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Why do sports fans sometimes (often?) go crazy at sporting events and then afterwards proceed with their day as if nothing much happened? If something of genuine significance happened, something that warranted the emotional ups and downs the fan experienced during the game, why don’t its effects linger? These questions pose a version of the puzzle of sports fandom. Others have applied Kendall Walton’s theory of fiction to solve the puzzle, but Walton’s account of sports fandom fiction is unacceptably thin. Recent attempts by Nathan Wildman and Joseph Moore to address this thinness problem fail. We answer the thinness objection by explaining how sports fandom is a collaboratively authored fiction, constructed by fans, sponsors, players, teams, media commentators, and more. The stories of sports fandom fiction are passed to new generations of fans in a way more reminiscent of The Iliad or The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Sports fandom fiction is more like folklore, and less like a novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing literature provides nascent insights into structural arrangements that shape mothers' experiences of being a sport fan, yet we know little about the social meaning sport fandom holds for mothers. This exploratory study draws on qualitative interviews with 41 mothers from Australia and North America to examine their understandings of sport fandom in the context of their everyday lives and contemporary ideologies about mothering. Findings suggest that sport fandom presents an opportunity for mothers to redefine and transform both fan and mothering practices, thereby challenging popular orthodoxies that fandom becomes less important to women after having children. By foregrounding mothers' efforts to stay engaged with their fandom, we extend research on the experiences of women sport fans and offer alternatives to normative constructs of fandom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite consumer concern over climate change, research on environmental issues and sport fandom has focused more on organizational outcomes than on fans themselves. Recognizing fandom can be representative of social movements, and social identity and collective action are utilized in an intrinsic case study of Forest Green Rovers football club supporters (who also identify with environmentalism) to understand the extent to which the club represents a social movement, and whether Forest Green Rovers' sustainability efforts encourage pro-environment actions. Through interview research, we found supporters' team and environmental identities cooperate synergistically. Forest Green Rovers is not just representative of environmentalism but has become a politicized identity itself—a means to act for change on environmental issues. We discuss implications concerning identity synergy, team identity as a politicized identity, perceptions of success, collective action, and cognitive alternatives to the status quo. We conclude by noting the unavoidable inseparability of environmental issues and sport consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars studying team-licensed fan apparel have begun to surface the meanings communicated through fan clothing, particularly focusing on its gendered nature. This study extends upon this previous research by examining children's sport fan apparel via a social semiotics theoretical framework. The authors collected 377 items from 14 teams in seven major leagues in the United States. Merging a feminist lens with multimodal critical discourse analysis methodology, they uncovered how discourses and meanings in the marketing of these materials communicate organizational practices and structures. The study determined that the marketing presented discourses of gender segregation and (false) gender neutrality, as well as discourses of good parenting that legitimized the consumption of merchandise as a reflection of parenting ideologies. Organizations must address internal gendered practices to produce marketing materials and artifacts supporting gender equity and inclusivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In consideration of sport mediatization, mobile media, and fandom, this work introduces and outlines the phenomenon of parasocial pretend play. This is achieved by examining the popular television show Ted Lasso, which chronicles the activities surrounding fictional English football club AFC Richmond. Viewer involvement with the show, parasocial interaction with its characters, and social media use by connected fans combine to facilitate this new opportunity for playful collective engagement. By connecting concepts from parasocial interaction and play, the assessment theorizes about and documents how parasocial pretend play transpires. It also identifies factors that may disrupt parasocial pretend play, discusses the potential for its misuse, and details apparent variations of the practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A familiar debate in the philosophy of sport concerns the question of whether fans should seek to be partisans (those who support particular teams or individuals) or whether they should instead adopt the impartial attitude of the purist. More recently, Kyle Fruh et al. have argued in defense of fair-weather fandom, which they understand as a form of fandom that involves adopting temporary allegiances in response to non-sporting considerations. This paper will add a new form of fandom to this discussion: the foul-weather fan. While fair-weather fans adopt temporary allegiances or strengthen existing allegiances for teams when things are going well, foul-weather fans do so when things are going badly. We will argue that foul-weather fandom can be both instrumentally valuable, as it helps to protect valuable sporting institutions, and non-instrumentally valuable, as these fans display concern, empathy, or support for sporting individuals or teams that are going through tough times. We finish by discussing how a specific form of foul-weather fandom may be associated with a distinctive moral danger in putting people in positions where they may become complicit in a club's immorality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global fans' engagement with K-pop (South Korean pop music) demonstrates how audiences' daily lives and identities are interwoven with transcultural media. This study explores how global K-pop fan cultures have evolved along with the