What role does visual media
play within Reddit’s football
community?
Analyzing r/soccer’s visual content throughout the 2017
summer transfer window.
Steven Ecott (11005386)
New Media and Digital Culture
Abstract
Football is a global sport, and when combined with the power of social media it has the ability to reach into the lives of every fan on a daily basis. From official club social media pages through to fan-maintained communities focusing around specific players, football fandom has been afforded a new level of interactivity since the arrival of web 2.0.
Reddit, one of the most popular websites on the web, is home to a large community devoted to the discussion of football: r/soccer. The aim of this study is to analyze the visual content that is shared across the r/soccer community, and determine what role it plays in relation to the context it’s used in. To this end, the research question for this thesis is: What role does visual media play within Reddit’s r/soccer community? This question is answered through analyzing Reddit metadata surrounding the
timeframe of the Summer 2017 transfer window: 10th June 2017 - 1st September 2017. By framing the results within a predetermined time period, they can be contextualized in relation to real-world events, and in turn create a better understanding of the purpose behind the content that is shared.
Acknowledgements
I’d like to acknowledge Professor Tim Highfield of the University of Amsterdam, for his support and faith in me throughout the writing process (I did it!).
I’d also like to thank Sal Hagen for his assistance throughout the data analysis process of this thesis, and his excellent Reddit-focused literature.
Lastly, I’d like to acknowledge the staff of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam for their time and effort in supporting me throughout the New Media and Digital Culture course
Contents
Introduction
1. Literature Review
2. Methodology
3. Results
4. Discussion
5. Conclusion
Appendix
Introduction
“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.”
- Bill Shankly
As was forever immortalized in the words of Bill Shankly, football (or soccer as it is referred to in American English) plays an enormous role in the lives of sports fans around the globe. From the millions tuning in to watch the UEFA Champions League final via an illegal stream, to the hordes of Redditors creating memes out of professional footballers, the ‘beautiful game’ has been well and truly embraced by the advent of new media.
New media is oft associated with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but the realm of social networking stretches much further than the most well-know
platforms. Reddit, the new media object of study in this work, is one of the platforms that whilst certainly not on the periphery, is not considered by leading scholars like Adrienne Massanari to be alongside the big three social networks of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (2015).
Since its inception in 2005, Reddit has evolved into one of the most-visited websites in the world (Alexa.com). With millions of unique views a day, Reddit styles itself as “...home to thousands of communities, endless conversation, and authentic human connection.” (Redditinc.com). This grassroots approach to nurturing community, conversation and connectivity has helped Reddit naturally grow to host its own online footballing community, r/soccer, which represents a user-curated space for football discussion, debate and entertainment.
The unique nature of Reddit, in that it doesn’t host any ‘official’ content from third party entities, means that the figure of the ‘fan’ has total control of what occurs within each community. The role of ‘karma’ is one that determines whether a post is significant or not, and is also controlled by users, and not Reddit itself. An ‘upvote’ gives an approval ‘point’ and a ‘downvote’ signifies disapproval. Accordingly, content is then made more visible the larger the amount of ‘upvotes’ it receives (reddit.com, 2018).
For the tightly-controlled sphere of football content found on other networks like
Facebook, this represents an exciting opportunity for fans to participate in a community away from the, often dull ‘official’ channels of their favourite teams. But this is not to say that football clubs view their social media channels as just another outlet for pushing match commentary or team news. Instead, their social platforms now warrant their own in-house marketing teams, pushing creative content to drive engagement with an increasingly mobile audience.
Reddit’s football-centric subreddit r/soccer is the object of this research paper. The global use of American English means the term ‘Soccer’ is used to identify this
particular community, a universal term to help signify its content to fans from across the globe. Evidence of the subreddit’s global appeal can be witnessed via accompanying ‘flairs’ that appear adjacent to community member usernames (reddit.com, 2018). These ‘flairs’ are small images denoting a club badge of each user’s chosen football club. This sense of self-identification and belonging is instrumental in football culture as a whole, but falls in line with social media-specific theory (Evans, 58 and Kaplan & Haenlein 61).
Football giants that dominate the pitch now also vy for social media exposure in an attempt to align themselves with the fast-paced digital space that their fans reside in. For example: Real Madrid’s 100 million Facebook followers shadow the 73 million boasted by European rivals Manchester United (Socialbakers), and both continue to be
leaders in terms of finances and marketability. Manchester United showcased their social media strategy to fans and online communities, with their ‘#Pogback’ Twitter campaign for their signing of player Paul Pogba. Accompanied by a plethora of images, gifs and video content, Manchester United’s social media pages drove their latest news onto the timelines of fans around the world. In turn those fans responded by sharing statistics, highlight reels, memes and often obscene language describing how he was in fact a ‘fraud’, ‘step-over merchant’ and a ‘poor-man’s Jack Wilshire’. All without leaving the web platforms that social media had given them.
This circle of social media engagement is underpinned by the presence of one constant: visual media. Adding depth and texture to the oft-witnessed walls of tweets and
text-heavy posts in fan forums, visual media has found new life on the variety of platforms that new media has nurtured to rise from the foundations of Web 2.0. In fact prior to web 2.0, hosting visual content on a web page was primitive and its arrival allowed for “[...]a richness of interaction previously found only in desktop applications” (Lewis, 1). Whilst visual content has played a role in web development since the early 00’s, the world of social media has fully adapted to embrace the rich visual nature of modern web culture. Visual content is now embedded into the daily practices of those who engage with new media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Whether it be the ‘re-tweeting’ of a meme on Twitter, or the uploading of a selfie onto Facebook, new media affordances have repositioned the role of visual content online.
The context behind research into Reddit’s r/soccer is a desire to focus on this idea of visual media, and attempt to reveal the role in which it plays within this community. Reddit’s unique position makes it a compelling area of study, but when combined with the popularity of football and the prominence of visual media it generates a manner of questions. Does a football-focused forum witness memes just like the racism-plagued depths of r/TheDonald? Is it primarily a place for sharing images and diagrams of
tactics, formations or set pieces? Or is this simply a collective of armchair fans sharing video clips of Cristiano Ronaldo?
Through analyzing a three month time period of 10th June 2017 - 1st September 2017, I scraped text and image data from the entirety of r/soccer from within that time frame. This time period has been selected as it represents the 2017 ‘Summer Transfer Window’, when football players are exchanged between clubs. Such is the extent of conversation surrounding this event, that media outlets such as Sky Sports promote a ‘Deadline Day’ of special programming (Skynews.com).
Text comments, pictures and videos all make up the threads and posts of Reddit, which is a website that thrives of wholly user-created or user-submitted content. It’s size, relevance and uniqueness as a platform makes it an agile object of study, and a research subject through which there is a significant part still unexamined.
