Personal Narrative Analysis

Improved Essays
I have a ritual. Every morning, I immediately open my laptop and browse several sporting analysis websites. This occurs before my shower. Before brushing my teeth. Before opening Facebook. Before eating breakfast. Often, before I am fully awake. I need my daily fix.
Then, breakfast is consumed while watching the news. Not politics and weather though, nor business and finance. Always Fox Sports News.
Some require a morning coffee. Without it, they bemoan their inability to properly function. Sporting analyses, news, and interviews are my morning coffee.
However, this isn’t always sufficient. Midday rolls around and I’ll inevitably need to know more. I’ll visit the aptly named Planet Rugby forums, a veritable interactive global community, and
…show more content…
Is it truly necessary to know the opinion of every player, coach, former player, former coach, and everyone in-between? Must we scrutinise, analyse, and speculate over these views with likeminded fans? Why even read a blog like this?
Personally, I believe it complements the spectacle, enhances an ongoing narrative, and cultivates a sense of anticipation. However, apparently, motivations run far deeper than these basic justifications.
McCarthy (2012, p.65) explains that sports fans and bloggers extract value from online sporting communities as both “…a way to react to and critique the work of the mainstream media in communicating sports” and “…a means to supplementing and augmenting the work of MSSM in ways that reflect the nature and the media discourses surrounding their particular sport.” In an ensuing analysis, McCarthy (2013, p.431) concludes that a sense of community is vital to consumption of sports media and participation in online forums, declaring, “…social elements were in evidence both in the form and content of the sports blog. This was particularly evident in the near-universal use of the blogroll function, indicating that bloggers of these sports at least want to find each other and to form interconnected knowledge communities together.” Ultimately, Stavros, Meng, Westberg and Farrelly (2014, p.445) proclaim, “fans exercise

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    In this new age of technology, many new opportunities have been created for to make a name in this world, one of them being journalism. Not to say journalism is nothing without technology, but it enhances the profession to a new level. Being able to cover events and write about them digitally gives a whole new expansion of access to the consumer, increasing its popularity among the people. People are saved a trip to the local store or TV by being able to find out what’s occurring on their phones and laptops.…

    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sports journalism is something that seems easy but which takes a lot of time, effort, and work to be successful at it. Some journalists use cold, hard facts, while others try to create rumors to formulate interesting articles. Despite different strategies some columnists use, the best sports journalists build ethos through making accurate reports, creating topics that are not only controversial, but also debatable, and providing reliable statistics writing about topics. By using these approaches journalists are able to gain a wide fan base and publish popular articles that sports fanatics will read week in and week out.…

    • 1531 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    This is Not Just a Discourse Community, it’s My Life. Throughout our life time, we have all been apart of a discourse community before, whether it has to do with a specific sports team that we participate in, or an online community like Facebook, twitter, and Instagram. John Swales definition of a discourse community is simply a distinctive group with descriptive characteristics. The discourse community I ended up choosing was my own, which is my soccer life.…

    • 1904 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I had been dreaming about this day constantly for four years. All of my blood, sweat, and tears had gone into this one particular goal. On September 24, 2015, I had finally achieved my goal in successfully verbally committing to a division one college. Through motivation, determination, and hard work, I achieved my goal head on, even though many obstacles were thrown my path. My journey began in seventh grade.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    INTRODUCTION These days the label ‘fan’ is a common colloquialism and can be referred to an enthusiast of anything, from sports, food to even fashion trends. That is to say, we use the term ‘fan’ loosely to describe our preferences towards something and anything. However, this usage is incorrect, as fans are actually specific recipients of popular culture. Fans are actually distinctive audience of various types of media, holding in-depth knowledge of the product and have continuous consumption of the said product (Siuda, 2010).…

