3PMjournal_2010s2

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3pm Journal of Digital Research & Publishing how we defined games. The arrival of Atari and Pacman software in the 1980’s legitimized this new and approved form of alternative ‘play’ – one that no longer necessitated ‘going outside’ - in the minds of 80’s youth and their baby-boomer parents. Leisure, play and entertainment space was converging right before our very eyes. (Crawford 2004) Did we see it? Of course we did. Did we understand what it would mean for us technologically, socially or even culturally? Not intrinsically. We did however understand that gaming on computers was separate to playing and watching football: because sport was consumed live or via the mediums of television (maybe even recorded on VCR for delayed viewing) and radio (Cashman 2005). That was convergence in Australia pre-internet (Simons 2007). Up until 1995, the key differentiator between all four football codes: Rugby Union was the only amateur code in Australia. However, during season 1995 ex-rugby player, Ross Turnbull, led a ‘rebel’ group of corporates in a charge against the establishment with the World Rugby Corporation. Having signed up some of the biggest names in international rugby, the Australian led ‘rebellion’ - as coined by both the establishment and the rugby press at the time 6 . It was a social, political and cultural challenge, founded in the economics of mass entertainment that would redefine the operational constructs within which not only the players and the code would function, but also how mass (digital) media entertainment would be produced in a converging global consumer sphere 7 . This wasn’t necessarily anything new in Australian rugby. Afterall, it was essentially, the same player-driven, corporate-supported revolution that provoked the creation of Australian Rugby League in the early 20 th century (Phillips 1994). However, unlike the rebel breakaway league post-WWI, rugby union’s resolution came in the form of a new international administrative and operational response negotiated between newly formed players unions and administrators, enabled ultimately through corporate media sponsorship. Effectively, commercializing and globalizing the game of rugby union. The Australian Rugby Union was now a founding member of an international rugby 6 Ex-Wallaby and Fairfax journalist, Peter Fitzsimmons’ book The Rugby War, published in 1996 embodies the sentiment of the time. 7 Dana Thussu (1998), Electronic empires: global media and local resistance 49
3pm Journal of Digital Research & Publishing co-operative SANZAR 8 responsible for the development and administration of a new professional regional competition and entertainment product – Super 12 Rugby 9 - comprising provincial representative teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. While it was essentially a new and improved version of the Super 10 series, added was the commercial broadcast media commitment (rugby as entertainment for mass market consumption) via a record multi-million dollar broadcasting deal with global corporate Murdoch media empire in the form of Pay TV entity, Foxtel and its affiliates in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa 10 . While financially this enabled professional rugby operations, it also introduced new corporate structures that essentially reinforced the existing fields of power 11 within the traditional institution of the game itself. Effectively extending the sphere of influence from the local to the regional 12 . In 1995, two things happened: rugby turned professional, and the internet (formerly ARPAnet) and the indexed web – what we know as the world wide web (www) became public 13 . Open source software and ICT technology developments introduced new group capabilities to web users that made the www a ‘conversation place’. In 2004, Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg launched a social networking site www.facebook.com 14 and 8 SANZAR is a ruling body and by definition a well-funded institution of power in rugby union administration in the southern hemisphere. Housed within the established power structures of the Australian, New Zealand and South African rugby unions. Its entertainment product, Super 12 is housed within the traditional places of rugby worship (the stadium) and distributed via the SANZAR FOXSPORTS affiliates. The promotion and scheduling of which is re-negotiated between rugby and media executives intermittently, highlights the co-dependency of the media and rugby relationship for the purposes of distributed entertainment. SANZAR’s codes of conduct and rules of governance are written and enforced by the traditional rugby ruling institutions of the national rugby union under the auspices of the International Rugby Board - www.irfb.com 9 Super 12 has subsequently expanded twice and will be known as Super 16 from season 2011. 10 For more information on the history of SANZAR refer: www.rugby.com.au 11 Bourdieu talks of the ‘fields’ of knowledge that can restrict, enable and maintain agency within institutional and social constructs. This is acutely obvious within elite rugby communities. 12 McLuhan introduces the idea of the evolution from the local to the regional and beyond in The Guttenberg Galaxy 13 For a complete history on the development of the internet and the world wide web refer: Henninger’s (2008) The Hidden Web 14 According to Zuckerburg, facebook.com is founded on the idea of sharing information within networks: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2208562130 50
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