#welivethisgame: Social Media, Online Communities and the ANZ Netball Championship 2016

Abstract

In May 2016 the end of the nine year trans-Tasman ANZ Netball Championship was announced. Frustrated with the limited information provided by the governing institutions, fans turned to social media and their online netball communities to debate the future of professional netball in New Zealand. These online communities, built around the cultural capital of those who love and follow the game, have rapidly become the ‘go-to’ discussion forum for fans; a vital alternative to the one-way mainstream media channels of information. Using a third-wave feminist approach, this study tracks the final year of the competition via its social media presence and analyses how these online netball communities give a voice to sportswomen, fans and representatives of a women’s sport that is habitually underrepresented in the wider New Zealand media sport scape. This study builds on the work of Australian Portia Vann (2014) which to date is the only academic study directly focused on the relationship between elite netball and social media. The online communities surrounding the ANZ Championship are built across the different social media platforms. Facebook is the centre of activity for netball fans whilst Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube are considered supplementary for users. The franchises are strong contributors to the online communities; however, their content is limited by the resources available to them. This study found netball players to be both generators and users of content in the online communities as they utilise social media to build relationships with fans and express camaraderie with other athletes of the competition. A key finding was the dissatisfaction of fans with the under-representation of netball in mainstream media as opposed to maledominated codes such as rugby, and therefore a primary reason why fans increasingly turn to social media. The development of social media has caused radical change for the gatekeepers of netball-related information as content production and control is now shared amongst all users made up of fans, athletes, franchises, broadcast partners and mainstream media.