online football fandom in brazil (2013 oii sdp presentation) - ana vimieiro

online football fandom in brazil:

pleasure and politics on the Twitterland

Ana VimieiroQueensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia@carolvimieiro | anavimieiro.com

Who am I?

2nd year PhD candidate Background: Media and Communication/Journalism

(MSc and BA) Strong background in methodology (digital methods

and frame analysis) 5 years of experience as a journalist back in Brazil

(including 1 year producing a sports TV show) Huge football fan my whole life

OII SDP 2013 | Online football fandom in Brazil: pleasure and politics on the Twitterland | Ana Vimieiro (@carolvimieiro)

Research problem

Twitter and other social media platforms have been largely used for sport-related commentary and interactions

Online activities of sport fans have not received substantial attention in the social science and humanities fields up to date (Gibbons & Dixon, 2010)

The implications of the Internet and new technologies for pop culture fandom have been much more explored (Jenkins, 2006; 2007; Earl & Kimport, 2009)


Source: https://twitter.com/RobHarris/status/351491525710073856/photo/1

Pleasure/Politics

“Even when fan-produced content and comments are critical in nature, there is rarely a fundamental challenge to those who possess

overwhelming symbolic power in defining and anchoring the reality of elite sport—sports organizing bodies, leagues, clubs, media companies,

and sponsors (cf. Couldry 2003, 2006). Such gestures of fan defiance struggle to mobilize transformative forces in sport,

even if this were the intention of ‘dissidents’. Indeed, discussion by fans often concentrates on how officials and executives should

improve their performance to achieve greater success for their team on the field, better financial returns off it, and more appealing action for

those watching (Scibilia & Hutchins 2012; Wilson, W. 2007)”.

(Rowe & Hutchins, 2012, p. 103)


identity - participatory practices - formal politics

Theoretical framework

Sport fandom Pop culture fandom

Resistance (ideology, power) Participation/convergence (more symbiotic)

Sociology and psychology Media and cultural studies

Overvaluation of the “authentic” supporter (who attends matches in person) / concentration on the exceptional (hooligans)

Everyday life is the focus

Offline and online are two separate worlds

No such divisions (implications of the emergence of the Internet for fandom practices)

Consumer and fan are two distinct entities

Fan/consumer are two intricate sides of the “prosumer”

Schimmel, Harrington, & Bielby, 2007; Earl & Kimport, 2009; Crawford, 2003, 2004; Pearson, 2010; Jenkins, 2006, 2007.


Source: https://twitter.com/RobHarris/status/351491525710073856/photo/1

My problem right now

It's not that simple just take the theoretical framework from pop culture fandom studies and my problems are solved!

Sport fans very often use an anti-media discourse (they think commodification and globalisation are killing their objects of affection)

They also adopt a very oppositional approach when it comes to sporting governing bodies

Sport fandom develops in different ways than pop culture fandom (loyalty; one club your whole life; generation to generation; and so on)


One way to find some answers

Better understand the differences between sport economy and other creative economies

More centralized? (Too much economic power in very few hands?)

Too afraid to be more transparent and adapt to a changing media ecology? (Their business model has been very profitable)

Are sport fans more loyal? Don’t they have a sort of guarantee that they will sell their products even if they don’t answer their “clients”?

Is a market with less competition? Even the level of piracy is lower because of the centrality of

simultaneity for sport consumption (Hutchins & Rowe, 2012)OII SDP 2013 | Online football fandom in Brazil: pleasure and politics on the Twitterland | Ana Vimieiro (@carolvimieiro)

My cases

Three distinct cases, all from Brazil #ForaRicardoTeixeira (successful campaign organised by fans)

Clubs’ communities

Conversations around the 2014 World Cup

Why Twitter? Central position when it comes to digital sport fandom in the

Brazilian context (key-users, journalists, interest-based)


Methodology

Using yourTwapperkeeper (data collection), CAT (coding), R (data mining) etc.

Mixed-methods approach Digital methods – dynamics, networks and content (hashtags)

Qualitative content analysis (top tweets, key-events, frame analysis)


1) #ForaRicardoTeixeira

President of CBF for 23 years Involved in many corruption cases (Contraband Flight, 1994; Nike and

the Probing Commissions in the Congress, 2001; ISL case, 2011)

Very close to Globo, the largest media company in Brazil

Launched on the 21st of July 2011 (lasted for 8 months) “I couldn’t give a shit” about the corruption allegations (Pinheiro, 2011)

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr accounts; website and a blog;

online petition (Avaaz) 887,885 post views in the first 10 days (Facebook) First “twitterstorm”: 50,839 tweets ("#ForaRicardoTeixeira," 2011)

300,000 tweets were posted (15,000)

Marcello Casal JR/ABr


Bruns (2011) – scripts: metrify.awk, urlextract.awk, urlresolve.awk, urltruncate.awk


Gamson & Modigliani (1989) – Framing matrix; Matthes & Kohring (2008); Vimieiro & Maia (2011) – Indirect frame analysis.



Vimieiro, A. (forthcoming). Fan activism on Twitter: online sport communities and the campaign #ForaRicardoTeixeira. Ciberlegenda.

2) Clubs’ communities

12 largest clubs

Collecting data during the 2013 Brazilian Football Championship (Brasileirão) – longitudinal approach

Collecting from keywords: clubs’ names and nicknames (afterwards, a filter has to be used)

Everyday engagement: football fans talk about their clubs in a daily basis (in contrast with the national team, for instance)


Wiki created by fans with the whole history of the club

Website where many fans publish videos, photos, short stories, anecdotes, chronicles, biographical stories etc.


Alternative radio produced by fans (they make live commentaries in all matches)

Alternative club’s coverage (podcasts)


3) 2014 FIFA World Cup / National team

Longitudinal approach

Data collection: 2012-2014

Many controversies during this period: World Cup Law, reopening of stadiums, Confederations Cup…

Distinct frames depending on the situation: performance (players/team), sport economy (costs/FIFA), socioeconomic (costs/Brazilian government)

Paradox of the Confederations Cup: Massive protests (costs and FIFA’s policies)

Records of attendance and TV audience!


Findings, next steps and troubles


Politics/pleasure They move across distinct roles (fan/consumer/citizen)

BUT they also struggle to politicise some discussions when they feel it is going to threaten their passion

SNA and qualitative analysis (2nd and 3rd cases)

How much data I’ve got! (5 million tweets and counting)

Feeling I’ll need to do interviews…

online football fandom in brazil (2013 oii sdp presentation) - ana vimieiro

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