Abstract

Social media are computer-mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks. Social media depend on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content. Social media differ from traditional media in many ways, including quality, reach, frequency, usability, immediacy and permanence. While traditional media operate under a monologic transmission model (one source to many receivers), social media operate in a dialogic transmission system (many sources to many receivers). New media technologies have become a central part of the sports media landscape. Sports fans use new media to watch games, discuss sports transactions, form fan-based communities, and secure minutiae about their favourite players and teams. Never before have fans known so much about athletes, whether that happens via Twitter feeds, fan sites, or blogs, and never before have the lines between producer, consumer, enactor, fan and athlete been more blurred. The Impact of social media has been particularly big in the area of sports journalism. Fans can now receive game updates and statistics, news, and rumours instantaneously from the cell phone in the palm of their hand. The days of newspaper companies writing and publishing stories or news anchors broadcasting sporting information have become a secondary method of communication to social media. Although the newspaper and news television industries still exist, applications such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram give fans real-time status updates on sporting news, stats, and athlete activities. The increased use of social media has also led to the removal of the journalists’ and clubs’ gatekeeping role. Athletes use social networking to communicate widely without needing to rely on the media and sports organizations as go-betweens. Through social media, fans have the opportunity to connect with their favourite athletes and to “add”, “like”, or “follow”. With these features, fans have the ability to engage in open dialogue with athletes, and feel a greater sense of connection with them. For sport franchises, social media have proven to be a necessary tool in marketing operations. Sports franchises are taking to social media applications to deepen fan engagement and market the product they are offering. Event promotions, ticket offerings, and gift cards are examples of how sport franchises are using social media to their advantage in communicating product offerings. Considering all these developments and aspects, it is the objective of this bibliography to give the reader an overview of available publications about the use and effect of social media on sports communication. This bibliography is comprehensive to the extent that it does not concentrate an athletics but deals with Sports in general. The reason for this focus is that experiences of using social media in one sport can easily be transferred to a lot of other sports. This bibliography includes 79 documents from the years 2007 to 2015 and is subdivided into three chapters: 1. Books (7 documents); 2. Theses and Papers (8 documents); 3. Journal articles (64 documents). Einleitung