Research with a specific focus on Reddit is limited, due in part to its relatively ‘fringe’ status amongst mainstream new media consumers, as well as its notoriously confusing jargon. Extensive research has been conducted on the likes of MySpace (Dobson, 2012), Twitter (Murthy, 2013) and Facebook (Ellison et al, 2007). Henceforth, the secondary aim of this paper is to broaden the scope of reddit-specific research in general, and contribute towards an understanding of participatory cultures, and the content that inhabits them.
Aside from the context and background of this study, there is also a number of interesting areas of discussion that are important to mention when introducing this paper. The presence of images and video content on Reddit is naturally going to
provoke the idea of the ‘internet pirate’. This is perhaps even more justified considering Reddit is home to a piracy-friendly community aptly dubbed ‘r/piracy’ (Reddit). But this idea of illegal content sharing isn’t just relevant in the worlds of sports streaming, where
football fans illegally access a range of high-profile sporting events (Robertson, 2014). Intellectual property laws also apply to images and video clips that are shared amongst football fans, even after a broadcast has ended.
Elisabetta Adami and Carey Jewitt provide an example of the reappropriation of visual content from third party sources, which has become a common theme amongst social media users:
“[...]fans of television productions design, produce and share such [visual] content to express themselves and engage with the objects of their interest. These digital expressions, which exist in the form of graphics, text, videos and often a mix of some of these modes, seem to enable participatory conversations by the audience communities that continue over a period of time.” (263)
Despite the group of concern in their work being fans of television, Adami and Jewitt’s idea of fans sharing ‘digital expressions’ of a visual nature can be witnessed within any fan subculture. In fact, they go on to highlight that new media has afforded “agency in constructing and projecting our identities through online visuals[…]” (266). It can be determined from this, that not only is visual content sharing a vital part of expressing oneself online, but also pivotal in forming an identity. This is especially so when concerning a subculture.
Piracy is not the only secondary area of discussion within this paper, but also the role of fandom and fan subcultures, and how these promote the idea of collaborating to form communities such as r/soccer. New media has afforded a range of potential for content sharing and collaboration with the fandom universe, and these affordances are explored in line with the r/soccer focus of this thesis.
Research Question and Argument
The research question for this paper is: What role does visual media play within Reddit’s r/soccer community?
This research question has been formulated through a number of different trains of thought which have been touched on earlier in this paper, notably:
- The importance of visual media within social media platforms - The global online football community
- The mediation of sports content online
- Piracy and the redistribution of third party content
These topics were chosen in order to create a well-rounded investigation that concerned not only the literal, but also the theoretical. In order to understand why pieces of content are shared, it is important to understand context, which is only possible by exploring the world of online fandoms and the wider social media
community as a whole. By linking the practices of fandoms and online subcultures with the behaviour of football fans on r/soccer, it should be possible to position r/soccer as a user-generated community in its own right.
Theoretically, the Uses and Gratification theory forms the backbone of the theoretical grounding of this study. When building on this foundation with research into visual media, social media and fandoms, it should be possible to construct an image of ‘why’ content is shared.
Relevant media theory, visual media theory and writing surrounding communications and psychology will be discussed in length. This is in order to provide context to the findings and discussion of the paper, as well as legitimizing the grounds for this
research. Further, significant literature will be employed to add depth and detail to the theoretical framework in which my paper finds itself situated. In accordance with best academic practices, these pieces of literature will be compared, contrasted and combined to strengthen the concurrent themes that run throughout the paper.
The research findings from this piece of work concern both still imagery and moving images, however their original sources may not permit third party reproduction and distribution. Therefore, the legality and wider implications of visual content sharing will be discussed and compared to current writings on the subject.
It is evident that visual content plays a significant role in our cognitive and psychological processes (Salomon, 1980). This piece of research is not to demonstrate one
overarching trend or set of behaviours, but rather to construct an ecology of the visual content that is shared, and what this tell us about r/soccer Redditors as new media consumers. Through establishing an understanding of the narrative of r/soccer, and how this affects the visual assets that are deployed. I create a thorough analysis of how images such as memes and statistics charts exist alongside highlight reel videos and match highlight video clips.
In understanding this, it will be possible to draw towards a firm conclusion of the type of visual media that sports fans share online, why they share it, and what this means in relation to wider media and communications theory. Particularly, given the comparative lack (to other new media platforms) of original research into Reddit as a new media object, it is the secondary desire of this paper to contribute towards the broader academic conversation revolving around platforms, participatory cultures and new media in general.
Chapter 1 - Literature review
This chapter outlines the theoretical grounding that this piece of work finds itself in. Not only does this literature concern Reddit and its nature as a platform for user-submitted content, but also its wider appeal as a participatory culture. Theory will also be drawn from psychological and sociological trains of thought to strengthen the elements of the paper that concern the reasons for social media use, particularly the sharing and use of visual media within it. On the topic of visual media, extensive discussion will occur on the topic of visual content distribution, the different types of content shared and how social media affords this. Lastly, Reddit will be analyzed in detail from within the
perimeters of existing work concerning the platform. Much existing literature concerning Reddit focuses on the ‘alt-right’, however the principles discussed are relevant here.
Chapter 2 - Methodology
The methodology chapter will discuss the practical research undertaken in anticipation of the thesis. The methodology, of which will be discussed at length in this work, will make use of Reddit datasets compiled by a third party. Through the use of analytics tools such as Google BigQuery to scrape and retrieve the information, a primitive set of ‘cookable’ data will be compiled. Then, through the deployment of assets provided by the Digital Methods Institute at the University of Amsterdam (wiki.digitalmethods.net), I will extract findings of interest and present them in a matter that is easy to digest and adds value to the work.
Chapter 3 - Results
Here the findings from my research will be detailed, with particular areas of interest highlighted for discussion. The research findings from this piece of work concern both
still imagery and moving images, however their original sources may not permit third party reproduction and distribution. Therefore, the legality and wider implications of visual content sharing will be discussed and compared to current writings on the subject.
Through analyzing a three month time period of 10th June 2017 - 1st September 2017, I will scrape text and image data from the entirety of r/soccer from within that time frame. This time period has been selected as it represents the 2017 ‘Summer Transfer
Window’, when football players are exchanged between clubs. Such is the extent of conversation surrounding this event, that media outlets such as Sky Sports promote a ‘Deadline Day’ of special programming (Skynews.com). Therefore, a wide range of sources will be consulted to ensure a thorough, contextualized discussion.
