Bombay sport exchange cricket and the future

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There has been a rapid and widespread increase in the use of the micro-blogging and social networking platform Twitter (http://twitter.com) by professional athletes, sports clubs, leagues and fans. For instance, ‘tweets’ or messages of up to 140 char- acters offer high-profile athletes like Lance Armstrong (cycling), Serena Williams (tennis), Usain Bolt (track and field), Lote Tuqiri (rugby) and Shaquille O’Neal (basketball) the ability to communicate instantaneously with fans, friends and obser- vers, bypassing the gate-keeping functions of journalists, publicists and sports officials. ‘Tweeting’ has added an unpredictable and occasionally controversial dimension to the types of public expression, promotion and representation associated with media sport. This paper argues that Twitter fits within a range of internet- based and mobile communications practices, including text messaging and instant messaging, that are evidence of an accelerated information order in which telepre- sence – ‘keeping in touch’ without literally being in touch – is a pervasive feature. The existence of this order highlights important changes in both the production and consumption of media content, and necessitates a shift away from broadcast-centric understandings of media sport towards those that properly acknowledge the increas- ing significance of networked digital communications.

Keywords sport media; media sport cultural complex; Web 2.0; social networking; mobile communications; journalism

would see him move clubs from Tottenham Hotspur to Sunderland saw him post a series of spontaneous tweets appearing to blame Tottenham club chairman, Daniel Levy, for his predicament. Bent’s tweets included, ‘Why can’t anything be simple. Sunderland are not the problem in the slightest’, and ‘Do I wanna go to Hull? No. Do I wanna got to Stoke? No. Do I wanna go to Sunderland? Yes.’ Accessed by sports journalists and fans, these tweets caused a minor media scandal that initially saw Bent issue a public apology for his actions, and then later speculate that his outburst may have been beneficial, helping to clear the way for his eventual move to Sunderland (BBC 2009b). Bent’s interven- tion into the transfer process through the use of an online communications plat- form focused direct news media attention on the inner-workings and power dynamics of the football transfer market. Indirectly, and more significantly for my analysis, this incident revealed the increasing use of online digital media and social networking services by athletes for self-promotion, self-representation and personal expression. It is one example among many presented in this paper showing how an increasing number of elite athletes (see, e.g. http://twitter- athletes.com) are communicating with fans, followers, journalists and friends through short, direct messages of 140 characters or less on Twitter, and, in the process, producing unpredictable outcomes and problems for sports leagues, clubs, officials and sometimes themselves.

While the subject of arguably excessive media hype and fashion, the popu- larity of Twitter as a form of social media is indicated by the fact that the noun ‘tweet’ and verb ‘tweeting’, which usually refer to noises emitted by a small bird, are now commonly associated with this online service. Twitter represents a compelling development in the context of emergent digital media forms, content and technologies. According to the Director of Online Communications for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Graeme Menzies, Twitter recalls Marshall McLuhan’s observations about the telegraph:

software, effective website design, canny online promotion, and widespread news coverage garnered through Twitter’s adoption by celebrities like actor Ashton Kutcher, pop star Britney Spears and basketball player Shaquille O’Neal (Beck 2008; Carlson 2009; Sutter 2009). These factors coincided with an explosion in consumer uptake of personal communications devices ideally suited to tweet- ing, internet-enabled 3G smart phones such as the Apple iPhone, Blackberry and Google’s Nexus One, although it is necessary to note that tweets are easily and commonly sent by sms text messages on 2G mobile phones and via the web. This suite of developments helps to show how the ubiquity of mobile devices and web-based communication in many developed economies underpins the growing importance of the telecommunications industry in the constitution of media cultures (Goggin 2006; Castells et al. 2007; Hutchins & Rowe 2009a).

Twitter is approached here as a relatively new online service that is attracting extensive media coverage, and a media practice undertaken by millions of users.² This platform’s operation is helping to produce stories about sports, intensifying and proliferating media sports content and information available in the public sphere, and forcing new ways of thinking about the interaction between sport _{and digital media by sports organizations, athletes, journalists, publicists and} fans. Twitter’s importance stems from the fact that it is both a constitutive part of contemporary media experience, and a frame through which this experi- ence is filtered and understood (cf. McQuire 1999, p. 153). As a form of media, it adds another layer to an already complicated ‘media sport cultural complex’ (Rowe 2004) that is seeing analogue, broadcast and print media bypassed, chal- lenged, and complemented by digital networked media sport (Boyle & Haynes 2004; Hutchins & Rowe 2009b).

