Identity in Twitter’s Hashtag Culture: A Sport-Media-Consumption Case Study

Abstract

This case study, using social-identity theory as a framework, examines how sport consumers and producers used different identifiers to engage in conversation during the final games of the 2012 College World Series of baseball. Five major hashtags were noted for each baseball team as primary identifiers; users fit in 3 main groups and subgroups. The analysis of tweets revealed 5 major themes around which the conversations primarily revolved. The study has implications for social-identity theory and team identification, as well as broader implications for audience fragmentation and notions of the community of sport.

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“…Previous studies have suggested interesting and important possible relationships between social media and team identification that could widen the adoption of social media in sports. In other word, social media consumption could increase the level of team identification (Gau, James, & Kim, 2009;Gray & Wert-Gray, 2012;Matsuoka, Chelladurai, & Harada, 2003;Smith, Smith, & Sanderson, 2012). Trail, Anderson, and Fink (2000) defined identification as "an orientation of the self in regard to other objects including a person or group that result in feelings or sentiments of close attachment" (p. 165-166).…”

“…Since social media increases team awareness (Shirky, 2011), it would be logical that social media consumption would develop team identification. Moreover, there are more evidences indicating the relationship between media consumption and team identification (Gau et al, 2009;Smith et al, 2012). Gau et al (2009) analyzed a total of 750 spectators from three baseball and three softball games.…”

“…They found that a group of individuals with high team identification indicated higher levels of media consumption through the print, television, and Internet than the low team identification group. Smith et al (2012) studied the effect of social media consumption, in particular, on team identification. They examined how sports fans engage on social media focusing on the use of hashtags during the 2012 College World Series Final.…”

“…Smith et al (2012) captured and analyzed approximately 9,600 messages containing hashtag and identified five categories of hashtag use from sports fans such as hashtags, calling the game, cheering and encouragement, celebration, and jeers. They concluded the use of hashtags makes sports fans identify with teams and five categories of hashtag use that they found falls in line with the tenets and concepts of social-identity theory and team identification.…”

Malice in the Digital Palace: A Commentary on Athletes, Social Media, and Defamation

“…In terms of sociocultural topics, scholars have revealed that Twitter can be used as a vehicle to discuss issues related to flaws in the American justice system and freedom of speech . In that regard, scholars have argued that Twitter is in fact the new watercooler (Smith & Smith, 2012), allowing users to engage in digital conversations on a global scale.…”