Chapter 4 - Discussion
The discussion chapter will examine the findings of this investigation as a whole, as well as highlighting specific points of interest and their importance. These points of particular interest will be scrutinized and positioned alongside theoretical texts from the literary review, in order to place these images in a way that can be understood in the wider scholarly field. Further, through the use of correlating the findings alongside real-world events, it will be possible to discover the reasoning behind the appearance of significant images, and their relationship with these occurrences.
Whilst relating back to the theoretical framework of this piece of work, this discussion aims to position my piece of research as an important contribution to the wider
understanding of not only the subject matter, but its significance in the field of new media.
Chapter 5 - Conclusion
The conclusion will give an overview of the key themes discussed throughout the thesis, as well as summarizing my main argument. The research question will be compared to the findings of the work, and the subject will be propositioned accordingly for future research.
Chapter 1 - Literature Review
In order to build a thorough understanding of the research question, it is necessary to establish theoretical grounding surrounding participatory cultures, particularly Reddit, as well as recognizing previous research into the role of visual media on an individual’s social network experiences.
Research into Reddit and social media as participatory cultures
It is important firstly to frame Reddit within the literary framework of social media as a whole. Taking Hansen et al’s description that “[Social media is]...a set of online tools that supports social interaction between users.”(12), I can position Reddit as being the ‘toolbox’, filled accordingly with subreddits as online ‘tools’. Reddit fits seamlessly into this definition of social media, and not only supports but relies open the social
interaction between users. Much akin to social media heavyweights Facebook and Twitter.
Ioana Literat and Sarah van der Berg identified Reddit as being “a culture and many cultures, where modes and motives of participation span a wide spectrum. [...]
participation on Reddit is largely motivated by the social and entertainment value of the platform.”(3). The ‘motivate’ aspect is of particular interest, as the ‘motivation’ behind the reasoning for content sharing is fundamental to this thesis. The position of Reddit as a diverse smelting pot of communities and cultures is explored in more detail by
Adrienne Massanari.
This social and cultural status of Reddit as a object of academic intrigue was outlined by Massanari when she stipulated “Despite its growing popularity as a unique platform for user-generated content, and controversial role as a site for citizen journalism, Reddit
remains an underexplored space within new media scholarship.”(330) In her work Participatory Culture, Community and Play: Learning From Reddit she expanded on the importance of Reddit’s identity “...reddit is a pseudo-anonymous, persistent space, where individuals gain reputation and recognition over time. Reddit is therefore a unique, boundary-spanning platform that elicits new questions about the nature of participatory culture and community in the age of social networking.”(7)
Her work presents a solid framework from which to construct a well rounded
understanding of the role in which Reddit plays on the wider spectrum of social media as a whole. Henceforth the importance and relevance of Reddit as an object of
academical study is apparent. Massanari’s work focuses on the context and cultures of Reddit that van der Nagel and Firth describe as “[...]grounded in the everyday practices of sociality, reciprocity, and perhaps even the maintenance of a particular community ideal.”(1) These concepts of sociality, reciprocity and community ideals are explored in this thesis in relation to my findings. This literature provides vital foundational work for this thesis and for academic observation of the platform as a whole. My work aims to build on this by providing a particular analysis on a sub-group and its practices. Especially, given the relative infancy of academic writing surrounding Reddit, it is important to explore writing concerning social media as a whole.
The nature of the term ‘social media’, ultimately dictates that it can play an intricate role in the life of anyone who wishes to be just that; social, particularly when it comes to being part of a community. Which as a result, comes with the demands that belonging to an online fan group or community requires; “With respect to the social dimension of social media, the concept of self-preservation states that in any type of social-interaction people have the desire to control the impressions other people form of them.” (Kaplan and Haenlein, 61) The need to be recognized and validated as a member of an online community is not exclusive to football fans active on social media, but extends to followers of all sub-cultures, including sport, entertainment and politics.
In fact, John Durham Peters argues; “So-called social media do not resolve these [social] troubles, though one of their main appeals, ... lies in providing a form of social relations that reduces many of the dangers of face-to-face interaction.”(6) Henceforth the unique value of social media is that it unlocks the door to a community, regardless of an individual’s social skills or status. And as such its importance in the world of expression networking is underlined, as it provides a unique opportunity that can be found nowhere else. Further, social media is fertile ground for unique content creation and sharing that is offered by this easy-to-access series of platforms.
Peters outlines the lack of restrictions that social media has when it comes to communication, and this is echoed by Claudia Wyrwoll: “The possibility for users to publish content to other users without the barriers publishing in print once had, has great impact on the individual[...]”(35). This stripping-away of inhibitive barriers is fundamental to the popularity of social media, and is testament to the open nature of social networking.
In his book Social Media: Communication, Sharing and Visibility, Graham Meikle
highlights a focal point of social media that can often be overlooked when using a social network as a part of empirical research. This is the concept that social media facilitates and nurtures those who share the same ideas, and gives them an adequate space in which to collectively rally around a particular cause or subject. Meikle explained:
“We present and perform versions of ourselves for self-selected audiences. And there are uses of such performance to connect with others–to network, interact and share with others whom we might never have encountered otherwise.” (96)
Not only this, but Meikle also identifies the relationship between the behaviour of social media users with a specific need to appear a certain way (96). Should they falter from
this predetermined path of behaviour, they risk falling side and losing the emotional and psychological gratification of belonging to a specific community. His work provides us with a direct link to the Uses and Gratification Theory, which will be discussed later in this chapter.
Continuing the theoretical analysis of social media, Carolin Gerlitz and Anne Helmond describe its wider role as to; “...facilitate the cross-syndication of web content and, compared to expert linking practices, introduce a participatory and user-focused approach to recommendation and the creation of links between web objects.” (4)
Hence, the communities and subcultures that emerge and thrive on social media are not just a communications network, but a complex structure of web content that serves a purpose and facilitates the need of that community.
The aforementioned literature assists in building a picture surrounding an initial understanding of the subreddit r/soccer as a whole, particularly its position as a
participatory culture. This is an important theoretical standpoint from which my work can build from, as this participatory nature of the subreddit is what makes it unique. In
comparison to the likes of Facebook and Twitter, where third party content is often published directly from that party’s corresponding page.
Combining the elements outlined in this section, it is initially apparent that Reddit not only finds itself within the wider sphere of participatory cultures, but also in a sphere of its own. Whilst sharing commonalities with other community-based sites, Reddit finds itself in a unique space. Bringing users together through a shared desire to belong, is something that has been identified by Massanari in her work as central to Reddit’s existence as a website. This is contrary to the make up of other social networks, where third party content is generated and submitted by parties entirely separate from their respective audience. The user-generated nature of Reddit has already become an
underlying theme in this work, and will go on to be explored in more detail, particularly in the discussion section of this thesis.