Telepresence and acceleration

Tweeting sits within a range of media activities and technologies that can be housed under the heading of ‘telemediated’ practices and experiences. According to cultural sociologist, Tomlinson (2007), telemediatization describes the prolifer- ation of communications technologies and media systems within the quotidian rhythms of social life, a phenomenon that has altered the ‘everyday flow of experience’ (pp. 94, 121 n. 5). Communication via networked personal compu- ters, the internet and mobile phones is now a taken-for-granted ability for many citizens. Sending and receiving text messages, clicking and scrolling on screen- keypad interfaces, and watching and interacting with screens are, in Tomlinson’s mind, historically ‘unique cultural practices’ that, unlike previous eras, increasingly integrate both face-to-face and technologically mediated communi- cation-at-a-distance (see also Thompson 1995, 2005). Speaking to this reality is an estimate that live spectator sports is the second most popular location _{for the use of mobile text messaging, behind only ‘crowded public transport’} and ahead of ‘busy meetings’, ‘campus classrooms’ and hospitals (Castells et al. 2007, p. 177).

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in austin....cant stand it...cold + rain1⁄4 im bored’; 5 February 2010). These messages hint at the ‘real person’ behind the celebrity persona, promising inti- mate and immediate insight into the backstage dimensions of a sports star’s social life (cf. Goffman 1990[1959]). These types of tweets also build a sense of ‘common experience’ between athletes and their followers, be they fans, obser- vers or dedicated tweeters. In other words, the cultural distance between the elite athlete and fan is erased momentarily through a repetitive communicative act. The fact that Twitter is so popular at present – Roddick, for example, has over 270,000 followers at the time of writing – shows the social perform- ance of tweeting is proving successful.

Self-promotion, public revelations and journalism

I guess you would say it is the purest way to communicate with your fans and I think they like that as well ... Most of the time their information is coming second-hand – through a middle man. The journalists and reporters give their take on what we had to say and definitely, I think, sometimes things get presented differently to how you were thinking them. It’s not always malicious, it is just people sometimes hear things differently ... Tweeting – it is coming straight from the horse’s mouth.

Twitter also affords athletes who do not attract extensive news coverage the ability to connect with followers and, at least potentially, wider audiences. This practice is particularly evident during multi-sport mega-events such as the Summer and Winter Olympics, which feature specialist events that do not always attract public and media attention outside of these times. For example, American aerial skier, Jeret Peterson (http://twitter.com/speedypeterson), appreciated the ability to announce himself without having to attract the atten- tion of a journalist or employ team media officers at the Vancouver Olympiad: ‘It’s free, it’s instantaneous and it’s real ... It’s my message and it’s not filtered’ (quoted in Pells 2010). Twitter is, in effect, being used for manifold purposes, including building and promoting the image of athletes, enabling direct and instantaneous communication with fans, and attempting to control or at least influence the sports news agenda.

Not surprisingly, many sports journalists are keenly aware of Twitter and the practices and dynamics outlined thus far. Journalists comb through voluminous messages searching for content that may provide evidence, no matter how slim, for a story that would otherwise go unreported. Tweets by athletes can announce unguarded opinions and reactions that offer a ‘shock of vitality’ (Williams 1974, p. 54) compared with the scripted responses usually offered in staged press conferences and media interviews. This is a digital search for scan- dals, disagreements and disclosures that elicit a response from the public and the subjects of stories (Thompson 2000). It is also a fascinating example of an almost ineradicable schism that exists between the individual right and ability of athletes to express themselves publicly, and the determination of sports leagues and clubs to exercise tight control over media comment and self-expression in order to keep scandals out of the news. Yet, and this is the key point, both trends emanate from exactly the same source – a world of intensifying and accelerating media sports information flows.