genre's expansion overseas, with particular reference to Peruvian fans in the Global South context. Drawing on Peruvian fans' accounts of the global K-pop fanscapes – the universes experienced and mediated through fan practices, the study addresses the complexities, negotiations, and conflicts in audience engagement with transcultural media. By examining how K-pop fans in a distant locale imaginarily identify with K-pop idols and interact with other global fans and non-fans, the study reveals that local fans may realize their identity in the global fanscapes while being aware of power relations that operate between different audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that people at the interface of two different cultures may face a dilemma regarding how or whether to adopt aspects of the new culture in light of their existing cultural identity. A growing body of research in fan communities suggests that similar group processes may operate in recreational, volitional identities. We tested this by examining the associations between acculturation attitudes and identification with fan communities across three studies. Fanfiction fans, Star Wars fans, and furries completed measures of four different acculturation strategies with respect to managing their fan and non-fan communities as well as a measure of their identification with the fan community. Results across the three studies consistently found that integration and assimilation strategies positively predicted fan community identification, while separation and marginalization strategies negatively predicted fan community identification. Together, the results conceptually replicate and find evidence for the acculturation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose/rationale: Chinese football governance has dramatically changed during the last decade. Consequently, the organisation of the top-tiered Chinese Super League (CSL) developed from a rigid communist, state-governed model to a commercialised market, though still under governmental influence. Football fans became a key stakeholder group following this organisational change. Therefore, this study examines supporters' attitudes towards the governance of their domestic league. Design/methodology/approach: Active fans of the CSL (N = 453) were surveyed via clustered intercept sampling outside the stadium gates at five matches with ten different teams involved to ensure the reliability, validity and variance of responses. The data were analysed by (ordered) logit regressions with respect to attitudes towards the commercialisation of the CSL with nearly fifty explanatory variables. Findings: A key finding is that supporters tend to appreciate commercialisation as evidence of progress of the Chinese professional football. This attitude can be attributed largely to past governance failures of the CSL and the positive connotation of increased market orientation as a counterbalance to governmental control. Regression analyses, however, reveal the emerging characteristics of the Chinese fan culture and provide evidence of contradictions in the attitude patterns as well as a likely increase in fans' resentment of more commercialisation. Research contribution: The empirical insights into Chinese fan culture extend the understanding of the governance and commercialisation of professional football beyond the more researched European markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the gradual obsolescence of the lip-synched romantic duet, the sonic texture of Bengali popular cinema has transformed radically in the new millennium. One of the most remarkable components of the rise of the Original Soundtrack in Bengali film specifically has been the incorporation of local pop, folk, and rock bands, whose lyrics are written in Bengali but whose music retains a decidedly western flavour. This paper situates this relationship between cinema and what has traditionally been understood as ‘band’ music in Kolkata in a longer history of the city and its colonial and postcolonial musical cultures. With the incorporation of the pop/rock stars into the diegesis, the productive tensions between star and singer, visible and invisible bodies and voices have been overturned in recent years. Conversely, the music that is commissioned by these films now contribute to the bands’ larger discography and bring their music to a wider listening audience. In some of these films, musicians and bands appear as themselves, bringing together multi-modal sites of fandom and entertainment. Finally, this essay demonstrates that singer/songwriter/filmmaker/actor, Anjan Dutta’s oeuvre emerges as the canvas on which many of these developments come to be visible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driven by an increasing digitalised consumption of leisure, and consumer preferences evolving to favour speed and immediate gratification during consumption, new shorter formats of sport competitions are being introduced. Since 2021 Formula One have been discussing complementing their traditional race format, with alternative shorter formats to re-ignite the excitement of their fans. In this study, we explore the proclaimed excitement of fans towards the three different proposed formats of F1 races through a large-scale survey (N = 2,107), showing in fact negative effects that proposed format changes have on F1 fans’ anticipated excitement. What emerges instead is the importance of the length of fandom in influencing fans’ receptivity to format changes, rather than the generation in which they belong, stressing thus the significance of intra rather than inter-generational exploration of fandom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research was to test if the ways sport fans felt while supporting their favourite teams – both in terms of typical feelings and changes in feelings over time – were associated with different combinations of harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP) for being a sports fan. We conducted two studies in which fans reported how they typically felt while watching their favourite teams (Study 1, N = 430), and how they were feeling at three time points throughout an 8-month season (Study 2, N = 418). The results showed that the most adaptive fan outcomes (i.e., low negative feelings, high positive feelings and enjoyment) were associated with high HP combined with low OP. In contrast, the least adaptive fan outcomes (i.e., high negative feelings, low positive feelings and enjoyment) were