Uses and Gratification Theory
Uses and Gratification theory is a psychological train of thought that aligns itself with the psychological desire to ascertain certain mental rewards through the consumption of media. In the instance of this paper, this media platform is Reddit, but herein the following literature will aim to build a structure through which it is possible to relate the theory as a whole to Reddit. Further, this theoretical discussion is to outline the role that Reddit plays psychological as a piece of new media, but also how visual media plays a role in sustaining this gratification cycle.
“...users turned out to use media in order to satisfy such psychological desires as pursuit of information, relaxation and escapism. U&G Theory focuses on users and explains use of media in relation to human desires while emphasizing use of media based on psychological motivations.” (Chung et al, 177)
Chung et al provide a solid, brief overview of the Uses and Gratification theory, and assist with aligning its relevance in regards to this paper. The previously mentioned psychological desires of ‘information, relaxation and escapism’ are instrumental in a media consumers choice of system to consume. The desire to satisfy these individual psychological needs, particularly in regards to new media content is a major hingepoint for including this theory as a backbone for the paper. Particularly, the notion that the ability to freely choose social networks depending on the gratifications that are desire, and that there is an inherent desire to stay away from ones that play no role in achieving this. (Wu et al, 1869).
“[...]audience members are drawn to media in order to achieve particular gratifications, that gratification-seeking influences not only selection of media content but also the way persons affectively and cognitively relate to the content, and shapes the consequences of exposure as well.”(305)
Essentially, the theory draws a spotlight onto the role that media plays in satisfying the social and political needs of a media consumer (Chua et al). According to the Uses and Gratification theory, individuals will use social media as a form of emotional processing, and will behave accordingly in relation to what they encounter. In fact, studies suggest that “[...]the gratifications sought from an audience motivate the use of a particular medium.” (Leung, 998). These social and psychological ‘gratifications’ in question, and ones which play an integral role in the entire theory, were outlined by Leung as
“[...]surveillance, information-seeking, entertainment, personal identity, or companionship”(998).
These aforementioned ‘gratifications’ played a fundamental role in Thomas E
Ruggiero’s extensive 2000 work Uses and Gratifications Theory in the 21st Century. In which he underlined: “[...]if we are able to situate a “modernized” U&G theory within this new media ecology, in an evolving psychological, sociological, and cultural context, we should be able to anticipate a highly serviceable theory for the 21st century.”(29). Ruggiero highlighted the dated theoretical groundwork in much of the original research relating to the theory, and understood the importance and new relevance that the theory may found in relation to new media technologies.
Observing Ruggiero, we’re urged to move past the idea that “It reflected a desire to understand audience involvement in mass communications in terms more faithful to the individual user’s own experience and perspective[...]” (Blumler, 10). It’s apparent when observing earlier theoretical work, that there was a much more primitive understanding
of the role of media in general, let alone the complex emotional and social relationship between media and consumers (Cantril, 35).
Instead, new media has pushed the theory into the forefront of research on online consumership and behaviour. Using the groundwork laid out in research by Cantril, modern scholars have found that the new media frontiers unlocked by new media technologies can allow for a re-analysis of the theory.
“With the prevalence of social media, these emerging news platforms have attracted much interest from U&G research, for not only can content that used to be distributed by traditional media channels be delivered, but new features to make news consumption more personalized and participatory are also
integrated” (Lee & Ma, 333).
Accordingly, the emergence of Web 2.0, and social media platforms, have generated renewed interest in the theory. Particularly given the lack of research into Reddit as a whole, it is intriguing to identify a theory that’s been dissociated with some new media research, such as uses and gratification, and relate it to a new area of academic
investigation. Work such as that of Lee & Ma provides a stable foundation for exploring the literature behind this topic further.
In regards to the direct relationship between social media and the Uses and
Gratification theory, research conducted by a number of scholars has added weight to the argument that the theory plays a leading role in describing an individual’s motive for engaging with these mediums.
Ecem Basak and Fethi Calisir conducted an original piece of research to examine the links between Facebook, and traits underpinned within the Uses and Gratification theory. It was determined from this study that “ ...their (the user’s) ultimate goal is to
enhance their own self-esteem by portraying their lives. Similar to status seeking, entertainment motivates individuals to continue to use Facebook for fun purposes.” (Basak & Calisir, 187). Basak and Calisir continue to reinforce the importance of the theory in relation to social networking.
“...the more entertained users are more likely to have a higher satisfaction level of usage, because higher entertainment provides motivation for users to use the media more often. If the needs for pleasure and fun of the users are satisfied by Facebook, they will have favorable feelings for using it.” (183).
Anol Bhattacherjee, in Understanding Information Systems Continuance: an Expectation-Confirmation Model,builds on this by describing the role of building a relationship with social platforms in order to establish trust. “User satisfaction… is determined primarily by users' confirmation of expectation from prior use and
secondarily by perceived usefulness.” (367) Henceforth Bhattacherjee is highlighting the importance of a social platform (information system), in being inherently trusted as a source of satisfaction and reward. The role of a social platform as ‘useful’ tool is one that plays a secondary role, as confirmed from the aforementioned works of Basak & Calisir, as well as Leung’s Generational differences in content generation in social media: The roles of the gratifications sought and of narcissism. It can even be considered that it is in a social networks best interests to ensure they are useful, to entice users to maintain their engagement and consumption of content via their platform. (Shi et al, 2010)
In relation to my paper, these literary works provide a well-rounded framework from which to construct an approach towards Reddit as a social platform or information system. Particularly, in regards to visual media, it is apparent the role in which visual media can play in satisfying the emotive needs outlined in the Uses and Gratification theory.
There are three key emotive needs outlined by Louis Leung that I have chosen to focus on for this work: ‘information exchange’, ‘entertainment’ and ‘conversation and
socializing’. They have been chosen as they are relatable to the previous literary analysis and are identifiable as forming a fundamental part of the motivation behind user interaction with Reddit, and participatory cultures as whole. All of the emotive needs and motivations outlined by Leung are; “[...]motivations include information exchange, conversation and socializing, information viewing, entertainment, information and education, escape and diversion, reassurance, and fashion and status.” (998). However, by focusing on three key aspects of Leung’s outline, I hope to add focus to my thesis and provide literary context to help interpret and explain my findings.
Information exchange - Given the nature of r/soccer’s content, and the visual content that is exchanged on the platform, it is apparent that information exchange plays a pivotal, if somewhat discrete role in the community. Whilst the sharing and distribution of visual assets can be seen ultimately as an exchange of information, there is a closer relation towards other motivations and needs.
