peter jette dissertation

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The following form should be completed, and attached as the cover of each copy of your dissertationsubmitted. Two hard copies of the dissertation must be submitted to the Department of Managementoffice by 6pm on the due day; please note that neither of these copies can be returned. You must alsosubmit your dissertation to Moodle, if you encounter any problems you may send this as an email

attachment to the following email address: [email protected] the deadline.Student NamePeter Jette Student ID

12903158

ProgrammeMSc Sport Managementand the Business of Football

Supervisor Richard Tacon

Title ofDissertation

Strangers On A Plane? An ECommunity

amination Of Social Capital In An Online Fan

Word count18,571

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Strangers On A Plane? An Examination Of

Social Capital In An Online Fan Community

Peter JetteStudent ID 12903158MSc Sport Management and the Business of FootballSeptember 30, 2013

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Abstract

While sport participation has often been seen as having various benefits to those

involved does sport fandom have similar implications? Specifically do the online

communities that have arisen from these fandoms have similar benefits for their

participants? This will be studied in the form of social capital, is social capital created

and does social capital exist within these online fan communities? This research uses a

combination of quantitative and qualitative (primarily qualitative) methods to determine

not only if social capital is created in these communities but also to attempt to describe

and understand these communities and the networks present within them. This

research finds that social capital can be created and does exist in an online community

however its affects may only apply to a small portion of the community. Most interesting

is the impact of user behaviour on the amount of social capital that is available to that

user.

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............................................................................................Background 5

.................................................................................Literature Review 10

.....................................................................................Social Capital Defintion 10

......................................................................Current Social Capital Research 17

...................................................................................................................Blogs 22

............................................................................Online/Offline Ethnogoraphy 24

.........................................................................................Methodology 29

................................................................................................Research Design 29

............................................................................................Research Question 30

........................................................................................Research Limitations 31

...................................................................................................Data Collection 32

.....................................................................................................Data Analysis 35

............................................................................Discussion/Analysis 37

...................................................................................Presentation of Findings 37

.........................................................................................Analysis of Findings 65

............................................................................................Conclusion 72

............................................................................................References 74

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Background

In other words, the Internet was doing two things for Bruce - it allowed him to

separate from the exterior life he hated, but also allowed him to stay engaged

with an interior life he wanted. It was, ultimately the single most important aspect

of who he was: It removed his present tense unhappiness while facilitating the

possibility for future joy. It made the dark part of his mind smaller, but it made the

optimistic part limitless. It added when needed to affix and subtracted what he

hoped to destroy. And maybe this was bad for Bruces humanity, but I think it was

probably good. I think it took a mostly sad man and made him mostly happy. The

degree of authenticity doesnt matter.

Right?1

Chuck Klostermans The Visible Man is a work of fiction but the above quote

illustrates what is a new and emerging element of what it means to be alive, basically

unlimited access to information and people through the internet. Even in the relatively

short time that the internet has been accessible to large numbers of people it has

fundamentally changed the way we live our lives and especially how we interact with

each other.

What has previously been considered a virtual or online reality is an idea that has

to be questioned, is something virtual if it affects ones life? As the line between the

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real world and the virtual world become blurred it is important to understand the

nature of the virtual world and its effects on its participants.

Participation in sport has long been seen as a positive influence on the lives of its

participants. The benefits for ones health, fitness, and physical wellbeing are obvious.

However, there are additional benefits that participation in sport can provide that go

beyond these known effects. These benefits extend in to more ephemeral areas such as

increased self-esteem, development of new skills, and a heightened sense of purpose.

These individual benefits can then be translated into benefits on a societal level and it is

these effects that are used by policy makers and those involved in sport to champion

sport related initiatives. Consider this excerpt from a report on the planned legacy for

the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London that was published by the

Department for Culture, Media, and Sport,

The 2012 Games provide a great opportunity to promote community engagement

and bring people together over a national event, helping to empower and

embolden communities to achieve what they want to do in their area. More

cohesive and proactive communities would be a genuine legacy from London

2012, which would last for generations and would support the creation of the Big

Society. We want to ensure that the Games leave a lasting legacy as the most

equality-friendly ever2

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These larger societal benefits and the mechanisms that allow them to manifest

themselves and be transmitted between individuals and groups can be understood to be

a part of a concept known as social capital.