associated with low HP combined with high OP. These results help us understand more about how the feelings of sports fans are shaped by combinations of HP and OP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All fandoms engage in gatekeeping. Whether or not we agree that contemporary media fandoms comprise something like 'communities', the '-dom' suffix to the term 'fan' necessitates some conception of a group, and groups have boundaries. These boundaries are always in tension, and self-defined true crime fans are a tricky case. True crime is mainstream, an endlessly profitable and staple of the media landscape. However, true crime fans must negotiate and police a boundary that separates them from the posited figure of the Bad Fan. This article examines the Reddit subforums r/TrueCrime and r/SerialKillers, analysing posts that discuss and police the boundaries separating the right kind of interest in true crime from this posited Bad Fan. I argue that while true crime enthusiasts tend to present their gatekeeping work as an ethical practice, it is often more to do with maintaining gendered norms than it is about morality or propriety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fandom and the tribune both generate their own cultures. Fandom can be positioned in a variety of contexts while establishing this culture. In this sense, hooliganism, ultra-groups, and fandom all gain popularity. This study assessed tribune culture in Turkey. The study further performed ethnographic and netnographic observations in addition to the tribune culture and its facets. During the ethnographic observance phase September-December 2019 period, eight and two home and away matches were watched, respectively, with Bursaspor spectator groups, including Texas, Marathon, and Uni-crocodile (Ünitimsah). The notes conveyed here served as the basis for the first stage of the study. The second stage comprised the netnographic method to review the official Twitter accounts of the fan groups between September and December 2019. During this period, @teksasorg, @maratonplatform, and @unitimsah accounts shared 146, 30, and 230 tweets, respectively. These profiles appeared to create a fan culture that was similar both in real life and the digital environment. As a result, the study concluded that the structure of the sports fan organizations in Turkey is ultra-featured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the methods used by micro-celebrity K-pop fanboys to negotiate their masculinity as male K-pop fans on Instagram. K-pop fanboy micro-celebrity is a term used to refer to K-pop fanboys who had transformed into micro-celebrities. The existence of K-pop fanboys wa often associated with non-hetrosexual streotypes and stigmas such as 'sissy' and 'faggot,' which placed them was in an unfair social order. Therefore, K-pop fanboys, especially those who had become micro-celebrities, it felt the necessaries to negotiate their masculinity as male K-pop fans. The netnography method was used by observing of this study the Instagram accounts of K-pop micro-celebrity fanboys to understand the ways and strategies they used in negotiating their masculinity. Based on the results of the study, it was found the finding that the negotiation of masculinity carried out by K-pop micro-celebrity fanboys was done by adjusting themselves to the existing hegemonic masculinity values. This study observation was done through the formation of an 'ideal' body, showing their heterosexual relationships, and displaying various preferred activities other than K-pop. By aligning themselves with the values of masculinity developed in society, K-pop fanboys tried to show that as male K-pop fans, they could express their enthusiasm without having to sacrifice their masculine image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comedian Ángel Martín edits and presents the Informativo matinal para ahorrar tiempo (IMPAT), a daily two-minute audiovisual newscast distributed on major social networks, with a daily audience of around one million views. This format has generated a community of followers who expand its original content by creating mimetic sector-specific news programs. This study analyzes the thematic agenda and stylistic features of the IMPAT, as well as the news programs developed by its followers. The results show a predominance of soft news and non-news content, as well as the presence of narrative traits characteristic of infotainment. The followers expand the IMPAT by creating their own news programs, also focused on soft news and with similar styles. Thus, IMPAT stands out as an alternative newscast around which a unique informational fandom has been consolidated, with content generated by its users as news prodesigners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The derogatory label "Koreaboo," used to stigmatize Korean popular culture fans, suggests Korean media's movements are treated as a contaminant rather than a welcome presence. In this research project, I conducted focus group research and analyses of Reddit threads to understand the ways women fans of color in this study interpret and navigate taste hierarchies that mock women's interests in celebrities and texts from a racialized Asian nation. Korean popular culture fans of color reject "Koreaboo" for themselves, but they project the label onto "bad" White fans, who are perceived as having inappropriate fannish interests that deviate from popularly held standards of intercultural and interracial fan interest. The self-disciplining within fandom distances itself from the Western patriarchal gaze by re-directing its focus. Even when fans of color seek Korean media to escape White hegemony and heteronormative patriarchy, they internalize and react to its gaze in their fan practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport team licensed merchandise plays an important role in sport fan experiences. Existing work has explored how consumers perceive these items, motivation and consumption habits, and intent to purchase. Extending upon the performative sport fandom framework, this study explores the marketing messages of sport fan merchandise, and the resulting implied gendered and fan performances. Employing a multimodal critical discourse analysis, we analyzed the top 20 T-shirts for men and women for five National College Athletic Association institutions on their official ecommerce sites. By examining the text descriptions, visual images, and messages perceived when combining text and