Entertainment - Peter Vorderer and Dolf Zillman highlight an important factor to consider when consulting the ‘entertainment’ segment of the Uses and Gratification theory; “[new media objects] offer their users an opportunity not only to select specific content and respond to it, but also to modify the content that is presented to them.”(22) As Vorderer and Zillman continue, it is evident that new media devices have afforded a new level of entertainment to media consumers. Through the immersive experience afforded by this ‘interactive media’(22), it can be inferred that the users of r/soccer are reappropriating the visual content they are provided through official broadcast and websites. Through ‘responding’ on Reddit threads and discussing points of concern, to redistributing and ‘modifying’ content to share amongst their r/soccer peers.
Conversation and socializing - Sonia Livingstone explains that “[...] social networking sites enable communication among ever widening circles of contacts.”(393).
Accordingly, it can be determined that one of the primary roles of the r/soccer
community is to be a space for discussion surrounding the football subculture. In fact, Livingstone highlights the role that content generation and distribution plays in
sustaining these social relationships; “It seems that creating and networking online content is becoming, for many, an integral means of managing one’s identity, lifestyle and social relations.” (393) In the context of r/soccer, this visual content takes the form of visual media, which forms the conversation triggers that sustain discussion within the community.
These three motivations behind the use of social media outlined by Leung are relevant to this thesis as they not only provide theoretical context for the research, but provide a keystone in bridging the gap between motivation and behaviour. Reflecting back on the work of Chung et al and Swanson, these three motivating factors are identifiable as being driving factors behind the engagement with, and participation in, social platforms like Reddit. For r/soccer, this means that the sharing of information, discussions, and entertainment can be interpreted as being leading reasons behind the community’s existence and sustained activity.
Further, the theory, particularly the work of Bhattacherjee, reflects the ingrained emotive and psychological attraction towards belonging and engaging with an online community. In regards to my work, this outlines one reason for active football communities such as r/soccer to witness regular visual content sharing and discussion. The theory not only adds a level of context to this body of work but also through renewing interest in it it becomes possible to reexamine the theory framed through the eyes of new media literature.
Visual Media
Given the nature of the research question concerning this paper, it is natural that visual media theory is a necessary component of the theoretical framework behind this piece of research. Whilst the nature of this work concerns the types and variations of visual content present within r/soccer, it is important to understand the theory behind the uses of these objects. This is in order to not only to provide background for the research, but also to better interpret the findings and results, and accordingly structure a well-rounded discussion.
In The Use Of Visual Media In The Service Of Enriching Mental Thought Processes, Gavriel Soloman constructs a sound reasoning for the role of what he describes as ‘media symbol systems’. In the instance of this paper, ‘symbol systems’ can be interpreted as images and video content. He comments:
“...media's symbol systems have their own important effects on people's minds. And it is these effects that, once understood, can lead us to develop novel ways
of using the visual media to serve new educational functions.”(329)
Henceforth it is evident that visual content plays an intrinsic role in learning processes, and not only this, but advancements in technology can help harbour and promote new ways of presenting these symbol systems. Saloman mentions this when he explains that “Quite clearly media's symbol systems, or modes of presentation, owe much of their development to technological innovations.” (329). Placing this quote in the context of my research, we can position this ‘technological innovation’ as being not only the precursor of the internet, but also Reddit. As a unique, user-generated space, Reddit is a Web 2.0 environment who’s open-platform nature promotes and encourages the submission of visual content. Ultimately, without the devices and affordances in place to allow for the sharing of visual content, the metadata of r/soccer would be altered dramatically.
Exploring visual media theory further in Eloquent Images: Word and Image in The Age of New Media, Mary E Hocks and Michelle Kendrick commented; “...the Web places static and moving images alongside words and asserts their equal and ultimately
perhaps superior status.” (21) Here, Hocks and Kendrick are highlighting the significant role that Web 2.0 plays in affording images significance, in that they’re presented as equal to traditional text. The influence and importance of the visual image in relation to text is emphasized by E.H. Grombich (1982), who highlighted visual media’s unique role in information processing. Together Hocks, Kendrick and Grombich combine with
Salomon to give depth and clarity to the role of visual media as a whole in assisting with cognitive processes and hence a reasoning behind its presence in the first instance.
Further, using the work of Hocks and Kendrick, the role of statistical charts, graphs and other data-heavy images is evident as being one that modern new media objects such as Reddit affords. Presenting charts and tables alongside traditional text acts as a cognitive stimuli, to reinforce a specific point or provide general context to the argument being put forward. In relation to the thesis, the presence of tables and graphs is to be expected, given the enormous amount of statistical data promoted via social media and the official websites of sports broadcasters and teams themselves.
One of the avenues for exploration offered by studying the visual elements of social media is the ability to interpret the “social experiences” that they appear in (Murthy et al, 113). Academic research on visual content within social media platforms isn’t as
developed as it should be. As Murthy et al remarked “[...] visual social media platforms such a Snapchat and Instagram have restrictive or inaccessible application
programming interfaces (APIs), the systems by which external users can directly access platform data.” (114) Whilst Snapchat and Instagram are not the object of this thesis, their status as new media platforms places them in the same academic thread as Reddit. However, the nature of Reddit as a (previously) open-source platform means
that coders have opened up ample opportunity to explore and analyze the metadata of the entire site using tools that will be discussed in the methodology in chapter 2.
Memeology
Richard Dawkins first introduced the word ‘meme’ into mainstream conversation through attributing it to something biological that was not naturally ‘wired’ into the human brain (1976). In other words, an object that is introduced upon a human being’s brain that spreads ideas and cultural phenomenon. In terms of the ‘online meme’, it’s considered that “[...]pinning down precise criteria for something counting as a meme is close to impossible.” (Knobel and Lankshear, 205). Whilst the specific definition of a ‘meme’ as a visual image is incorrect, most instantly-recognisable memes would fall into the visual category. Hence for the purposes of this thesis, the memes in question are images.
In The World Made Meme: Public Conversation and Participatory Media, Ryan M Miller puts forward the idea that memes form a fundamental core of participatory cultures as we know them. In fact, every time a meme is shared, this is forming part of the
underlying narrative of the culture that each individual is making for themselves.
“The participatory media world is made - and is brought into existence and sustained - through messy memetic interrelationships. It exists in the space between individual texts and broader conversations, between individual citizens and broader cultural discourse.” (2)
The ‘participatory media world’ mentioned in Miller’s text, can be interpreted as either new media as a whole object, or as individual subjects like r/soccer or Reddit.
an underlying appreciation for the complexity of the meme and the role that it plays intertwining smaller conversations into a much larger, often unrelated environment.
