MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

This egocentric discussion network analysis examined the precise ways in which sport consumers communicate with people in their interpersonal online and offline social networks regarding sports. Previous egocentric discussion network studies have examined individuals’ discussions about important matters, health matters, and political matters. Never before has an egocentric discussion network analysis been conducted solely on sports matters, until now. This sport discussion network captured with whom people talk about sports, which fan behaviors are activated during those conversations, and whether fandom or fanship were antecedent to those communication exchanges. An online survey was launched through Qualtrics data collection services and respondents (n=987) were asked to report with whom they discussed sports (n=3,848). Respondents discussed sports with nearly as many close friends (n=1,368) as kin (n=1,659), and sports discussions occurred with like-fans (n=441), rivals (n=381), and with online-only (n=383) discussants. Males (72.8%; n=2,563) were more than twice as likely (OR=2.35, p<.001) to be listed as sport discussants than females (27.2%; n=957). A series of multi-level regression analyses assessed which attribute and relational factors of respondents and their respective discussants contribute to the activation of several fan behaviors: CORFing, Blasting, and Schadenfreude. Results suggest that fandom and fanship are both tie activation antecedents for fan behavior within sport consumers’ offline and online social networks. Fan-to-rival communication not only saturated the sport discussion network but this research demonstrated that fandom is more likely to activate discordant communication between sport consumers and their perceived rivals. When fanship activated fan behavior ties, respondents and their discussants demonstrated closer relationships, and increased communication and co-consumption of sport. Fanship also resulted in an increased likelihood to engage in schadenfreude (joy at another’s adversity) with rival fans. Implications are discussed.