Twitter and Sports
Power to the Fans
Matt Adelhelm
The ability to share your thoughts and opinions to an audience on topics or issue
that you are passionate about is well served through the use of social media. In
particular, Twitter has the ability to really put your words into the forefront of the
public mind and conversation and reach a large audience of those who have a
common interest, but not necessarily a common opinion, on everything pertaining
to the specific topic. By searching a hash tag (#) of an issue or topic one is able to
find others who are commenting and expressing views on this common topic or
event of interest.
Professional, and many collegiate sports, has a way of bringing people together,
especially while watching a specific sporting event. In the case of Twitter, people
can communicate during a sporting event via a tweet at each other about what is
currently happening with a team and/ or players during or after before the actual
event. The situation that I chose to explore and discuss is one for which I participate
and that if for my favorite sports team the New York football Giants. I chose to
observe and report on how fans interact amongst each other during one of their
recent games. Before delving into the details characteristics of this specific team’s
twitter following on that specific date, it is important understand the nature and
history of one of the most heavily used social media platforms in the world right
now.
Twitter is an application that anyone can download and join for free on their cell
phone, laptop, tablet, pc and all sources of the worldwide internet. “In many
ways, Twitter is like instant messaging. As in instant messaging, the emphasis is on
short, punchy messages. In fact, the very definition of Twitter is 140 character
messages that describe, "What are you doing?" That's not much real estate. Longer
than an Instant Message, but shorter than an email message (Mancini, 2009).” The
idea of micro blogging is what Twitter is all about… having a limited amount of
words /characters to concisely express one’s ideas amongst the specific twitter
group or audience. In 2006, Twitter was created and it started a revolution of social
media. It‘s ability to get statements and reactions from the actual people in the news
or at the center of an issue on a 24/7 basis is the edge that it had over many other
forms of social media and internet news.
Twitter goes hand in hand with the sports world. People who are huge fans of a
team will use Twitter to follow accounts that provide information on their teams. In
return, sports organizations have made twitter a vital tool in connecting with their
fans. “Twitter gives fans something that other media cannot provide as easily —
access to instantaneous information from both official and unofficial sources. Both
the accelerated delivery of information on mobile platforms via the Internet and the
ability to interact with that information is changing how fans consume content. This
consumption is more personal than the mass media broadcast model so long
favored by sports organizations (Williams, Pg. 1, 2014).” The fandom has been
taking social media to whole new level for fans because now they have daily
interactions with their respective sports organizations and teams. The community
that I will be looking into is one that is a diehard passionate group of Giants’ fans
who often make Twitter very interesting to read because of how much emotion and
insight goes into their passion for the team and it is quite obvious in their exchange
of tweets.
I chose to observe and examine closely the tweets that were going on during the
Giants’ most recent game versus the Buffalo Bills last weekend on Sunday, October
4th. The first obvious observation I took note of immediately was when something
negative or positive for the Giants occurred, fans immediately would tweet their
views on what was transpiring. People change moods fast. For instance, the Giants
scored the first touchdown of the game. Many Twitter handles were going crazy and
expressing their joy and praise for the touchdown Eli Manning threw. “ Eli is a
savior, one of the best in the game,” a twitter user said. There were many with
similar thoughts in their tweets. Later in the game however, fans changed their
views in a complete 180 degree turn and started bashing the Giants’ quarterback
right after he threw an interception later in the game. “ This guys sucks why did we
resign him” “ Eli is a waste on this roster” There were many mean and disrespectful
tweets after the mistake even thought Eli was having a great game and even better
season so far. The language can be rather aggressive and very vulgar. Fans hold
sports so dear to their heart that they really get overly emotional quite often and it
is quite evident on Twitter. Every fan on Twitter seems to have an opinion on how
the team to should be managed and coached. I too have expressed my opinion and
made statements on Twitter for Giant fans and followers on many occasions on how
I think the team should be better managed or coached.
Due to the high volume and frequency of tweets by fans and sports reporters
sometimes you don’t even have to physically be at or watch a game to know what’s
going minute by minute and play by play. If you decide not to watch an actual game
then one could find out everything needed to know through all the tweets specific to
the event. Not only do fans tweet constantly but sports reporters now get huge
followers on Twitter because of their up to date and instantly available information
and professional perspective in real time. Reporters tweeting what’s going on
enables an exchange and creates a discussion on the original tweet and anything
that may envelop as a result of the initial tweet. Being a reporter now has an
extension to it and gets them more notoriety. “They blog, they tweet, and then they
blog and tweet some more, and yes, eventually they file a story, squeezing in time to
watch the game. Even then, many are expected to provide instant context in realtime, bite-sized pieces--while also interacting with fans who are tweeting and
blogging, too (Moran, 2010).” They play a huge role in this ethnography because
they are almost the mediators and the gatekeepers for the information that fans
react to on twitter and get passionate about both positively or negatively.
Even when the game ends, the post game tweets with players’ interviews and
quotes continue to create much discussion on Twitter. For example, when a star
Player like Eli manning or Odell Beckham Jr of the Giants are quoted it creates major
twitter discussions, both positive and negative. This is a direct result of their
response to remarks made about the athletes’ performances on Twitter by fans,
sports enthusiasts and sports writers and many fans take these responses
personally and feel a personal connection with the athletes via Twitter.
Interviews and players being quoted goes on for at least two hours after the game
ends and Twitter really makes this part of the post game very interesting and
engaging for fans. Most fans on Twitter are so curious to see what their favorite
player or coach is saying and then they want to express their opinions on these
statements. It serves as the platform for dialogue and conversations between fans
but also amongst fans and professionals both on team and in the industry.
There are many ways Twitter can improve their platform to better serve people
by creating groups of platforms for zeroing in or focusing in better on a topic. This
doesn’t have to be just with sports but it can be anything that a group of people have
a common interest in and want to have the exchange of ideas and have dialogue.
Twitter should have groups where you can tweet amongst each other in an online
community type of setting. This way people who maybe don’t share your interest
don’t have to deal with scrolling by and reading your tweets about Giants when they
don’t even like football. Twitter does a great job of enabling one to search words
that involve your interest but I think with a public group to chat and discuss it could
be more organized and more specific so one can follow and better comprehend all
that is being tweeted on a specific topic or event.
Overall, Twitter serves as a great platform and social media tool for keeping up to
date and up to the minute information on so many topics. It has the ability to reach
large audiences and allows for the sharing of opinions and connecting people on a
variety of topics and to gain information on events as they are happening and to get
different perspectives on anything that sparks your interest or any live event taking
place almost anywhere in the world, with only a places of exception. I personally
appreciate the value of Twitter and use it daily to keep current with my favorite
sports teams and players and also to keep current on national and international
events and issues in the news.
References
Mancini, J. F. (2009). 8 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TWITTER AND
BUSINESS. Infonomics, 23(5), 18. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/751999936?accountid=28549
Williams, J., Chinn, S. J., & Suleiman, J. (2014). The value of twitter for sports
fans. Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 16(1), 36-50.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/dddmp.2014.36
Moran, M. (2010). It's a brand-new ballgame--for sports reporters. Nieman Reports,
64(4), 60+. Retrieved from
http://online.library.marist.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.online.library.
marist.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA247441527&v=2.1&u=nysl_se_marist&it=r&p=A
ONE&sw=w&asid=e4556d73a85b1c4a0fa5186b3d44dd61