A more in-depth examination of the various definitions of social capital will be

found later in this paper however in a very brief and rough sense social capital is the

capital that is created through social interactions between individuals. In this definition

the use of capital is analogous to the use of capital in the term economic capital, as

capital is something that is acquired and can be used or spent by whomever possesses

it. To put social capital in to the context of sport, observe this passage from a Canadian

Sport Policy report published by the Heritage Ministry in 2002 which demonstrates an

example of the application and usage of social capital with regards to sport and sport

policy,

Establishing sport clubs and organizing events are great training grounds for

social action. Social capital is built by learning to organize meetings, negotiate for

the use of shared facilities, and deal with expectations, triumphs, and failures 3

In both of these examples of social capital being created through sport the focus

is on participation in sport, either playing a sport or involvement in the organization of a

sport. These ignore what is arguably the most common involvement in sport for most

people and that is the following and spectating of sport. In their work on sport

development Houlihan and White quote Putnam, In football as in politics, watching a

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team play is not the same thing as playing on a team4. In Putnams opinion this passive

relationship with sport is not an interaction capable of creating social capital.

However is Putnams view on following sport correct? And specifically is this view

correct within the context of the emergence of the internet and the online communities

that have been created as a result of the instant and global communication that it

provides. Are the activities of supporting a team or engaging with other fan activities

incapable of creating social capital? This dissertation will attempt to answer this

question using a casestudy approach and examining one of these online football fan

communities and its participants. Is social capital created for its members?

Online social capital research is like the internet itself, a relatively new

phenomenon and research in to social capital online is ongoing. For example studies

have been conducted regarding the social capital implications of the use of Facebook

by university students5 or the use of the social networking site MySpace6.

Of Headbands and Heartbreak is a blog devoted to Real Madrid and football in

general created in December of 2010. Unlike many football blogs the sites content

avoids many of the traditional topics of on-field play, transfers, tactics, or team selection.

The blogs focus is very much on everything else related to football. The closest analogy

may be to a site devoted to entertainment and pop culture coverage as opposed to

sport. Of Headbands and Heartbreaks Manifesto states,

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This is the place for silliness, naughtiness, loving man love, the intense academic

study of DLD and its permutations, gossip, pictures, gifs, fic and whatever

nonsense our highly inventive and disturbing brains can come up with. Hala

Madrid!7

Since their founding the creators have fostered a growing readership. They have

created a strong and active community fueled by both the creators and reader

participation. Their About page lays out some guidelines for commenters stressing

politeness and civility as well as a prohibition on any intolerant comments. Again this

speaks to the creators desire to create an open and welcoming community8. It is this fan

created and operated website, along with its users that will for the unit of analysis for

this research.

This paper will examine the community of readers that currently exists at Of

Headbands and Heartbreak to determine if social capital can be created in an online

community based on sports fandom as opposed to a more traditional observation of

social capital thats related to sport participation. While obviously a more detailed

presentation of the data and findings will follow it is reasonable to say that social capital

can be created and does exist in an online community and this research will discuss this

process as well as what amount of social capital exists.

The following section will examine the literature relevant to this paper and its subject

matter.

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Literature Review

This literature review will be composed of three sections. The first will be an

examination of the concept of social capital as discussed by scholars. As mentioned

previously, social capital is a fluid term with different and wide-ranging definitions that

can be applicable to a variety of situations. Following this exploration of the definition of

social capital there will be a discussion of the research regarding social capital in online

spaces and how it manifests itself in these virtual communities. An examination of the

research on blogs and blogging communities will then establish context for this specific

community being studied. Finally, there will be a brief discussion of online ethnography

and the results of this research.

