Social media has done a wonderful job of creating an avenue for professional sports related updates. Especially for me as an AMA Motocross and AMA Supercross fan the lack of up-to-date and breaking news is frustrating. That is until I discovered Twitter.
Breaking News?
I do not have a Twitter account, nor will I get one, but I have a number of AMA Supercross and Motocross athletes that I follow on Twitter so I can stay up to date. If you have ever picked up an issue of Transworld Motocross or even RacerX you probably paged through it wondering when you would see a story about something that happened more recently than four months ago. Magazines also tend to feel impersonal. With the time delay in publishing a distance is created, a distance that is obliterated with Twitter. On a side note and to be fair, although the paper copy of RacerX may contain totally outdated news (such as an interview that happened a month before the season started that was published three races into the season), RacerXonline.com has new stories, breaking news, and a social media feed updated daily, some of which are links to tweets posted by riders.
Spell Check, Please
For all its benefits there are some downsides to instant media. For example, last week on February 12, 2011, James Stewart (and many others) tweeted that he had just found out a fellow rider was in a coma. A few days later the injured riders team clarified that the rider was not in a coma but had sustained serious injuries. This instant publication has a greater allowance for inaccurate information. Even as such for me, the fan, it feels more personal. A tragedy has struck home for these athletes and with Twitter we are able to share their pain as it happens – not a four month old retrospective glance at what it felt like that we see in a magazine - we feel it as they feel it right when it happens.
Thank goodness for Twitter
In addition to these sorts of updates riders also often post videos of themselves, or whatever projects they and their sponsors are working on. It also creates a direct, personal connection with us in a way that we cannot experience otherwise. Without twitter I would not know that Chad Reed or Ken Roczen is off to the movies, or just ran a practice in the pouring rain. I feel so involved this way, even though I have never met these guys. For others like me who have Twitter accounts, they may also tweet these guys directly to feel even more connected. It is an amazing sports news tool that really connects the fan to the rider in a way that nothing else can. As with all things instant, unfiltered speech can sometimes backfire, but mostly it has helped make me more of a fan by connecting me to the sport on a personal level.
How I See It
Twitter, for me, is easily all three communication types. It can be impersonal in the sense that it allows someone like me to lurk and glean information without ever interacting with the information source. In a different way it is also am interpersonal medium in that it allows relationships to be built and fostered by sharing personal information with a friend or follower online just as you would in person, except that with Twitter I do not have to join you for pizza and movie with you to know you went and what you thought, you simply tweet what happened and another stone of the friendship is laid. It can also be hyperpersonal in that intimate emotions and experiences can also be shared – such as the tragedy mentioned above or a hard earned victory. Twitter may often be an information overload, a constant stream of seemingly meaningless tweets, but in face-to-face life those seemingly meaningless moments are taken for granted and not overwhelming in the least. Chad Reed may not need to tweet that he is headed to the movies in order to enjoy the movies, but he does tweet it to connect with me, the fan, because I cannot be there in real life. Tweet your heart out guys, we love it.
References
Jones, Lindsay (2010). The sports tweet: new routines on an old beat.(The Beat Goes On: The Sports Reporter).Nieman Reports 64.4 Retrieved February 19, 2011 from EBSCOhost. Regis U. Library, Denver. Academic Onefile Database http://tinyurl.com/4f857ls
Twitter (2011) Acessed February 19, 2011 www.twitter.com
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