visuals, we found that the marketing messages of clothing items rely heavily on traditional discourses of femininity and masculinity, placing gender performances as more relevant to fan performances for women. Atypical designs suggest alternative gender and fan performances but continue to indicate that gender identity is central to clothing appearance and messaging to consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The team identification–social psychological health model outlines that fans of local sport teams are more likely to experience feelings of social connectedness compared with fans of distant teams. We tested this proposition across two sufficiently powered studies. In both studies, sport fans (Study 1: N = 291, Study 2: N = 430) completed online surveys assessing their levels of identification with a favorite sport team and social connections derived from their fandom for that team. Team localness was operationalized based on team location (Study 1) or responses to survey questions assessing team localness (Study 2). In both studies, the positive association between team identification and social connectedness was not moderated by team localness. This research contributes to the team identification–social psychological health model and our general understanding of fan behavior by showing that the social benefits of being a highly identified sport fan are not limited to fans of local teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport organizations are developing family-friendly spectator initiatives to boost engagement and sales to parents and children. While the number of women sport fans continues to grow, research has yet to explore how women, as mothers and fans, experience fandom. Informed by a maternal geography framework, this study explores women's understanding of what does or does not make game-day experiences family-friendly by presenting the accounts of 15 women from North America and Australia who are sport fans and mothers. Interpretive phenomenological analysis is utilized to investigate how mothering as a spatially informed care practice shapes the perspectives of what constitutes a family-friendly sport spectating experience. Findings identify key components of the physical, structural, and social environments of women's experiences of family-friendly sport fandom, as well as exposing that what is presumed to be family-friendly is not the same as mother-friendly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, Archive of Our Own, a renowned fanfiction website, became inaccessible in China due to mass reporting by a celebrity's fans upset about him being portrayed as having a gender identity disorder in a fanfiction. This event led to increased regulation of Boys' Love (BL) content on many Chinese fanfiction platforms, posing challenges for writers. This study interviews Chinese BL fanfiction writers post‐incident and explores their strategies for navigating the shrinking creative space. It argues that China's current fandom culture is capital‐driven, data‐centric, and commercial, fostering a “fanquan (fan circle)” culture that redefines the meaning of “being a fan.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on female fans of professional football teams in Tunisia, this article highlights the ways in which gender is performed within the specific context of football fandom. Based on a qualitative sociological study conducted through 23 semi-structured interviews with a group of women who identify as football team fans, this article analyses fandom's feminine performance. By examining the behaviours of women in the stands, a space dominated by male fans, the article explores the values, language, and gestures they adopt (and do not adopt) in reference to the characteristics valued in Tunisian society. The existing patterns of male dominance are reinforced by the various dimensions of the fans’ gender performance in this ‘male bastion’. Although women seem to accept male dominance and gender hierarchies in order to be recognized as authentic fans, the results show that women both construct and deconstruct their gender, highlighting the kaleidoscopic nature of gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractSport and politics have historically nurtured intrinsic connections. This article examines the role of a left-wing-oriented German football fan movement in confronting the Nazi past of football clubs. Focusing on FC St. Pauli, Werder Bremen, and SV Babelsberg 03, it explores the development of a nationwide culture of remembrance to avoid the resurgence of authoritarian regimes. We theorize that Germany’s Holocaust cultural trauma that developed new notions of time has influenced fans’ remembrance work, which includes the change of institutional official narratives of the clubs’ Nazi pasts. While acknowledging Germany’s sociocultural, political and temporal factors to explain this phenomenon, we call for action within sports organizations and fan bases of other Western countries to revisit their difficult heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fandom as an interpretive community is the frontier for rich insights into the multi-layered interactions and practices between individual users, communities and intelligent machines. To understand the challenges and opportunities Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents to contemporary media and culture, we discuss how fans engage with AI, as fandom provides meaningful insights into interactions between individual technology users, the collective and machines. We propose rethinking participatory culture as human–community–machine interactions to understand the wider implications of AI to society and culture. We outline three emerging phenomena and potential consequences of fans' engagement with AI: (1) fan labour made (un)easy, (2) parasocial interactions (un)familiarised and (3) realities (un)settled. Our conceptualisation transcends existing computer science research, which assumes technology users as isolated individuals and also fan studies, which largely focus on text-audience relationships and tend to take digital technologies for granted as the preconditions of fans' creative and playful practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the ultras phenomenon in the Kolkata maidan as a mediatized spectacle in the context of sports fandom in 21st-century India. In contrast to the typical portrayal of football ultras as violent groups of conservatives in the global paradigm, this paper examines the Kolkata ultras as a distinct community formed by specific fan groups of two prominent football clubs—Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. Exploring the complex configurations of sports fandom and ultras activities, this paper considers the Kolkata football ultras as a pastiche of their European counterparts. Through their gallery activities, including the display of tifos, the Kolkata ultras attempt to narrativize the settlers-migrant conflict between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal in a neoliberal economy. While turning the identarian discourse on a visual level, the paper also analyses how the display foregrounds a change in the politics of sports fandom in India through their anti-NRC-CAA tifos in recent times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In news media, one stereotype that is continually over-represented is Black men as criminals, leading to what many refer to as "the Black criminal stereotype." Although research demonstrates that distorted news portrayals of criminals can provoke stereotypical responses in viewers, limited evidence connects these effects to sport media. Anderson and Raney (2018) explored this in an experimental study (n = 234) and found evidence of the Black criminal stereotype among sports fans. However, more research was needed to further explore this phenomenon. The current study employed a similar experimental design (n = 603) in an attempt to (1) replicate their 2018 study to examine whether sports fans' perceptions of criminal athletes have changed over the past several years, especially in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, and (2) determine whether the sport played by an alleged criminal athlete might be linked to judgments regarding race and crime in sports. Our findings indicate that sports fandom still predicts stereotypical judgments. However, individual difference variables—particularly social conservatism, African American stereotype endorsement, and gender—were more strongly related. Our findings point toward the potential power of social movements in influencing attitudes and beliefs regarding race and crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces how multiple equity-focused goals were negotiated in collectively designing a classroom that centered joyful fandom literacy practices, considering how teacher-researchers and youth use expanded conceptions of equity trails in a social design experiment to reset harmful but normalized classroom, disciplinary, and fandom practices. Using methods of collaboratively aligning equity-focused questions, subsequent instructional designs, and the perception of consequences by various participants to audit the commitment to equity across the design, action, analysis, and reflection, the findings follow the consequences of design choices as conceptualized by both teacher-researchers and focal BIPOC youth. We found that some equity trails—particularly ones that privileged shorter timespans linked with institutional assessments—conflicted with equity trails restructuring larger ecological systems aiming to transform fandoms or disciplines. We suggest that design researchers must center conceptions of power when telling research stories making visible the various and divergent ways participants chase after equity together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research demonstrates that a relationship exists between fan identification and psychological well-being. In the present research, we attempted to both conceptually replicate this finding, testing its generalizability in different fan groups and measured in different contexts, as well as extend it by testing whether fan friendships (Study 1) and fan activities (Studies 2 and 3) mediate the association. Across the three studies, fandom—the social component of fan identity—was found to be a significant predictor of psychological well-being while fanship—the more individualistic component of fan identity—was not. In Study 1, we found that having more friends who share one's fan interest mediates the relationship between fandom identification and well-being. In Studies 2 and 3, attending fan events—a social activity—but not consuming media or online engagement likewise mediated the association between fandom identification and psychological well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The study aims to identify critical factors that influence football fans' support of their favorite team by examining the impact of social responsibility, brand credibility and team brand equity on patronage intentions of professional football teams. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey collected data from 331 football fans of the Persian Gulf Premier League (PGPL) in Iran. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings: The findings revealed that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is able to influence brand equity, brand credibility and patronage intentions. Also, brand equity and brand credibility were found to be positively related to patronage intentions. In addition to that, the findings show that brand equity and team credibility partially mediate the relationship between CSR and patronage intentions. Practical implications: The findings provide valuable insights to sports teams/club managers aiming to attract new fans and retain current ones by investing in CSR and enhancing brand credibility and equity. Strategies to integrate CSR into relationship marketing and brand management are outlined. Originality/value: This study empirically highlights the critical role of adhering to CSR and the effects of brand credibility and equity in enhancing patronage intentions among football team fans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was (1) to examine the underexplored intersection of sports betting and favorite team loyalty, and (2) to assess differences in gambling behavior among sport bettors by varying levels of team loyalty. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 1,555 National Football League (NFL) bettors and non-betting NFL fans were surveyed to assess media consumption across a mix of team loyalty attitudes and betting behaviors. Findings: Statistically significant differences were found between four types of NFL fans (casual, team loyalty-dominant, betting-dominant and hybrid) as it relates to media consumption in various forms. Most notably, the results suggested symbiosis between the activities. Research limitations/implications: The symbiosis finding, though preliminary, suggests the activity provides an additional platform for consumers to connect with spectator sport. Furthermore, the act of betting, like participation in fantasy sports, appears to spur consumption of the NFL product generally. The study, however, was limited to NFL fans, did not specify the method for sports betting, nor the intensity of gambling. Practical implications: Teams should not worry that betting detracts from fan engagement with the team product. Also, leagues and media providers should continue to highlight betting content as participants consume at higher rates than non-participating sports fans. Social implications: Team fandom may potentially moderate problem behavior among bettors. The betting results indicate being a loyal team fan lowers one's gambling spend per month and largest bet compared to non-loyal bettors. However, the hybrid fan showed significantly higher media consumption levels. Originality/value: Sports fans have more opportunities to interact and engage with their favorite games than ever before. However, consumers have limited amounts of time and money, and this study is one of the first to examine differences in fan interests and behaviors related to sport betting and team loyalty and the resulting viewership and consumption behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, the Misogyny Speech resurfaced and went viral on the social media platform TikTok, almost a decade after former Prime Minister Julia Gillard first presented it in Australian Parliament. This research aims to comprehend the speech's virality through a lens of fandom theory using qualitative content analysis, to explore how users foster community and perform elements of political fandom. It considers the influence of the platform's affordances and architecture on the formation and productivity of this fandom community. The speech's resurgence in popularity can be characterised as a manifestation of political fandom, shaped by the platform in which it thrives. The way users embody the elements that typify political fandoms – productivity and consumption, affect, community, and contestation – is profoundly influenced by the affordances and structures of TikTok. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2020, the sports world came to a standstill as COVID-19 spread across the globe. Sport fans were among the industry stakeholders most affected. Fans turn to sports to satisfy a variety of needs [Trail, G.T. (2018). Sport consumer behavior (4th ed.). Printed by the author.] and experience psychosocial benefits by way of their fandom [Wann et al. (2000). The self-presentation of sport fans: Investigating the importance of team identification and self-esteem. Journal of Sport Behavior, 23(2), 198–206.; Wann et al. (2017). Testing the team identification–social psychological health model: Mediational relationships among team identification, sport fandom, sense of belonging, and meaning in life. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 21(2), 94–107.] Without games, however, to what extent were fans able to fulfill these needs? Further, did fans experience detrimental impacts to their self-esteem and sense of belongingness in relation to their team/fan communities? Data were collected via an online survey using select online NBA and MLB team message boards in addition to Amazon MTurk. Fan needs were measured using adapted versions of prior sport fan motivation scales [Trail & James (2001). The motivation scale for sport consumption: Assessment of the scale's psychometric properties. Journal of Sport Behavior, 24, 108–127; Wann (1995). Preliminary validation of the sport fan motivation scale. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 19(4), 377–396.]. Self-esteem was measured using an adapted version of Harris et al.'s [Harris et al. (2018). The Lifespan Self-Esteem scale: Initial validation of a new measure of global self-esteem. Journal of Personality Assessment, 100(1), 84–95]. Lifespan Self-Esteem Scale. Belongingness was measured using four items from Malone et al.'s [Malone et al. (2012). The general Belongingness Scale (GBS): Assessing achieved belongingness. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(3), 311–316]. General Belongingness Scale. Survey results from 417 sports fans revealed many of the needs typically met through sport consumption (i.e. achievement, drama, escape, family togetherness, social connections, group affiliation, and entertainment) went largely unmet during the pandemic. Further, highly passionate fans maintained higher perceived levels of self-esteem and belongingness than less passionate respondents. Results of this study should aid sports organizations in understanding the experience of their fans during the pandemic and better prepare teams and leagues to engage their consumers in future situations where live sports are unavailable. This paper builds on our understanding of fan motivation and psychosocial outcomes of fandom in a time when the sport was suspended due to COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While marketing on social media fan pages has received widespread research attention, few studies have investigated the impact of adding a showroom to a social media fan page. Showrooms on social media fan pages are unique in that they can amplify the conflicts between businesses' commercial purposes (selling) and customers' expectations (socializing) on social media, making it unclear how they might influence customer behavior. In this study, we open this black box by using data from a leading fashion retailer. We found that adding a showroom to a fan page has both positive implications, in that it leads to more user engagement and purchases, and negative implications, in that it leads users to "unfollow" the retailer's social media fan page. We further found that such impact is moderated by customer willingness to disclose private information. Specifically, the positive (negative) implication is significantly greater (smaller) for customers who are willing to disclose their private information to the retailer on social media. Mechanism-level analyses suggest that adding a showroom to a fan page can increase customer purchases both directly and indirectly by facilitating their engagement with the fan page and that customer willingness to disclose private information negatively moderates the mediation effect of user engagement on purchase behavior. In addition, results from an online experiment indicate that such showrooms can increase unfollowing by undermining users' social perception of the fan page and raising users' privacy concerns. Our findings suggest that even when firms see a significant increase in user purchase and activities after adding a showroom on their fan pages, they should carefully consider the potential risk of driving away customers and strategically target users who are less privacy sensitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Football serves as a fetish for war, replaying past conflicts and sometimes setting off new ones. Deploying social identities theory and dramaturgy theory, we follow up on this assertion to explore how the historic 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-final qualification by Morocco's senior men football team exposed historical and contemporary conflicts framing Morocco today. Celebrating greatness, Moroccan winger Sofiane Boufal dedicated the victory to Moroccans, Arab and Muslim people. The disavowal of sub-Saharan Africa and the negation of pan-African solidarity triggered social media debates which spilled into quotidian lives of Africans. Critical discourse analysis was employed to analyse purposively sampled conversations on X (formerly Twitter), relating to Boufal's remarks. We demonstrate how Morocco's success [re]ignited identity wars and brought into stark relief attendant ontological, philosophical and metaphysical dynamics. We advance scholarly discourses about consumption of mega global sporting events and their symbiosis with politics of belonging in the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has examined four related fan behaviors, known as basking in reflected glory (BIRGing), cutting off reflected failure (CORFing), basking in spite of reflected failure (BIRFing), and cutting off reflected success (CORSing). Although these behaviors have been successfully used to describe how fans may seek out or avoid stimuli related to their identified team after various performances, these former investigations have not considered how fans may respond to the performances of opposing, or even rival, teams. The current study seeks to extend these existing patterns of fan behavior with the introduction of four novel concepts: (1) basking in other's failure (BOFing), (2) cutting off other's failure (COOFing), (3) basking in other's success (BOSing), and (4) cutting off other's success (COOSing). In addition, we offer four preliminary scales derived from previous research to measure BOFing, COOFing, BOSing, and COOSing behaviors. We also assessed how team identification could relate to the occurrence of these novel outcomes, finding that team identification contributed to the extent to which participants reported each of these behaviors. Practical implications and future directions for research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigatess the role of producer-end and fan-made paratexts in digital platforms in realizing the educational effects of television entertainment among fans. Focusing specifically on the case of Super Vocal, a highbrow music-themed television show with explicit educational purposes, the study examines the informal learning outcomes experienced by fans who engage with officially produced and fan-created texts associated with the show. Through an online survey administered to a sample of 754 Super Vocal fans, the study reveals that the direct association between fans' acquisition of music-related knowledge and consumption is primarily observed for the source text itself. However, the educational effects of producer-end and fan-made paratexts manifest more prominently in their capacity to motivate fans to attend music performances. Furthermore, fans' consumption of paratexts indirectly facilitates knowledge acquisition by stimulating active information-seeking behaviors. This study contributes to the understanding of entertainment education (EE) television programs by emphasizing the perspective of creative fan participation. Paratexts related to EE television shows collaborate with officially produced content to achieve educational objectives, with fans' informal learning behaviors playing a significant role in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With few exceptions, researchers have seldom explored the experiences of any female sport fan who may be identified as a member of a racial minority. Given related calls for further research, an examination into the lived experiences of ice hockey fans who identify as Black and female was undertaken. Interviews with 18 such fans revealed that the sport and its fandom were akin to 'White spaces': therein, participants were keenly aware of their minoritized place; subject to racial and gender stereotyping and discrimination; and prone to experiencing exclusion and trepidation. Conversely, interactions with the Black Girl Hockey Club, an organization devoted to making ice hockey more diverse and accessible, provoked feelings of belongingness and validation; and afforded a means through which interviewees could deepen their engagement with the sport. The research participants' lived experiences ultimately point to the need for organizations and managers to construct more inclusive spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have begun to explore the interplay between the multiple identities within a sport fan's salience hierarchy, noting fandom may compete with other central roles. Researchers have also recently emphasized well-being outcomes for fans, with increasing focus on physical health. Though sport consumer behavior and health consciousness have concurrently emerged, the social psychological connection between the two is unclear. Thus, we aim to clarify this relationship. We leverage an emerging quantitative approach: polynomial regression and response surface methodology. Our findings indicate individuals who value both fandom and health consciousness (i.e., demonstrate high fan identity and health consciousness congruence) experience identity conflict, with men reporting higher levels of identity conflict than women. Thus, we contribute to literature on the potential negative sides (or challenges) of fan identity. The food and sedentarism common to fan culture appear to prompt psychological turmoil for health-conscious individuals. Fan identity may naturally integrate with other social roles, yet our results indicate fandom and health consciousness are often viewed in conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fandom