With a firm understanding of the academic literature related to these concepts

and fields of study, a precise definition of social capital that can be applied specifically to

this research will be created. This will be supported by knowledge of the current

research in the field of social capital as well as an understanding of the more general

research in to online communities with a focus on ethnography.

Social Capital Defintion

When conducting research in to social capital its essential that a clear definition

of social capital be established. It seems obvious to state but without such an

understanding one cannot measure social capital and considering the relatively

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amorphous definition of the term any definition that is too ambiguous will lead to invalid

conclusions. Wendy Stone highlights the importance of a firm understanding of the

concept of social capital and the theory behind it. In her work she also states that a

clear definition is a must for any social capital research9 and outlines key requirements

for successful social capital research. In addition to the importance of a clear definition

she specifically mentions the need be aware that what could be termed the symptoms

of social capital do not necessarily mean that social capital itself is being created. While

these latter concerns apply more to the analysis and discussion of the data, the creation

of a definition begins with the literature. However it is important to remember that as

Adler and Kwon state there is no theory that can incorporate all the existing theories

regarding social capital and transcend their limitations so a a narrow definition that

applies to this research is essential10.

Alejandro Portes work provides a good entry point to the concept of social capital

with his review of the origin of the term social capital and its current uses. He traces the

term to Pierre Bourdieu who saw social capital as the relationships that allow people

access to economic capital. Portes continues on to Loury who felt that economic theory

ignored the importance of social connections and relationships with what could be

termed social capital filling this gap. He then discusses Coleman who defined social

capital as the social structures that allow people to create and access human capital11.

Summarizing these findings Portes describes social capital,

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To possess social capital, a person must be related to others, and it is those

others, not himself, who are the actual source of his or her advantage. As

mentioned before, the motivation of others to make resources available on

concessionary terms is not uniform12

Following his discussion of both the positive and negative aspects of social

capital Portes concludes that while social capital cannot fix the larger societal problems

that it has been applied to, it can have an effect on the individual. However, he makes it

clear that social capital has both positive and negative effects to these individuals13

.

When constructing a definition this cannot be ignored and social capital cannot be

viewed exclusively as creating positive outcomes.

In his work Bowling Alone, which examines the decline of social capital in the

United States during the 20th century, Robert D. Putnam attempts to define social

capital in a relatively general sense. He begins with a comparison between social

capital and other forms of capital such as physical capital and human capital. He

explains that social capital refers to connections among individuals-social networks and

the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them14. Putnam also

discusses the development of the term itself and finds there to have been six separate

inventions of the term, again suggesting that this is clearly a complex and wide-ranging

subject. Putnam further defines social capital describing it as having both individual and

group elements and the importance of connections between both individuals and groups

as being essential to strong social capital. He states, Social capital can thus be

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Adler and Kwon18 have worked to create a definition of social capital through a

thorough examination of many of the previous definitions. The results of their work

focuses on the idea of goodwill. They maintain that Social capital is the goodwill

available to individuals or groups. Its source lies in the structure and content of the

actors social relations. Its effects flow from the information, influence, and solidarity it

makes available to the actor19. Their approach is more cognitive than structural and

understanding the goodwill that is available to community members will also help

understand the reciprocity present in the community and how community members

exchange goodwill between each other.

As Putnam discusses, the networks that allow social capital to be created and

used are crucial20. Krishna and Schrader provide interesting insights on conducting

social capital research with specific reference to networks. They assert that a

researcher must understand the networks that the subject group has created and the

types of networks present in that community. They also draw on the work of Putnam and

his distinction between the horizontal and vertical networks that are involved in the

creation of social capital. They stress the importance of having a clear definition of the

community itself which they believe is necessary to understand these networks. They

advocate the use of maps, diagrams, along with a description of the communitys

assets, services, and institutions21.

