In my last analysis on New Media Mogul I looked at the relationship between the mass media and citizen journalists and found that in the case of sports media at least, the mass media still plays a major role in setting the agenda for discussion and analysis. However while the mass media might still retain its powerful agenda setting function, does it having a bearing on the breadth of discussion surrounding a particular issue? What I am questioning here is whether people, given this unparalleled freedom of expression are making their own minds up about issues and contributing their knowledge on the issue, or are they still more or less guided by the opinions of respected journalists and commentators in the field.
This analysis will look at coverage of the AFL’s decision to expand their competition to 18 teams by 2012 and will compare the coverage that this news has received from the Herald Sun, The Age, The Roar and the Australian rules football news and discussion site, BigFooty.
The mainstream media has approached the AFL’s expansion plans from a number of angles. Reaction has been sought from the Sydney Swans, who until now have been the only team in a market that is still dominated by rugby league. Their view is that Sydney is not ready for a second team and so this move by the AFL has not been welcomed by the Swans. Another common theme has been questions over where the extra talent for these two teams would come from, with Paul Roos expressing this concern in an interview and Mike Sheahan discussing it in his regular column. There was also some reaction from Victorian clubs to the news that the competition would now comprise 18 teams, with Jeff Kennet particularly vocal.
On the specialist sporting websites The Roar and Footyheads, the discussion has been based around similar issues. The Roar’s article concerned a potential backlash against the Swans as the AFL tries to further establish itself in rugby league heartland – something that Paul Roos was confident would not occur, according to Guy Hand, a professional journalist writing on The Roar. Footyheads reported Andrew Demetriou’s agressive agenda for the AFL to grow the game.
Opinions submitted to the Bigfooty site and other amatuer blogs have largely concerned another issue – that it is soccer by way of the A-League that is a threat to the AFL in Western Sydney, rather than rugby league which already has a team there anyway, and the AFL may be making this jump into Western Sydney to draw away from any popularity that the region’s own A-League team might garner. This has been an issue that has not been so widely followed within the mass media, but has been debated vigorously on BigFooty.
The other issues that concern BigFooty contributors could be described as ‘small picture’. Someone has pointed out that the AFL will be obligated to keep all 18 teams afloat after 2011 if it is to sell a 9 game per week television package. Others are talking about the finals structure of an 18 team AFL competition, while it has also been pointed out that areas like Canberra, Darwin and Tasmania have been ignored in this expansion of the national competition.
These are all important points, and have no doubt been omitted by the mass media because of the limited space that the mass media can give to any one issue. This then is the value of user-generated content, at least within a journalistic context. Combined with the coverage and analysis provided by the mainstream media and professional sports sites, citizen sites like BigFooty can give an issue the breadth that would not have been possible without this sort of technology. Certainly there is always talkback radio for this, but the advantage that user-generated content sites have is that there is a permanent record of a user’s opinion on the issue. Consequently, users are using forums like BigFooty to bring their own opinions on certain issues to the fore, and in the processs creating a wealth of knowledge around an issue that can be harnessed by others. This has been termed collective intelligence.