philanthropy refers to charitable activities primarily undertaken by fans united within the fandom. Often inspired or endorsed by celebrities, these charitable activities involve many stakeholders to contribute to a social cause collectively. Today, taking full advantage of social media, fandom philanthropy has attracted increasing attention. Drawing on the theory of normative social behavior (TNSB), the present study attempts to unravel the associations between different norms and fans' online engagement intentions regarding fandom philanthropy. Based on survey data from 463 participants who self-identified as celebrity fans, the study revealed that perceived descriptive norms from the celebrity and peers were positively associated with fans' online engagement intention. While fans' attitudes towards fandom philanthropy mediated the relationship between descriptive peer norms and online engagement intentions, descriptive celebrity norms did not significantly correlate with fans' attitudes. The direct and moderation effects of personal norms were also explored. Results showed that personal norms were strongly associated with fans' attitudes and online engagement intentions. The relationship between descriptive celebrity norms and online engagement intentions was more salient among fans with weaker personal norms. Theoretically, the present study tests and confirms the norm-behavior relationship in TNSB in the fandom philanthropy context. Perceived descriptive norms with celebrities and peers as two referent groups and their conditional influences depending on personal norms are explored. Practically, the findings suggest the potential of leveraging celebrity and peer norms in advocating individual engagement in fandom collective activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The belief that consuming violent media will lead someone to commit violence is a longstanding societal concern. This concern manifests in the phenomenon of 'antis' within fandoms, which began to emerge around 2016. Initially driven by shipping conflicts, the issue of social justice and the increasing use of social media have allowed this phenomenon to spread easily across various fandoms worldwide. Antis' behavior can be seen as a form of moral panic in several ways: by associating pro-shippers-those who do not agree that consuming violent content will turn someone into a perpetrator or supporter of violence-with sexual offenders and pedophiles, antis use an 'us versus them' mentality to uphold their moral standards and portray themselves as the most moral group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the increased commercial awareness of fangirl culture in the last decade, this article critically analyses three books written by prominent woman music and culture journalists: Fangirls by Hannah Ewens (2019), Larger Than Life by Maria Sherman (2020), and Everything I Need I Get From You by Kaitlyn Tiffany (2022). Examining book content as well as promotional author interviews in the music press, I explore themes of legitimacy, emotionality, and academic capital, and consider how authors re-position both fangirls and themselves as "knowledgeable" within participatory music culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Traditional sports have seen declining participation at many levels, with football being no different. This is occurring at a time when emergent technologies present new challenges, particularly to the crucial yet ignored cohort of millennials. Without meeting the needs of millennials, football cannot be successful in the future. This research seeks to understand how millennial football fandom (sport, not team) in Australia impacts football participation, whilst empirically examining the impact of football video games (FVGs). Design/methodology/approach: Survey data are collected from online groups, forums and social media pages of Australian football (soccer) fans. Quantitative analysis of millennial fandom and its influence on football participation (for the first time demarcated into play and engagement) is undertaken, including the moderating influence of time spent playing FVGs, amidst covariate influences of age and number of children. Findings: Results highlight the multi-dimensionality of millennial football fandom in Australia, reveal the typical hours spent playing football across a range of participation types (including play and engagement), support fan involvement's influence on engagement with football, establish that a desire to interact with other football fans manifests in playing more football, specify how playing FVGs moderates these relationships, supports the covariate influences of age and evidences that playing FVGs does not hamper football play. Originality/value: This is the first study to examine millennial fans of football (the sport, not tied to a club) and the influence of fandom on football participation. By separating football participation into two forms, play and engagement, we highlight discrete influences, whilst evaluating for the first time the moderating influence of the time millennials spend playing FVGs. For sport managers and administrators, these are important findings to facilitate better segmentation, recruitment, retention and participation, each with broader societal health benefits. This is undertaken in Australia where football is not a dominant code, relegating fandom to a niche, thus revealing important findings for sports and business management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the global cancellations of sport due to COVID-19, the Australian Football League commenced the 2020 season in empty stadiums. It was one of the few sports still being played globally before the league postponed the season days later. This handful of games helped fans to maintain connection with their sport and teams, albeit only on media platforms. This paper analyses user-generated content from Twitter (n = 2,484) to explore how fans engaged with, integrated, and responded to sport in a global crisis, as well as how they navigated and rationalized their fan experience during this unprecedented time. It focuses particularly on understanding evolving perceptions of sport's role and importance in society amid evolving uncertainty, due to macro influences that cause conflict and tension within figurations. It also explores the temporal nature of fandom in uncertain and fluctuating sporting environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]