Continuing with the networks present in social capital, Cattells studied social

capital and its effects on health and well being in impoverished neighbourhoods. They

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examined both the communities and networks present in these neighbourhoods and

what constitutes social capital within this context22. This goal was combined with the

more general question of its effects on health. Participation in organizations by

individuals in these neighbourhoods and the social capital that arises out of those

interactions was compared to the benefits of employment. Crucial to building an

effective definition of social capital for the context established is the conclusion that

social capital can improve quality of life but cannot explain the relationship of poverty to

health. In a more general sense they saw the study of social capital as something that

helps identify the conditions that contribute to quality of life in a community but can not

find answers to the problems faced by that community23.

A similar, non-online social capital study was conducted by Falk and Kilpatrick.

They studied a rural Australian community. Their premise was that by understanding the

nature of the community and the interactions between the community members they

could see how social capital is created and the processes through which it is created.

They also aimed, like Cattell, to use their research to create a definition of social capital

and arrived at this,

Social capital is the product of social interactions with the potential to contribute

to the social, civic or economic well being of a community-of-common-purpose.

The interactions draw on knowledge and identity resources and simultaneously

use and build stores of social capital. The nature of the social capital depends on

various qualitative dimensions of the interactions in which it is produced, such as

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the quality of the internal-external interactions, the historicity, futuricity,

reciprocity, trust and the shared values and norms24

The expression community-of-common-purpose is an important and attractive

element for a definition of social capital, especially as it is a common purpose, or in this

case, common interest that unites members of many online communities. Traditional

offline geographic or demographic commonalities that can lead to community formation

are not necessarily present in an online forum.

In Wasko and Farajs work on the creation of social capital in an electronic

message board of a legal professional association their definition of social capital

focused on the relationships between the members of a community and the relationship

between member and community. They also described relational capital which is

important to facilitate actions for individuals within the structure25 and the components

of relational capital, commitment, trust, and reciprocity. A similar definition was offered

by Beehive, Steinfeld et al. They used surveys to asses the way employees were using

the site, their demographic information, and the implications of the site and its usage on

social capital. They defined social capital as the resources that derive from the

relationships among people in varying social contexts26

Marques takes an interesting approach to the specific concept of indirect

reciprocity . As he defines it, Indirect reciprocity means that those who give or bequest

something to a second figure receive a counter gift from a third party to whom they have

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given nothing27. He also highlights the idea that important to creating this indirect

reciprocity in a community are the social mediators in a community. He continues to

describe a community where this indirect reciprocity exists and the key to this

community is that its participants contribute to the community without a prompt from a

specific individual. Online communities fit this description as participants can easily

withdraw if they choose to and not fulfill what obligations they may perceive to exist to

other participants. However if an online community can create indirect reciprocity then

these specific obligations become less important28 and the community can sustain itself

and create social capital.

To build on this understanding of the concept of social capital the current

research in to social capital and specifically online research will now be examined.

Current Social Capital Research

To begin is a work not specifically related to an existing or specific social network but a

more encompassing and general quantitative analysis of the internet and social capital.

Wellman et al29 used the National Geographic Society Survery of 2000 as their

data set to study the behaviour of web users and the relationship between this

behaviour and social capital. Wellman et ald findings indicated that the internet can

both supplement and detract from a users social capital. Internet use itself is not

enough to create social capital. They state there are no single internet effects30, it is

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the users behaviour that is essential, to simply observe a online community is not to

observe social capital in action.

There are, of course, more in-depth examinations of social capital. The work of

Wasko and Faraj31 was discussed previously. They examined the online discussion

board of a legal professional association. In their analysis they applied social exchange

theory to the online forum and they found that social capital was created and more

specifically relational and cognitive capital was created. Their conclusion was that

people derive satisfaction from helping others in these forums because it positively

affects their reputation. They also concluded that the individuals who did help others did

not expect help in return, a form of the general or indirect reciprocity discussed by

Putnam or Marques3233.

