3pm Journal of Digital research & publishing - artichoke web design

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3pm Journal of Digital research & publishing logical that digital texts will evolve with the rugby communities just as they migrated from printed, to electronic and now digital communications with group conversations enabled by social media, platforms where players feel comfortable engaging. Rugby Fans Fan groups online 45 are all about participation and engagement with the game of rugby union. Thanks to community support on facebook.com, on Saturday 11 September, 2010, a group of 35+ well-meaning ex-rugby players earned their stripes to sing the national anthem prior to the Australia v New Zealand Tri Nations test match in Sydney. Led by Australia’s modern-day swagman, John Williamson, they called themselves The Old Boys Rugby Choir, 46 . What was their motivation? According to OBRC member, Sean O’Hara, ‘Just to be there in amongst it’ 47 : the opportunity to be front and centre (to participate) rather than observe come Test Match Day. This group of rugby-lovers (some of them ex-1st grade players) managed to mobilize over 10,000 fellow rugby (and non-rugby supporters) via the power of facebook. In less than a week, The Old Boys Rugby Choir group page on facebook had in excess of 13,000 fans and now registers over 14,000. � However, the power of social media, may have not been 45 What Jenkins(1992) would see as fandom functioning as an alternative social community 46 Prime time commercial and Pay TV broadcast coverage was unprecedented (refer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKNT7LIBFc4,, http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=GI6rBSOM3No, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bA-LUNuWis 47 “Yes we were stoked just to be out there. They gave us free tickets to the game we were happy with that. We are not after money or fame just some love!!!” – Sean O’Hara (OBRC member) via facebook email interview on 15 September, 2010 57
3pm Journal of Digital research & publishing as absolute, if the traditional media had not shown their support (Shirky 2010). Not only would The Old Boys Rugby Choir not have had credible content for their story and site, they wouldn’t have had truly mass consumer exposure beyond their local communities (Flew 2007) � . Coupled with privileged access to Rugby HQ: a couple of the group members are prominent businessmen, The Old Boys Rugby Choir use of a mix of old and new media channels with outstandingly efficient results. As professional journalists themselves will admit, Twitter.com is an efficient and effective way for sourcing content (crowd-sourcing � ). While professional journalism, media, and corporate hierarchies still exist and prosper, thanks to technological advances in computers, mobile telephony and new media, they also exist alongside not only each other but new social media platforms which enable an entirely new style of conversation, consumption and participation (Shirky 2010). A by- product of this is random ‘reader’ engagements and non-linear style communications. Conclusion Rugby union fills a particular socio-cultural niche with it’s own unique history and cultural discourse. It has its own ritual patterns, a stable structure of community comprising administrator, fans, supporters, sponsors and players; as well as cultural norms of engagement and relationship patterns � . Twenty-first century media is the antithesis to this. It is global, social, ubiquitous, and cheap, and has created a media environment where the ‘audience’ are now full participants (Shirky, 2010). Within this sphere, the traditional media and communications practice, that was structured around the principle of control, is plausible in the case of rugby union community due to the traditional institutional elite maintaining agency via structure, knowledge and networked relationships. The inherent differences between the way members of the rugby community construct identity and engage online is reflective of traditional social constructs. The arrival of new social media platforms and mobile telephony technologies have not redefined the communities, but afforded a ubiquitous connection to broader community discussions in which engagement is varied and participation optional. Accordingly, new media capability has not redefined professional rugby’s rules of media and fan engagement, although it has exposed some cultural elements of key subgroups such as: hybrid language and colloquialisms used in private conversations between players and their associates and the process of media information distribution. 58
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3pm Journal of Digital research & publishing - artichoke web design

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