Thesis Proposal 9.26.11

Sports have always reflected larger trends and conditions in society, from wars and conflicts to the breaking of color barriers. One particular area that sports have evolved is in parallel to the evolution of media. A century ago, sports were consumed in one of two ways. A fan could either purchase a ticket and watch the game in person, or, read a recap the next day in the newspaper. The invention of the radio allowed for an all new method of consumption, as a voice gave fans a play by play account of what they were missing. Soon, television added picture to this play by play, along with early infographics (as simple as a players name and batting average) about what the fans were witnessing. With cable came the creation of ESPN, a television channel that promised to play nothing but sports, 24 hours a day. Shows like Sportscenter became hour long recaps of the day, complete with slow motion breakdowns of a single play, shown from countless angles. Not long thereafter, the internet emerged as a new medium for sports fans to follow their teams, while simultaneously allowing them a platform to express their fandom through blogging, tweeting, and countless other forms of content creation. Finally, as the internet has moved from the stationary computer screen to the always-in-the-pocket cellular phone, fans can receive push notifications of big moments in their team’s game, at no more than 140 characters.

For my thesis, I’m interested in exploring what it means to be a sports fan in the 21st century.  Specifically, I’m interested in examining the evolution of the fan experience over the last century. Have these changes been for the better? If so, what is the next logical step? But more likely, its my hypothesis that with each innovation in technology and media, the defining characteristics of what it means to be a sports fan have been diluted and sacrificed along the way. Put another way, have we paradoxically become more disconnected from our teams as we’ve become more connected in terms of technology?

The defining characteristics of sports fans that I will use as my lens into the sports fan experience are :: 

Honor - A team winning isn’t necessary to a loyal fan. Sometimes fans feel tighter to a team if they feel as though they are connected to a team with a struggle. 

• Has the Honor of rooting for the team with the struggle been overshadowed, by constant barrage of tweets, fb statuses, etc of those who are winning?
• Do places like ESPN.com give ample coverage to the teams in smaller media markets, and who aren’t having a championship season?

Tribalism - By aligning ourselves with a team, we align ourselves with a group of people who have the same love. This is our tribe. We often inherit our tribe from our parents, or we find it on our own.

• Teams and their fans are both more likely to move around the country than they were 100 years ago. How does that affect ones tribe?
• Are we more likely to root for our fantasy football team than our hometown team? What tribe do we belong to then?

Shared Experience - Almost every play of a sporting event is a unique moment in time, shared only by other witnesses. We are bonded through this.

• How has shared experience changed from us gathering in one place (stadium) to several places (bars, homes with friends) to individual places (cell phone screens) to witness live sporting events?
• How has the second screen, i.e. tweeting during games, etc helped to supplement this?

Narrative - All teams, whether mighty or weak, have a storyline. The more a fan knows about this story, the more likely it is that they’ll be engaged with the team. Where some people see a simple “walk” in a baseball game, others see a long complex history between batter and pitcher. 

• What does receiving micro-updates via push notifications do to break down narrative?
• How can the immense amount of data that any sporting event generates be used to create narrative, in lieu of a SportsCenter or a long form written story?

Unpredictability - Both good and bad, or as Neyfakh refers to it, eustress - “the addictive combination of euphoria and stress that grips fans in the presence of a game.” Rewards that arrive randomly are more pleasurable than those that occur at a given time, which is inherent to sports. You never know when your team will hit a home run or grab an interception.

• Again, how can the immense amount of data generated by sports be leveraged to affect unpredictability? Does knowing where a player will hit the ball next eliminate this unpredictability?

Let’s see how I’m doing with Frank’s specific prompt ::

I’m making a ? to be used by Sports Fans to address the problem of the disintegration of fundamental traits* of fandom in the 21st century    

*Specifically : Honor, Tribalism, Narrative, and Shared Experience