J.R. Vickery establishes a relationship between memes and participatory cultures when she states “Online memes are embedded within a culture that encourages and enables participation[...]” (302). Using Vickery’s observation in line with work from Leung, it is possible to identify the correlation between meme usage and the motivational factors of conversation and socializing. The idea that participation is essential for the creation of a meme is supported by Michele Knoebel in 2006’s Memes and Affinity Spaces: Some
Implications for Policy and Digital Divides in Education:
“An idea or information pattern is not a meme until someone replicates it by passing it on to someone else, and the probability of a meme being contagious within a group is directly tied to the values, beliefs and practices of that group.” (413)
Knoebel suggests that there is a direct link between a meme, and the belief system that the community in which it is produced subscribes to. In relation to the thesis, this can be interpreted as suggesting that memes promoted within the r/soccer community are direct reflections of the narrative that is being nurtured across the subreddit. Leung’s ‘socializing’ motivation and Knoebel’s declaration that the “[...]social nature of memes is an important dimension of their definition.”(413) reinforces the notion that Reddit is a prime location for meme creation and distribution.
Further, when Knoebel states “Online, contributing directly to spreading a new, popular and catchy meme is considered cool, and generating an entirely new successful meme is even cooler.”(416). we can draw parallels with literature earlier in the text. Particularly that concerning the Uses and Gratification theory such as the shared notion between
Basak & Calisir and Swanson that a primary reason behind social media usage is ‘status seeking’.
With Reddits karma system, the ability to identify and acknowledge a ‘cool’ meme is a straightforward process involving a simple ‘upvote’. Thus, it can be determined that Reddits structure as a participatory platform actively promotes the creation and distribution of memes. So, as a thesis concerning the researching of Reddit, the presence of memes in a visual content investigation is to be expected.
This was evidenced by Sal Hagen in his Reddit-centric Polandball is of Reddit: How
r/Polandball Transcends Memes Through Carefully Curated Geopolitical Satire (2017).
In this study, Hagen uses the same methodology as this thesis to ‘cook’ Reddit metadata to study the memetic ethnography of a particular subreddit. His work
discusses the relationships between meme creators and sharers and identifies a clear relationship between the type of content posted, and the wider narrative of the subreddit as a whole. Hagen’s work, whilst valuable from a broader academic perspective,
provides this thesis with evidence that data-driven research into Reddit is both possible and productive.
Fandom Culture
It is wrong to identify a ‘fandom’ as being something purely centered around fanfiction or the discussion of television dramas. Fandom concerns everything that is user-generated concerning a specific ‘object of affection’ (Thomas, 2016). Within the context of this paper, the r/soccer subreddit should be considered an Association Football fandom. Whilst the users here are not writing romantic fanfiction to see their two favourite goalkeepers enter a relationship, they are in fact a part of a participatory culture surrounding one particular theme. Or as Paul Thomas explains:
“[Fans] not merely consume but also interact with the object or objects of their affection. Today, there are myriad digital outlets (e.g., Tumblr, YouTube, Reddit, DeviantArt, and various discussion forums) that allow fans to engage with, consume, and create content, thereby taking part in participatory culture.” (Thomas, 2016)
It’s apparent then, that the r/soccer community share some fundamental characteristics with the wider fandom sphere. From the creation of visual content to the shared passion for a specific topic. Notably as Thomas mentions, the fact that the “...approval of their [creative] efforts encourages them to continue.” (2016). This self-gratification element of participating within a certain sub-culture can be attributed back to the Uses and
Gratification theory. Here the theory suggests that participation in a social community is down to satisfaction and gratification in the first instance.
Building on this initial definition of fandom, Tsay-Vogel and Sanders explored the idea of the “communal identification” that fandoms promoted, and suggested that “[...]for
individuals to engage as fans in a participatory culture or community, identification is a critical component.”(33). Online fandoms being a participatory culture is tied together by this idea of ‘identification’. Whether this is via the team politics of the subreddit ‘flairs’ that display club badges, or the shared passion for the same sport, r/soccer can be positioned as a fandom in its own right.
Piracy
The concept of piracy is not something that has arrived hand-in-hand with the advent of new media, but is rather a complex issue that spans all manners of intellectual property (Spoo, 2). Within the framework of this thesis, it is important to highlight the potential for piracy and intellectual property theft within the r/soccer community.
One must position the idea of piracy within r/soccer, and observe the potential ‘property’ that might be redistributed and shared illegally amongst the community. As will be analyzed in chapter 3, there are a range of images and video content shared on a daily basis, but this needs to be contextualized through discussing literature on piracy.
As Lawrence Liang poignantly highlighted that “[we need] to be aware of the fact that there can be no accounts of access that are not simultaneously accounts of
exclusion.”(75). We can identify a relationship between the potential illegality of visual content shared, and the exclusive nature of its origin. For example, an average
subscription to UK sports broadcaster Sky Sports will cost upwards of £40 per month (SkySports). Whilst not an enormous sum for an avid sports fan, this paywall to content will exclude a significant part of r/soccer’s notably global community. Hence,
considering the idea put forward by Liang it’s possible to determine that one of the reasons this content is shared on r/soccer to begin with is because it’s not possible for everyone to access in the first instance.
Quite simply: Why pay for something, if you can get it for free? (Robertson, 469). The reappropriated visual content shared on r/soccer, should perhaps be considered as being one of convenience and practicality, rather than intentional theft. But, as Darren Meale outlines, the potential for theft is a serious one:
“[Sports events] are only lawfully available with Sky Sports or other paid-for subscriptions, like UK Premier League football matches. The broadcast rights for those matches exceeded £3 billion in value last time they were auctioned, an asset which it is clearly in the interest of the rights holders” (821)
It’s obvious, given the context provided by Meale, that the redistribution of match clips and images by the r/soccer community constitutes a violation of the intellectual property rights of sports broadcasters. In a digital age football isn’t the only sport shared outside
the remit of rights holders. During the Rio Olympics in 2016 for example, the
International Olympic Committee (IoC) announced a crackdown on animated GIFs of their content being shared on social media (Ohlheiser, 2016). The IoC stated that any images taken personally “[...] must not be uploaded or shared on any website , blog, social media page, photo or video-sharing sites, or other mobile application.” (Ohlheiser, 2016). This blanket ban on image sharing is a real-world reflection of the position that broadcasters face in relation to controlling and maintaining the value of their brand.
With this in mind, it is important to reflect on the previously mentioned motivations behind engaging with the community in the first place. The desire to access
entertainment that is locked behind a paywall, is clear motivation to engage with these illegal activities (Liang).
