THE ACCELERATION OF MEDIA SPORT CULTURE

Abstract

There has been a rapid and widespread increase in the use of the micro-blogging and social networking platform Twitter (http://twitter.com) by professional athletes, sports clubs, leagues and fans. For instance, ‘tweets’ or messages of up to 140 characters offer high-profile athletes like Lance Armstrong (cycling), Serena Williams (tennis), Usain Bolt (track and field), Lote Tuqiri (rugby) and Shaquille O'Neal (basketball) the ability to communicate instantaneously with fans, friends and observers, bypassing the gate-keeping functions of journalists, publicists and sports officials. ‘Tweeting’ has added an unpredictable and occasionally controversial dimension to the types of public expression, promotion and representation associated with media sport. This paper argues that Twitter fits within a range of internet-based and mobile communications practices, including text messaging and instant messaging, that are evidence of an accelerated information order in which telepresence – ‘keeping in touch’ without literally being in touch – is a pervasive feature. The existence of this order highlights important changes in both the production and consumption of media content, and necessitates a shift away from broadcast-centric understandings of media sport towards those that properly acknowledge the increasing significance of networked digital communications.

Keywords:

• sport media
• media sport cultural complex
• Web 2.0
• social networking
• mobile communications
• journalism

Notes

Web 2.0 is a contentious term. Despite disagreement over its precise meaning, Cormode and Krishnamurthy (2008) demonstrate how it serves to categorize a range of technical, content, user and internet traffic developments that distinguish it from earlier iterations of the web, especially in relation to the proliferation of user-created content. Song (2010) also makes the case that Web 2.0 can be distinguished by a ‘participatory habitus’, which separates it from earlier versions of web-based culture.

Twitter was founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Isaac Stone (Farrer 2010). Based in San Francisco, California, the market value and profitability of Twitter are subject to much speculation.

An intriguing interplay between Twitter and the visual representation of sport was offered by NBC during the 2010 Winter Olympics. A ‘tracker’ visually traced the intensity of Twitter activity by showing images of the specific events and athletes competing at the time tweets were sent. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQazwDC7wBI

DP0877777 ARC Discovery Grant, ‘Struggling for Possession: The Control and Use of Online Media Sport’. Chief Investigators – Brett Hutchins and David Rowe.

The issue of inequality of access to information and communication technologies is of indirect relevance to the discussion presented here. For example, the use of Twitter in the global South demands stand-alone consideration, particularly given the popularity of mobile phone use and pre-paid plans in many countries (Castells et al. 2007). Usage patterns suggest that more nuanced and critical approaches to notions such as the digital divide and the digital age are required to capture media practices and experiences that speak to ‘alternative modernities’ (Ginsburg 2008).

Project participants are fully de-identified in accordance with the requirements of a University Human Research Ethics Committee.

There is no suggestion here that the broadcast sport is set to disappear. But even this traditional mode of sports consumption is now delivered to audiences via digital transmission, recording, time-shifting and ‘special event’ 3D telecasts.