Playing in the New Media Game orRiding the Virtual Bench: Confirming and Disconfirming Membership in theCommunity of Sport
Abstract
This essay explores a set of newmedia user trends that are (re)shaping fan-athlete interaction through(para)social connections. Acting as bonding agents, the trends consideredeither contribute to or detract from membership in the community of sport. Accordingly,social leveling practices, invitational uses, and bridging functions serve toconnect people within the community of sport, whereas policing, maladaptiveparasocial interaction, and hypermasculinity function to disconnect people fromthe community of sport. The essay looks at these trends in detail and providesexamples of each in practice. It concludes with a discussion of the digitalliteracy implications that fan-athlete interaction via new media introduces.