Summary
To summarize, the academic literature discussed provide a clear academic grounding for this thesis. There is already significant research into the areas of participatory cultures and social media that allow this work to be positioned so as to generate an answer to the initial research question. Contextualizing this research by examining literature concerning fandom and piracy is essential in order to provide a clear background and understanding of the subject matter.
It is evident that r/soccer and Reddit as a whole is still ground that is relatively unexplored in the wider academic field. The aforementioned literature reinforces the motivational factors for engaging with this research in the first place. Notably the infancy of academic Reddit-based research as well as the potential links between the Uses and Gratification theory and the distribution of visual content within a participatory culture like r/soccer.
Chapter 2 - Methodology
In order to answer the question ‘What role does visual media play within Reddit’s r/soccer community?’, it was necessary to conduct a thorough analysis of all data
submitted to r/soccer within my chosen timeframe. To do this, my thesis methodology is based off social and visual media methodologies which were combined to determine my final approach.
Literature
My methodology drew significantly from Sal Hagen’s empirical Reddit research document ‘Reddit Worksheet’ (2017). In this document, Hagen outlines relevant resources for sourcing the Reddit data, practical methods for it’s analysis, as well as in-depth troubleshooting advice for complex queries. Hagen made use of an earlier version of this methodological document for his work Polandball is of Reddit: How r/polandball Transcends Memes Through Carefully Curated Geopolitical Satire (2017). Using this text as an example of what is possible through analyzing Reddit data via the methodology in the worksheet, it was determined that this was the methodological approach that I would follow for my own work.
On the benefit of using data extracted directly from a digital source, John Downing explains: “The accuracy or exactness of the information transmitted also is an advantage of digital media as compared with the telephone and face-to-face communication.” (149) Hence, rather than reaching out to conduct interviews or
converse with r/soccer users this approach made sense to ensure the results reflected the true behaviours of those participating. Further, Downing reasoned that what made new media data gathering so unique is the ability to not only gather text but also image,
video and sound material (150). For the purposes of this thesis, the text, image and video content are crucial.
As the investigation was handling vast amounts of data, a quantitative approach was necessary, in order to gain as large a sample size as possible within the confines of the predetermined time frame. However, as the raw data cannot be interpreted on face value, it is necessary to ‘cook’ it using qualitative methods to be able to extra any relevant findings.
Thus, both qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches would be needed for this study. I decided on this approach following the notion that “A balance of these methodological approaches is therefore encouraged for research in the varied disciplines in order to provide greater insight into social media.” (Khang et al, 292). Khang et al explain that through using a combination of both methodological
approaches, it creates a more well-rounded piece of research, as opposed to those who solely employ a qualitative method (291).
Methodological Approach
Quantitative
With the theoretical framework concerning Reddit outlining it as a ‘unique platform for user-generated content’, it was thus a necessity to examine in detail the user-submitted content that Reddit hosts as a platform. But not only was it essential to examine the visual content, for the purposes of the research question, but also the text content. In this instance, text content provides a key indicator of common themes, subjects and topics within the r/soccer community.
Hagen’s work makes use of datasets published by Felipe Hoffa on www.pushshift.io, a free to use data dump that compiles all Reddit post and comment data from 2005 onwards. Through the following the data scraping guidelines outlined in Hagen’s worksheet, it is possible to formulate a qualitative query based on a selection of
variables. In this instance, and for the purpose of providing results that could be better interpreted, a number of predetermined options were inputted into the necessary queries.
A timeframe was the earliest variable to be determined, as it was predicted that this would have a huge impact on the results that were found through each query as well as the context that these results had. Understanding the importance for justification of preselected variables in research, the summer transfer window of 2017 was chosen to be one of the filters for the data scraping process.
This window was chosen not only for its length of two months, but also for the very nature of what a transfer window is in the footballing community. A time of great anticipation, speculation and rumour-spreading, this presented itself as an ideal timescale to study in the search for a significant volume of visual ‘user-generated’ content.
Further, in a bid to filter out discussion that was not relative to the transfer window, a number of phrases were chosen to act as filters. These phrases covered usual ‘transfer-related’ vocabulary like ‘wages’ and ‘transfer window’ as well as more niche topics like specific player names. The justification for the generic phrases comes from a period of studying tabloid newspapers, online forums and through word-of-mouth
conversation with football fans.
The player-specific vocabulary was sourced from a list of the 20 most expensive
transfers and the respective fee can be viewed in table 1 in the appendix. Given as the piece of research was carried out over six months since the closure of the transfer period, there was full access to correct financial figures that made these choices viable (Goal, 2017). The only player that was included in the research but excluded from the transfer list was ‘Mbappe’. He was excluded on the technicality that his transfer was a one year loan, with a predetermined purchase fee of 180 million euros to be paid at the end of the 2017/18 season. Therefore, Mbappe would fall into second place of the current list. Due to his age and the size of the fee, this garnered significant media attention and his inclusion in this research is hence justified. Further, as the transfer technically occurred during the 2017 window, the 2018 window would no doubt bring far less discussion and far less interesting data accordingly.
The qualitative process of the research was conducted in two separate steps, primarily due to my own individual preference and also to ensure data was not mixed.
Step 1: Text and video-based data retrieval
Through using custom script, Google Big Query was able to scrape the needed text data from the compiled data sets, and output Comma Separated Value files (CSV). An example query is displayed below:
SELECT title, author, subreddit, score, created_utc,
SEC_TO_TIMESTAMP(created_utc) as formatteddate FROM
[fh-bigquery:reddit_posts.2017_06], [fh-bigquery:reddit_posts.2017_07], [fh-bigquery:reddit_posts.2017_08]
WHERE created_utc>1496966401 AND created_utc<1504220400 AND lower(subreddit)='soccer'
AND (lower(title) LIKE ('%salah%') )
In the query above, Big Query is searching for all data entries in the ‘posts’ data set mentioning the variable player name ‘salah’ (Google Big Query is not case sensitive). The other variables that were changed in order to extract the qualitative data sets are highlighted in red. ‘Title’ had to be changed to ‘Body’ when querying the ‘comment’ data sets, with [fh-bigquery:reddit_posts.XXXX_XX] changing to
[fh-bigquery:reddit_comments.XXXX_XX]. Elements of the query that were not changed for any of the queries include the other ‘SELECT’ fields, the subreddit of query and the unix timestamps.
Through using variations of this query in accordance with the predetermined criteria , it was possible to process the necessary data sets in order to obtain a ‘raw’ collection of text data. Through using a url extraction tool, it would be simple to retrieve the relevant video links from this raw data, as will be discussed later in this chapter.
