to publish them as I go through it.  When I’m done with all the various chapters, the citations can be synthesized in order to do a shorter, citation dense review of literature.

Cover bases for the literature review.  It needs a clear (a)cademic statement.  Possible structure for it could be:

• What are fans?
• How do fans show allegiance to a league?  To clubs?
• What is the link between fans and social media?

The last part may be the most difficult as there is little available information about the topic.  This is both good and bad.

Discussion about the topology of online sports fandom.  Three types:

• Undefined allegiance.

• Formal membership.

• Association.

Question of: Can the different types of fans be determined on social networks?

Related Posts:

• May 5, 2010 Meeting Notes

As I remember and have the time, I’m going to try to type up my notes from meeting with my supervisor(s) and post them to this blog.  (I’ll probably most more academic related content that is less specific to Australian sport and more specific to the academic process.  I’ll update the about page to reflect that.) This serves several purposes.  First, it keeps people at the University of Canberra who are following my research up to date.  Second, it might help those who are thinking about doing or just starting  an idea on a bit of the process involved in completing a research degree.  Third, it serves as a back up for my own notes and can help keep me a bit more on task.  When looking at my notes, realize that this is all a work in progress and nothing is set in stone: Processes and focus can change.

May 5, 2010 Meeting Notes

Research Question: What are the demographic, geographic and social characteristics of online AFL fandom and the implication of these for AFL clubs?

Tasks for May 12, 2010: What is the literature at the moment?  Be able to provide an overview of some of the current research being done on social media and sports.

Look at sports sociology books for the definition of fandom.  Familiarize myself with some Australian sports management books.  Look at Coakley and Wernerr.

Ongoing tasks: Check the media pages from The Australian to see what they have to say about social media and online activities in Australia.

Paper notes and tasks: Style will be APA.  Data copyright is mine.  Copyright of the dissertation will be looked into.

In the introduction, fandom and online will need to be defined, along with a potential rational for these.

Create a working dictionary for paper.  Include terms like fandom, online and other phrases that involve basic underlying assumptions for the dissertation.

Current operating definition of fandom: The community of people expressing interest in the AFL and its clubs.  This includes casual fans who belong in it for social reasons and die hard, super fans who attend every game, have club membership, belong to fan clubs and buy a lot of merchandise.

Current operating definition of online: Activity that takes place over the internet on the world wide web, usenet and possibly mediated by mobile devices.  Includes sites/tools like Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook, bebo, LiveJournal and its clones, blogger, Yahoo!Groups, YouTube, bebo, online newspapers.  It does not include fantasy sports and gambling related sites.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

I arrived in Australia last week after having applied to and gotten accepted to University of Canberra.  This acceptance was mid-term, starting whenever I arrived.  There wasn’t orientation and I sort of had to do it by feel, but the people at the university were super helpful and nice and made things as painless as possible.  (Ditto for the people at the mobile phone place, the bank and the post office.)  This is based on my experiences so far and may not work for you.    For anyone else going to Australia to do a research degree, I figured I’d let you know some things I’ve learned at this waaaay early stage:

• If you have a Masters by coursework, make sure you can give some sort of equivalent to another Australian degree (or British or Canadian or anywhere else where they have degrees by coursework and degrees by research).  Evaluating my existing Masters caused a hold up in my application as they did not know what to make of it.
• Check your baggage limits.  United gave me two 50 pound bags under the plane.  That’s it.  Go over and it costs you $200.  An extra bag costs you $200.  I’d advise to go heavy on the clothes, shampoo and books as clothes here feel more expensive than the US and a paperback book runs between $12 and $20 AUD.  A cheap laptop in the US can run you $400 but the cheapest I’ve found here is about $550.  (Nicer but still a much higher price point if you’re on a budget.)
• Get a hold of the admissions office and research office as soon as you get your acceptance so you can get your CoE, which you need for your student visa.  As US loans applied through via FAFSA don’t pay out until you get there, this can be a major catch 22 as they want payment upfront before you’re accepted.  To get around this, I faxed them my completed FAFSA paperwork, which showed I was eligible for US based aid and to what dollar amount, FAFSA paperwork that had already theoretically been sent to them when I applied.  They then sent me my CoE and after I completed the student visa form, I had it in two days.
• Before you leave, get a hold of your supervisor (mine was awesome at helping move my application along after it got briefly stuck), tell them when you will arrive and set a time to meet.  You’ll need to do this to set a time up to do your plan for your degree.  This plan will need to eventually get on file with the research department not long after you start.
• One of the absolute first things to do when you get on campus is to get your student ID card.  This ID will help you things like getting a cell phone, opening a bank account and getting a post office box.   For UC, it also doubles as your library card and contains the number for your health insurance login.
• After you get an ID card, set up an appointment with an International Student Advisor.  If you’re entering mid-semester, this is the way to get an orientation packet, get a list of things you need to do, information on who you should contact next, where resources are located or ideas on where to get a bike.
• Find the research department.  They will have additional paperwork for you to fill out.  They’ll also want a copy of your passport and possibly some other stuff as part the student visa work on their side.  If there is a mailing list for research students, make sure you get on it.  The one for UC has scholarship notifications, social gathering announcements, training session information, etc.
• Go through your orientation packet and read it to see what it says.  It should say things like setting up e-mail, checking to make sure your research modules are signed up for, etc.  My packet was geared for undergrads so some of this was confusing.  If you don’t understand everything in the packet and you think you should, ask for help.  At UC, everyone has been beyond nice and helpful and accommodating.
• When you first meet with your supervisor, find out about the library and if there is some one in the library that research students in your department work with.  If there is, schedule an appointment with them.  At mine, I learned all the major databases, how to get access to them, how many days I can check out books, how I can get access to resources not provided inside the library already, signed up for a SCOPUS training session and checked out books related to doing a degree by research in Australia.
• Get an Australian bank account.  This will give you a proof of address, which will be necessary for other things like a cell phone.  You don’t need to prove where you live, just tell them your address.  (I went with WestPac as my bank as I can take out money free from Bank of America there and easily transfer funds.  It just seemed easier.  There is a bank on campus here, that is advertised in the International Student Orientation packet.)  Bring your passport with you and proof that you have a student visa.  I printed out my online confirmation and that worked.  There are no overdraft fees here, or at least WestPac doesn’t have them.  (I boggled.)
• Health insurance is a requirement of your student visa: You need it.  US aid won’t pay out right away.  When you get to campus, you’ll need to find the person in charge of this and see about buying at least 3 months worth of health coverage until your US aid kicks in.  I think that is around $130 AUD.  Could be a bit less.  If your US aid kicks in pro-actively for health coverage from when you started, the amount you paid out of pocket will be refunded to you.  You just need to fill out paperwork.
• You can get a pre-paid or post paid plan.  If you’re going with a plan, you need to have a copy of your student visa, your passport, a credit card, and proof of your address.  Cell phone plans are generally two years so they need proof that you’ll be in the country that long.  You don’t pay your cell phone bill until well, you get the first bill.  (This confused me.  I walked out of the store with a phone that worked but I hadn’t paid the shop anything.) You can pay in the store or online.  Data plans feel pretty affordable. I’m getting a fair amount of minutes, 500 MB transfer, free facebook, twitter and YouTube for around $49 AUD a month for an iPhone.  I’m paying the iPhone up front for $280 AUD instead of tacking on cost of it for each month.
• Post office boxes are handy to have for things like cell phone bills, bank statements, for the university keeping in touch with you and getting absentee ballots from the US.  Mine cost around $87 AUD for 11 months.
• Don’t buy a new bike if you’re looking for one.  Ask around to see who has them.  I got a used one from my supervisor for $30 AUD, cheaper than my bike helmet at $37 AUD.  (Bike helmets are required by law here.)

Related Posts:

• Australian elections: The geography of Twitter
• World Cup, day 8: Foursquare and gowalla checkin totals
• World Cup, day 7: Foursquare checkin totals
• World Cup, day 6: Foursquare checkin totals