ONLINE FOOTBALL FANDOM: AN ANALYSIS OF THE COMMUNITIES FORMED AROUND 12 BRAZILIAN TOP PROFESSIONAL CLUBS ON TWITTER

Abstract

This paper analyses Twitter conversations about 12 of the most popular professional football clubs in Brazil. More precisely, we explore the dynamics of these conversations in a daily basis, highlighting variations found between match-days and other days. We apply a series of digital methods to investigate what football fans are doing on Twitter, what they are sharing, how they are talking to each other, and which devices they are using to post their messages. This study extends for three months, between September and November 2013, and includes around seven million tweets. This empirical analysis is used to reflect upon the implications of new media technologies to football fandom practices, an issue that has not been significantly explored in the previous literature.