Another more geo-politically serious story occurred in relation to tweets about the planned security arrangements for the 2010 Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament. Signalling another shift in the globalization of sports revolving around increased concentrations of power and capital in Asian sports markets (Rowe & Gilmour 2008; Mehta et al. 2009), the highly lucrative and popular IPL has had to deal with terrorist threats. The 2009 event was staged in South Africa following the Mumbai bombings of November 2008, while the 2010 tournament received threats from a right-wing regional political party and the operational arm of Al Qaeda in Pakistan (Cricinfo Staff 2010; Gollapudi 2010). If designed to cause consternation among competitors and administrators, the threats achieved their aim, especially during meetings where cricket’s gov- erning bodies discussed whether proposed security arrangements were satisfac- tory. In response, a flurry of ten tweets by former Australian and now Rajasthan Royal player, Damien Martyn, in the space of 42 minutes took direct aim at a perceived double standard. Martyn had been a member of the Australian men’s side that was touring England when the 2005 London bombings occurred. His messages included:

Ashes a bomb went off in London we were in Leeds that day but drove to London that night . Interesting . Then in a secret meeting CA said

Thank you for the mainstream coverage if all sportsman got on Twitter and gave the news where does it leave the journos might be jobs for us twitters.

That it took only four hours for news of his comments to start circulating widely indicates that journalists are turning to social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to trace discussion and find comments to use as the basis for reports. This fact was confirmed during research interviews with sports journalists.

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They have to actually answer questions and that’s the fundamental differ- ence. I think athletes and sporting codes think, “Well as long as you’ve got quotes you’ll be happy”, and that betrays a fundamental dimension of journalism, which is asking the question. So it would be crazy for sports people not to have their own websites and so on and you can value-add and do a diary and all that sort of stuff, but not if you think that excuses you from fronting up to journalists at appropriate times.

Twitter and its discontents

There is, as has already been outlined, a fundamental tension in the use of Twitter between the right of athletes to express and promote themselves as individuals,

controversies show how the ubiquitous connectivity offered by 3G mobile devices and laptop computers can create highly unpredictable outcomes in and around sports.

In the United States, the National Football League (NFL) acknowledges the opportunities and challenges posed by Twitter as a communications service. Pos- sessing a national and global fan base, the NFL utilizes a profile (http://twitter. com/nfl) as a promotional vehicle to provide updates, news, scores and links. They also recognize the right of players, coaches and team officials to maintain profiles. However, the instantaneity of mobile communications presents a problem for the NFL because of players tweeting during games from the sidelines or dressing rooms. Tweeting during a game emphasizes the degree to which tele- presence has become possible for elite athletes, allowing them to ‘keep in touch’ with fans and audiences at the precise time where they are, at least theoretically, meant to eliminate outside distractions in the pursuit of victory. The portability of mobile devices, and the considerable time spent by large numbers of offensive and defensive team members off the field over the course of a three-hour game does, however, increase the likelihood of players posting tweets during games. An example here is the Cincinnati Bengal wide receiver, Chad Ochocinco (http://twitter.com/OGOchoCinco), who has said he would attempt to cir- cumvent any attempts at banning this practice (Reisinger 2009).

Digital media sport has achieved the status of real-time transmission and recep- tion through Twitter. As the evidence presented in this paper has shown, this _{evolving media sport information order is producing unpredictable results} founded upon a hitherto unavailable degree of telepresence. Outcomes include changes in athlete self-expression and representation, journalist behaviour and reporting, and sports organization communications practices and policies. Unpredictability in the relationship between intention and consequence is a defining feature of these developments, which is explainable by the newness, speed and quantity of messages, the ubiquity of 3G mobile and wireless

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developments despite the fact that it represents a uniquely corporeal and place- based activity. Even in its most rooted and nostalgic of forms, contemporary elite sport is an unavoidably mediated affair (Ruddock et al. 2010, in press) and the types of bonds or relationships formed with it are heavily reliant upon media frames, technologies, corporations and institutions. Connections and relation- ships with sports are formed and perpetuated in and through media on multiple platforms. Twitter is but the latest, albeit heavily hyped manifestation of this phenomenon, exposing an ongoing intensification of digital media sport content production, acceleration of information flows, and expansion of networked com- munications capacity.

Notes

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