Creating and consuming content: exploring member engagement and role acceptance within an online tennis forum

Abstract

Technology continues to find new ways to influence how sport is consumed and experienced. Online forums, for example, offer fans the opportunity to spectate, debate, and celebrate their favourite sports, competitions, and athletes. Sport enthusiasts can use them to post information, ask questions, offer opinions, or share comments as they seek to communicate with like-minded individuals. We were interested in interpersonal dynamics within a popular international online tennis forum. We used systems theory to explore how posters sought to create and consume content in an inherently dynamic environment. Utilizing a netnography approach, we observed group dynamics within 19,782 messages posted to 54 discussion threads. We focused on daily discussions concerning professional tennis (players, matches, equipment). Results revealed how posters interpreted, critiqued, and debated events and forum practices. Social dynamics were often complex as posters sought to fulfill various emergent roles and goals within a simultaneously harmonious and adversarial environment.