Fan culture is becoming an increasingly important element of the media landscape. Much of Henry Jenkin’s work has explored the driving force that fan culture can be in the popularity of shows like Survivor and movie franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars. Indeed Jenkin’s book, Convergence Culture details how fan culture propelled the popularity of Survivor and ultimately, producers of the show were engaged in a cat and mouse game with fans who would populate online message forums and try to ’spoil’ Survivor. Yochai Benkler’s book, The Wealth of Networks, also deals briefly with Star Wars fan culture.
Now sporting organisations are starting to realise that fan culture can drive their new media offerings and have a flow-on effect to the popularity of their teams and the presence of the sport within the mainstream media. The Atlanta Falcons recently premiered a new website that was designed to empower millions of visitors to engage with each other in a shared fan experience, and provide them with visually stunning content. Not only was the site designed for fans with the integration of social software so Falcons fans could keep in touch with each other and swap information and media, but fans were also involved in designing the website. The Falcons engaged a Fan Advisory Panel to get direct feedback from website visitors.
None of the major Australian sporting codes have embraced fandom and social software in the way that the Atlanta Falcons have. Cricket Australia’s website cricket.com.au is probably the most fan friendly, with visitors to the site allowed to submit their opinions on various pre-nominated topics. However the other codes just offer the standard fare of wallpapers and pictures to download so visitors can indicate their fan status.
New Media Mogul has already highlighted the under-representation of women’s cricket in the media but for smaller sporting organisations in Australia, embracing fandom and make use of available social software might be a way for them to grow their brands without having to rely on support from the mainstream media. Otherwise larger sporting organisations will catch on to the work of the Falcons, and allow their fans to become as emersed in their media experience of the team as they are at the ground.
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