While Thomsen et al. do not specifically use the term social capital they talk

about the social bonds formed in an online community. They discussed the criticism of

online communities in that they result in weaker connections, or bridging social capital,

as opposed to stronger connections or bonding social capital. However they highlighted

various studies where users had either formed a personal relationship with someone

online, had hosted online forum members offline for a meet-up, and a forum providing

job opportunities and social interaction34.

For more recent study into social networks and communities one can look to

studies such as Pfeil et al. regarding the social capital of MySpace users by age range.

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Their research lead to the finding that younger users possess higher levels of social

capital than older users. The conclusions as to why the level of social capital differs are

informative. They cite two factors as primarily responsible for these differences. One

concerns user behaviour, in that the younger users take advantage of more features of

the site, though they did not determine the reason older users utilize fewer features. The

second factor is related to the personal information shared by users. They found

younger users more willing to share their feelings and emotions as opposed to older

users who were more formal in their behaviour35.

Research regarding social capital and IBMs internal social networking site from

Steinfield et al. has found that internal corporate social networks do have some

relationship with social capital though they cannot state that a causal relationship exists.

Interesting was their finding that the benefits were most pronounced for those who are

younger, new to the company, or geographically far from the company, similar to the

results in the examination of MySpace. They recommend more extensive study that that

would look into a comparison between those who use social networking sites at work

and those who do not.36

Ellison et al. conducted research on the impact of Facebook usage on social

capital and self esteem in university students. They used statistical analysis from survey

data and determined that Facebook use is positively correlated to helping students

create and maintain social capital. They found that Facebook, and networks like it, are

most effective in creating and maintaining bridging social capital and have less impact

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on levels of bonding social capital. They do conclude though that it helps maintain

bonding social capital while not creating it for its users.37 This echoes the work of

Thomson discussed previously.

Hampton and Wellman researched how online interaction supports community

and social capital in an actual neighbourhood. While they found the internet and the

connections it makes possible have beneficial effects for social capital it is not

necessarily general internet use that will be a part of this benefit, but specifically skilled

internet usage. Again, as seen previously, the behaviour of users online has a

connection to the amount of social capital that is created for those users 38.

Fascinating work has been done by Steinkuehler and Williams. They looked at

participants in an online multiplayer game and the community that has arisen through

the gameplay and the interactions of the players. They draw on Oldenbergs concept of

third places and they frame their research as an attempt to prove these games

represent a virtual third place. Roughly, a third place is a place that is not an individuals

home or work, that serves a variety of purposes in those communities, such as a port of

entry for new arrivals to a community, a place to sort community members into like

minded groups and associations, and a place where friendships are established on a

neutral ground39.

They found these games to be the neutral ground that Oldenberg identifies in his

work, where the game is a leveler. This is where real world status is no longer

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important for participants, it becomes a meritocracy in a way that most participants do

not feel a part of in their day to day lives. This exists even to the extent that participants

are disciplined40 for attempting to exercise their real world power in this virtual forum.

Much like a traditional third place these games show the participants engaging in

conversation with fellow customers in a playful way much as one at a local bar. With

regards to social capital they find it to be primarily of the bridging type and not a bonding

type. They find this game to be a part of a retribalization through contemporary

media41. These online fan communities could very much form the new definition of a

third place.

Considering the literature regarding the definition of social capital and the current

research regarding social capital online, an appropriate definition of social capital can

be established for this research. The essential factors inherent in creating online social

capital are user behaviour, and reciprocity along with its associated trust and goodwill

that are present in a community-of-common-purpose 42. Also important to understand

is the type of social capita, is it bridging, bonding, or both? By understanding the

feelings of the communitys participants towards each other and the types of

interactions they have that involve either specific or general reciprocity, an

understanding can be gained as to the presence of social capital in this community, if

any. This can then be compared to the behaviour of the communitys readers and what

relationship exists between the two. This must be prefaced with an understanding of the

community being studied and the networks present in that community. Online

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ethnography has been an effective tool in accomplishing this previously and that

research and its results will also be reviewed.