Step 2: Image-based data retrieval
The second step of the quantitative data scraping followed the same query format as the first step, however this query had a slightly different structure so as to extract entries with either ‘.png’, ‘.jpg’ or ‘.gif’ values. Accordingly, this would provide a data set
containing solely entries that hosted images. The amended query would look like:
SELECT title, author, subreddit, score, created_utc,
SEC_TO_TIMESTAMP(created_utc) as formatteddate FROM [fh-bigquery:reddit_posts.2017_06],
[fh-bigquery:reddit_posts.2017_07], [fh-bigquery:reddit_posts.2017_08]
WHERE created_utc>1496966401 AND created_utc<1504220400 AND (url LIKE '%.png%' OR url LIKE '%.jpg%' OR url LIKE '%.gif%')
AND lower(subreddit)='soccer' AND (lower(title) LIKE ('%salah%') )
In red is the additional variable that dictates the specific file types that should be
retrieved from the queried data set. This means that unlike the data gathered in step 1, this is purely an image-based data set that can be treated accordingly and seperate from the rest of the data.
Collaborating the results from steps 1 and 2 in separate ‘post’ and ‘comment’ CSV files, it was then possible to move on to the qualitative segment of this process.
Qualitative
With the data gathered from the quantitative steps, it was then possible to ‘cook’ and process this data to retrieve the information necessary for the thesis. All of the tools used at this stage of the research where sourced from either the Digital Methods Institute Toolkit (DMITools, 2018) or Hagen’s Reddit Research Worksheet (2017).
Text-based processing
Whilst text-based findings were not a major component of this study, they were
necessary to provide background and context to the visual images that were discovered in the other stages of the research.
The Raw Text to Tag Cloud tool was employed to produce tag clouds of specific terms that appeared the most. With the ability to process either the entire collection of text, or specific terms like player names, it was possible to produce a cloud surrounding
particular themes. This would prove to be essential when examining image and video content, when the need for background information becomes apparent.
This cloud-based approach makes the data clearer to understand, and identify specific themes and common phrases associated with a keyword through presenting all of the data in one place. Visualizing these clouds doesn’t just make them aesthetically pleasing, but makes it much easier for readers to understand the data without
background knowledge in the subjects of either football or new media. The Tag Cloud to Wordle tool was used for this visualization process. This enabled the raw tag cloud file to be customized and individual words to be highlighted via the use of colour, for example.
Image-based processing
With the research question of this thesis concerning ‘visual media’, it was evident that this aspect of the methodology had to be conducted thoroughly.
Following the Big Query research from step 2, it was possible to use the gathered information to interpret and analyze both the findings as a whole, and via the individual search terms.
Hagen’s purpose-built Platform Image Explorer uses the .CSV files gathered from the process outlined in step 2, and translates the text data into the actual images that are trackable via their file extensions. The tool sources all of the images that are mentioned in the uploaded file, and presents them on the web page. Where images are not
sourceable, they are still represented albeit via a ‘missing image’ notification.
Then through using the Mozilla Firefox extension DownThemAll! (Maier et al, 2017), an automated script downloaded all of the files presented via the Platform Image Explorer. These image files were then ready to be interpreted in line with the research question.
The generalized image findings were produced in three seperate image maps (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3), via using image-sorting software Image Sorter (2017). These maps 1 could then be arranged via colour-matching, so that similar images were placed together to be compared and contrasted. Sorting images in this manner made it much simpler to identify significant findings at face value, meaning that the image maps held great reciprocal value and could be interpreted by anyone.
Due to the all-encompassing download of DownThemAll!, I was able to individually access images that were identified as important on the image maps. This meant that individual images could be analyzed in more details, and discussed accordingly in this thesis.
Video-based processing
By using the data captured in step 1 of the research process, it was possible to analyze my findings to search for any relevant video links contained within the captured data.
The video element of this research task was also conducted in two stages. Initially, tools were used to create a general overview of the findings and the websites that are
associated with hosting video content on r/soccer. The second stage simply involved accessing individual url links to determine examples of the kind of content that was being linked to.
Harvester (DMITools, 2018), is a url scraping tool that processes raw data to produce a cleaned list of url links within the tool itself. There are a number of options that can be toggled in order to alter the results that are produced in the scraping process. These
1 The image maps in fig. 1, 2 and 3 could not be exported from the Image Sorter software, this is a
limitation of the Image Sorter tool. Instead, screenshots had to be taken at the highest resolution possible, which were then used to create the image maps shown in this thesis.
included not producing duplicate results and only retrieving the host website name and not the whole link.
After compiling a list of relevant URL’s, it was then necessary to separate invalid links from valid sources. Invalid sources were determined to be those that did not directly link through to a visual asset, such as links to newspaper articles, fan forums and other associated websites. The justification for this was that the sole purpose of these URL destinations was not the promotion of a piece of visual content, henceforth their exclusion was deemed appropriate.
Valid links were those outlined as being solely for the promotion of a piece of visual content, whether in the form of still imagery or a video clip. An example of relevant sources are Youtube and Streamable.
After the harvesting process, the gathered data could then be ran through tag
cloud-generating software as used in the earlier research stages. This would allow for greater contextualization of the results, and also provide some background as to the demographic of the video hosting websites that were linked to by r/soccer.
Stage two of this process, the individual analysis, does not involve any particular tools are software, but simply using the lists produced by the Harvester to highlight and focus on individual videos. These in turn can be correlated with the text-based and
image-based findings of the thesis, in an attempt to find a relationship between the narrative behind the use of visual media within the community.
Chapter 3 - Results
The results gathered in this investigation were taken from over 100GB of raw data, which were processed and refined down to create the necessary findings in order to carry out this project. The resulting ‘cooked’ data collated into over 250,000 individual data entries hosting image links, website url inks and raw text. Through processing this data appropriately, the following results were uncovered.
Images
As a foundation for examining the visual image files that were directly retrieved from the data sets, three image maps were created to display the data as a whole and also divided into the relevant data sets as either ‘Post’ or ‘Comment’ data.
The image map in Fig. 1 displays the image file results scraped from all posts and comments from the queried time period. In addition to displaying the total 519 images that were retrieved, the image is also rendered with labels depicting general areas of specific interest in the image which, alongside individual images, will be examined in extensive detail in the discussion section of this paper.
For the image map labels, I followed the narrative outlined by Khang et al, when they discussed the need to combine both qualitative and quantitative methods to produce a well-rounded research object (292). By taking the vast quantity of images in each map and organizing them by colour, it was possible to identify key trends and similarities in image type. For example, the images saturated with green naturally clustered together, and by examining a number of these images it was evident that most of them concerned match images. Hence this was then used to create the ‘match images’ label.
