James Muggeridge Uncategorized

EP1 EPL VS A-LEAGUE SOCIAL MEDIA

INTRODUCTION

INTRO

My name is James Muggeridge and for BCM241 I will be looking and comparing the social media use of the EPL (English premier league) and the A-League (Australian Football league). In doing this I will aim to find aspects of each leagues’ social media platform which helps them gain an advantage or disadvantage over the other.

So far, I have enjoyed the content highlighted in the subject and the concept of ethnography is something which I feel is so important within the practice of being a media worker. While saying this I think it would be good to highlight that as my career aspiration is to be a journalist, I think this DA looking at media Ehnographies will only benefit my learnings.  

In my pitch I was clearly to vague and didn’t exactly understand the idea of choosing a ‘niche’, however, homing in on social media as a part of the media landscape of both the EPL and the A-League will hopefully define my DA.

WHATS TO COME

I hope to cover the main platforms, Instagram and YouTube, through looking at how each league has transgressed over time and how they distribute their content to targeted audiences. Their are definitive techniques and methods which are applied to appeal to their own audience and this is something I would like to home in on. As football is heavily social and communal, it is so significant that teams and leagues must get their social media platforms on point.

My next episode will focus on how EPL manages their social media platforms. Instagram in particular is such a worldwide form of content which can be accessed by all ages and cultures for fans to digest. They boast different types of media to entice fans (photo, video, games etc). The platforms love to reflect on the history of the league and how prestigious it truly is. Doing this can truly appeal to all ages as the photo and game based content appeals to younger audiences whilst reflecting on the history of the game appeals to the older and more experienced audiences. I will also go into detail about my own experiences with the EPL and how social media entices me into viewing their content and even recently writing about it.

On the other hand, whilst ethnographically analysing the A-League I will look to discover what techniques could be taken from from the EPL which would build their profile, competing with other surrounding leagues. Football in Australia is not really ‘football’ yet it’s called soccer. This is because it shares it’s name with the AFL (Australian football league) and the Rugby (League and Union). Currently A-League is at the bottom of this football hierarchy as it has the lowest popularity record compared to the other two. This needs to change as Australian football has a rich history in the world of football. Whether it was Harry Kewell who played for Liverpool in the champions league or Tim Cahill, a worldwide icon for his incredible skill to head the ball. Their social media performance can evoke change and invite foreign viewers to believe in the game. Because at the moment the A-League is on a downward spiral and is it even close to being on the EPL’s level.

Podcasting on YouTube is a form of content which has sky rocketed. Whether it is a comedy podcast, a news podcast or a sports podcast, podcasting is a great way to distribute opinion on a world which is constantly changing and developing.


James Muggeridge BCM 241

RESEARCH AND ETHICS

Throughout this early period in this subject I have learnt the core properties needed to be a research ethnographer. The idea of choosing a media niche was daunting, however, since choosing a topic which I enjoy and having planned out my research, my field site and problematising my niche, I have learnt so much about ethnography. 

To end the blog posts part of this semester I must identify the key readings which helped myself collect background research for my niche. Furthermore, I will also locate ethical considerations involved in my research and talk about how I will choose to manage them. 

BACKGROUND RESEARCH 

To help narrow down my niche or ‘problematise’ it, I focused on the comparison between the EPL and the A-League. This includes media-based aspects such as how the EPL is marketed compared to the A-League and how both are documented through journalistic outputs. 

Firstly, it was interesting to analyse a book written by Henry Jenkins called ‘Fans, bloggers and gamers’, which focused on the convergent nature of fan culture and sports. He emphasises the impact that media has had in converging within the world of sports. New technologies have enabled an average fan to ‘archive, annotate, appropriate and recirculate media’ in their own personalised style (Jenkins, 2006). This concept circles back to why I picked this niche, for my career aspirations to become a journalist. 

Firstly, Australian football (or soccer) is the most participated of the four Australian football codes (Rugby League, AFL, Rugby Union) yet is the fourth ranked in popularity and attendance.  This is based on its media attention, salaries and revenue generation out of the four total codes. The A-League is growing and must continue to grow linking ‘soccer’ with its multicultural community gained through its ethnic origins (Skinner, 2008).  

Switching from a competition which is in its growth stage to a fully grown financial beast in the world of football, the EPL. I insisted to find out why the English league was so big and came across a book which emphasised looking at the EPL as a business. Every club is a brand which have created their own fan culture and market themselves in their own personalised way (Goldblatt, 2015). This fan culture as well as the financial significance of the EPL displays the league as the richest in the world.  

ETHICS 

My duty of care as an ethnographic researcher is to follow, step by step, the ethics procedure which involves my chosen topic. Researching the EPL and collecting data will not inflict any emotional harm which is the 1st step in the ethics procedure. 

However, I must emphasise care as an important step in the procedure as it is my duty of care to be respectful and be upfront and honest about my research. I must inform my participants of the research I plan to conduct which involves the ‘participant information package’ as a guide. Another principal is allowance for participants to be anonymous. But as said in the lecture it will be tough in the digital landscape to fully confirm the anonymity of the participants. Furthermore, I as the research ethnographer must ask participants and negotiate the confidentiality of the data, hoping to grasp as much of the key data possible to be collected. 

James M