(Courtesy of Madeline Mortensen)
With so many avenues and options to get the latest information on sports, why do fans visit online forums, such as team message boards? Recent research from BYU communications professors found the reason many fans get online to read and post about their favorite sports team tells a lot about the type of fan they are.
As part of the study, a group of sports fans who visit sports forums at least weekly ranked a series of statements. These included things like “I feel a sense of community with the other users of sports forums,” or “I like to visit sports forums for entertainment when I’m bored.” Researchers then interviewed participants to obtain a better understanding of their rankings.
A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data lead to the classification of three different types of online sports fans: tailgaters, trivia seekers and bandwagon fans.
Read the full article at news.byu.edu