To further understand the specific nature of this community, which is blog based,

a summary of relevant research regarding blogs and their communities will be

presented.

Blogs

Ducate and Lomicka studied the effects of blogging on students who were

enrolled in a foreign language class. They were asked to both follow a foreign language

blog and later and write their own blog in the language they were studying. Their

findings indicate that when choosing a blog to read, their students were attracted to the

subject matter covered by that blog and looked for shared interests and hobbies to

discuss. Students were also required to comment on their peers posts though they

found that the students did not particularly enjoy reading or writing these comments.

This was partially due to limitations imposed by the instructors on comment content.

While this papers research focuses on users who have chosen to read this blog without

any direction from an authority figure, its informative that content attracts readers, and

commenting freedom is essential. These two facts which must be kept in mind in the

examination of the behaviour of these community members 43.

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Wei discusses the norms associated with blogging in an association of blogs. Her

primary finding is that while one can attempt to establish norms and rules regarding the

actions of a blog or its participants it is the participants of the community itself who are

instrumental in defining the norms of the community44.

Research on the relationships formed through blogs, comments, and links has

been undertaken by Ali-Hasan and Adamic. While their research was based on network

analysis of a variety of blogs this initial research was followed by a more thorough look

at the relationships formed by bloggers through links or comments and if these

relationships extended to offline relationships. They did find that relationships were

created through the comments or links between blogs. While this study examines only

one blog, the comments section can be examined as an initial entry point for users and

user interaction45.

More specific study of the comments section of a blog is the research of Hu et al.

They studied the comments section of a blog using in-depth quantitative content

analysis of these posts. They aimed to determine if the comments affected the readers

perception of the original post and they found that it did46. Comments cannot be

separated from the original post, the thoughts and interactions of the participants of the

community shape users perceptions of the content. When examining this blog and its

community it is important to understand the norms associated with the community as

well as the importance of the comment section for relationship formation which is

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essential to creating trust between readers. Norms and trust are integral components of

reciprocity in social capital.

Online/Offline Ethnogoraphy

Noted social psychologist Gary Alan Fine has written extensively about the role

of leisure in peoples lives and the psychology behind the decisions people make when

it comes to deciding how to use their leisure time. While he was writing about traditional

offline organizations, the concepts apply to online communities as well, which have

become a space for leisure47. In his article Mobilizing Fun48 he describes the how of

leisure as opposed to the why49 and the way that voluntary associations retain and

attract members. This is a process he refers to as the provisioning of satisfaction of

fun50. He highlights, knowledgeability, sociability, and identity symbols as essential to a

successful volunteer based organization and the importance of particular activities that

create sociability. However, sociability is not friendship and all leisure worlds do remain

material worlds at their core that require specific resources, whether real or virtual.

Identity symbols are specifically important to an online community where the

participants level of anonymity allows them to use these symbols to create a persona,

ie. the use of a favourite footballers photo as an avatar on a social network.

In another study, Fine used an ethnographic approach, embedding himself within

five little league teams for three years to make his observations. He specified this as

microethnography51 and stressed the importance of seeing things within the context

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of its mode of transmission, when conducting this kind of research. He describes the

development and existence of any small group in a society, such as a Little League

baseball team, as an idioculture. In his words, An idioculture consists of a system of

knowledge, beliefs, behaviours, and customs, shared by members of an interacting

group to which members can refer and employ as the basis of further interaction52

Fines approach is attractive as it is based on a traditional discussion of sport

participation and its effects. As the goal of this current research is to understand online

sport community participation and its related effects, a similar ethnographic approach,

looking at an idiocultue (the blog) is appealing. Seeing the process of Mobilizing Fun

for this website will be essential to understanding the community and any social capital

that exists within it. Some discussion of ethnography and online ethnography will be

presented here and will be continued in the methodology.