    • 1526 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The food became a burden to even look at. I began smelling unfamiliar aromas. I felt like I lost my control and I couldn’t resist from eating it. Once we got through security, I could feel the warm air of the summer day embracing me.…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With the last of my Final Exams now finished and school officially ended, Summer had official begun. However, my Summer Vacation would not consist of long days spent at a beach or in an air conditioned room. No longer would Netflix be the only thing on my mind, one which school squeezed every last bit of patience and integrity out of. This vacation marked a new beginning for me, where I would have to obtain certain qualities to persevere through to the end. For me, the first day of my summer job was one of the most uncertain that I have ever experienced in my life.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I remember the day I stepped onto the airplane in Ufa to the United States nine years ago. I was sitting next to another girl from my city, who was also flying to Williamsburg, Virginia to work and learn English. We talked for a little before take-off and I could see she was bursting with emotions and started to cry her eyes out. She was trembling with anxiety and fear, whimpering about how much she was leaving behind. In contrast, I sat in my seat very still, with a huge smile on my face, gleaming with anticipation of the adventure I was about to begin.…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    One day it finally occurred to me that the warm, squeaky things next to me were my brothers and sister. My vision finally formed into point so I was able to see little fuzzy things. Though I do know the big beautiful shape with the long, wet tongue was my mother. I couldn't tell why my brothers and sister had any purpose of being here but they were here, and I can't get rid of them.…

    • 245 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    I was born in Honey Brook, Pennsylvania. This would definitely fall under the umbrella of "small town" as it's reported population during the 2010 census was 1,700. I was never an observant child, as I was always playing video games, reading books, or doing some grade school homework. I remember only knowing a small handful of people, namely just those who lived in our little trailer park at the time. Everyone had that small town eccentricity we so often see romanticized.…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Media Influence In Sports

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Sport stars and influencers fuel the media’s influence on participants in sport. In doing this, viewers correlate sports stars with teams and brands, influencing their decision making when it comes to where their attention goes (Chron, 2018). Laura Geitz is a prime example of this. Idolised for her captaincy of the Firebirds and Australian Diamonds, as well as her inspirational defending skills, she has become a star in the Netball environment (Mccaw, 2018). As a new mother, she also has become an inspiration to woman in all careers.…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Emma Watson Case Study

    • 1470 Words
    • 6 Pages

    This essay has employed the word ‘fan’ in more than one instance. Yet, what is a fan? It is someone who admires or loves an object of fandom such as a celebrity, a movie, or a sports team, for instance, and has extensive knowledge of that object (Kloet & van Zoonen, 2007, p.323). Moreover, fans feel a deep emotional connection as well as an attachment to their fandom, which leads them to pass a considerate amount of time on it (Kloet & van Zoonen, 2007, p.323). Additionally, fans are likely to share their experience and thoughts “with other like-minded people” who like the same object as them (Kloet & van Zoonen, 2007, p.323).…

    • 1470 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Community media can help to create a “sense of use-ness” despite the separation of distance and reinforces the similarities of the group (Carey, 2016). Community media in its various forms provides a voice (Carey, 2016). Therefore with the tradition of interactivity including the publication of UGC it can be expected that community media outlets would continue this behavior in…

    • 969 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sportainment Case Study

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Originally, sports and entertainment were two different things. However, in more recent times, society has blended the two together creating the idea of “sportainment.” The term, “sportainment,” is the idea that sport is transforming into being based solely around the entertainment factor rather than about the actual game; it is the mixture between sport and entertainment. The idea of “sportainment” has taken the pure sport aspect of playing a game or physical activity and altered it into part of the entertainment business. This has revolved sports more on the corporate level, which brings into light the corporate sport model (Bustad, lecture, 2017).…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Technology In Society

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages

    When we wake up, what’s one of the first things we do? Most of us can answer this by checking our phones for the notifications we missed while we slept. If not, it is usually one of the first things we do sometime within the morning to prepare for our day. What about when we have a few minutes in between activities, such as work or class? What about when we’re home and have a night off?…

    • 1371 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays