Social networks, football fans, fantasy and reality. How corporate and media interests are invading our lifeworld
| Pages | 54-71 |
| Published date | 27 February 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14779960910938098 |
| Date | 27 February 2009 |
| Author | Rachel McLean,David W. Wainwright |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Social networks, football fans,
fantasy and reality
How corporate and media interests are
invading our lifeworld
Rachel McLean
Games, Computing and Creative Technologies, University of Bolton,
Bolton, UK, and
David W. Wainwright
School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences,
Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the digital culture on football
supporters through analysis of official and unofficial websites and media reports. At first glance it
would appear that technology has brought about greater opportunities to communicate, to share views
which previously could not be widely published, and to organise against the commercial power of the
large football clubs. However, surveillance, censorship and control continue to impact on supporters to
restrict and ultimately prevent the ideal speech situation that is necessary to empower fans and
promote greater participation in their clubs. Current media manipulation and corporate interests
restrict and alienate fans who often have more of a historically constituted (over generations) sense of
ownership and culture within their local clubs.
Design/methodology/approach – A critical social theory approach is adopted to examine
structures and processes related to communication between fans, the media, football clubs and the
public. Habermas’ theory is draw upon using the concepts of “colonization of the Lifeworld” and
“communicative action” to inform a theme and discourse analysis of official and independent football
club websites and media reports. How corporate interests (the system) are manipulating public opinion
and freedom to speak openly within an overall goal of profit maximization for club owners and the
large media corporations are explored.
Findings – Although steps to enable free communication have been made we are still a long way off
supporters having a powerful enough voice to organise against the commercial power of the large
football clubs and media conglomerates. The ideal speech situation remains elusive and the hegemonic
state remains unchallenged. Football supporters are increasingly constructed as “consumers” and the
ultimate power remains in mass media and broadcast rather than personal “narrowcast”.
Originality/value – This paper extends debate on the impact of the developing “digital culture”
focusing on football supporters, a specific and prevalent community within British society. It raises
issues for further research in this area.
Keywords Football, Networking, Communicationtechnologies, Mass media, Information systems,
England
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Football supportershave a long established “community”and tradition of “organisation”
(Critcher, 1979; Taylor, 1971) and a historically constituted (over generations) sense of
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
JICES
7,1
54
Received 29 September 2008
Revised 27 October 2008
Accepted 26 November 2008
Journal of Information,
Communication & Ethics in Society
Vol. 7 No. 1, 2009
pp. 54-71
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/14779960910938098
ownership and culturewithin their local clubs. Domesticationof ICTs (Silverstone, 1995;
Griffiths et al., 2008)and the evolving digital societyhas had a substantial impact on this
pervasive facet of British society (Auty, 2002). In addition to football club websites,
supporters“unofficial” websites are increasingin number and membership.Football fans
can now comment on forthcoming matches, predict the score, arrange to meet for a
pre/post match drink, learn the words of a new chant, or discuss wider political issues
together,from home, work or via mobile devices,on the train or from the match,whatever
the time of day. This interaction strengthens the community and fulfills many functions
including information and opinion exchange, entertainment and education on an
independent, peer regulated, space.
However, the media construct of football supporter as “hooligan” has experienced a
revival. News headlines highlighting the role of the internet and mobile technologies in
facilitating football related violence are prevalent. Police spokespersons are quoted as
having surveillanced internet postings on supporters’ websites as part of “pre-planning
exercises” to prepare for possible violence at forthcoming matches. The media have also
traditionally been complicit in “stirring up” conflict amongst football managers, player s
and by implication supporters and the public. This is then re-broadcast and amplified
through the power of social networks and associated technologies such as discussion
forums. Football clubs and management are not innocent in a “Machiavellian” sense to
the use of the media to further their ambitions and socially construct debates around
emotive issues such as strategic acquisition of clubs, ownership, hierarchical control,
transfer markets and players, role of agents and suppression of contradictory views
from the fans. This has even resulted in news blackouts imposed on the press by
managers and, in turn the control of discussion groups and forums to dilute and deflect
negative arguments from the football clubs and club management.
The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of the digital culture on football
supportersthrough analysis of official andunofficial websites and mediareports. At first
glance it would appear that technology has brought about greater opportunities to
communicate, to share views which previously could not be widely published, and to
influence (Baym, 2007), or organise against the commercial power of the large football
clubs(FC United of Manchester, set up in a fightagainst the Glazer takeover of Manchester
United, www.fc-utd.co.uk/). However, surveillance, censorship and control continue to
impact on supporters to restrict and ultimately preventthe ideal speech situation that is
necessary to empower fans and promote greater participation in their clubs.
In this paper, a critical social theoretical (CST) approach is adopted to examin e
structures and processes related to communication between fans, the media, football
clubs and the public. We posit that true social discourse amongst genuine football
supporters, which should be increasingly facilitated in the digital society, is being
infiltrated by big business, corporate and media interests in order to develop and
embed a false view of the football league systems. In the terms of Jurgen Habermas this
would be regarded as a “colonization of the Lifeworld” where big corporate interests
(the system) are manipulating public opinion and freedom to speak openly within an
overall goal of profit maximization for club owners and the large media corporations.
The structure of the paper is as follows. First, we will give an overview of the
adoption of online social networking within sports communities. The next section
introduces the theoretical framework adopted here, namely Habermas’ theory of
communicative action and social theory based on system and lifeworld. We use
Football fans
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