In their work on ethnography, Hammersley and Atkinson trace the definition of

the term to the 19th century where ethnography referred to work describing a

community or culture that was usually foreign to the intended audience. The term

evolved to mean, in their words, an integration of both first-hand empirical investigation

and the theoretical and comparative interpretation of social organization and culture53.

Their further description of ethnography focused the process of ethnography and the

data collection methods. This is broken down in to five main features, the importance of

in the field research, the central use of observation and conversation with participants,

the unstructured data collection, a focus on small cases, and the limited role of

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statistical analysis or quantification. They view ethnography as an open ended and

exploratory process. They felt the task is to investigate some aspect of the lives of the

people who are being studied, and this includes finding out how these people view the

situations they face, how they regard one another, and also how they see themselves.

However this research will not be a traditional ethnography as the community

being studied is a blog based online community. The field of online ethnography is

growing and the research ongoing in this field as well as some examples of related

offline ethnography will be discussed.

Hine examines the history of online ethnography and social research within

internet communities beginning in the mid 1990s54. She discusses the debate between

active online participation when conducting research and lurking, where the

researcher does not participate or engage with the community but observes passively.

She acknowledges lurking as an attractive option but measures this against the

experience, knowledge, understanding and testing of research hypothesis and favours

active interaction with participants55.

A virtual ethnographic approach was used in Boschs research on Facebook and

its use at the University of Cape Town for teaching and learning. Her definition of virtual

ethnography is broader than others, as she explains it, merely draws on the basic

principles of ethnography. In her research she was able to describe the strengths and

limitations of Facebook for learning purposes by understanding the underlying networks

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and usage patterns of an online community56 . She found that while Facebook is an

attractive tool as it appeals to a younger generation, it may not be equipped for learning

purposes and her understanding of the network allows for her to cite examples of better

equipped networks57

Leander and McKims work on online ethnography raises some interesting

questions with regards to researchers approach to offline and online spaces, as they put

it, Re-spatializing the Internets Relation to the Real World. They propose seven

different ways offline and online activity and social spaces interpenetrate58

. In their

summary they discuss the needs of people in online communities and the researchers

observing them, to create the distinction between offline and online spaces and how do

those shape online and offline practices and identities59. These are questions that

must remain at the forefront of the research and it is important to avoid creating this kind

of binary distinction especially with regards to social capital, online and offline

interactions must be treated as interrelated activity.

In their work with online communities Agneli, Bowl, and Hawk, highlight issues of

moderator versus participant, online social cues and the role of authority figures 60. The

role of the sites creators/moderators must be considered in the research and how they

shape the community61.

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An ethnographic approach has been used to good effect by researchers both off

and online, further discussion of the specific methodological approaches will addressed

later.

With a definition of social capital established and an understanding of both the

research in to social capital and ongoing research in to blogs and blog communities

there is an excellent foundation for this research. This will be combined with an

approach based in online ethnography as it suits the aims and goals of describing a

community, the networks within it, and most importantly the members of the community.

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Methodology

Research Design

This paper will use an ethnographic approach which is based on a single case

study. The case was selected based on what Thomas refers to as a Local Knowledge

case,

a local knowledge caseand this will be relevant particularly for the practitioner

or student researcher. In ones own place of work, ones placement, or even

ones home, there will be intimate knowledge and ample opportunity for informed,

in-depth analysis62

Of Headbands & Heartbreak is a local knowledge case. I was personally found

by the blog after I was contacted by their creator about some Real Madrid T-shirts I had

designed asking permission if they could post the designs on their site. I obviously

agreed and had some correspondence with the creator of the site. When looking for an

appropriate case for this research, this site came to mind. After an initial observation of

the comments, the blog appeared to have the kind of active community that would be

appropriate for this research. I contacted her and she agreed to participate and assist in

finding survey and interview subjects. While not the traditional football blog or website it

is very much an online community where sport is the common thread bringing people

together.

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The work of Androutsopoulos looks at the advantages and drawbacks of an

online ethnography based on discourse analysis. While he is focused on research in

linguistics his findings on ethnography and online community study can be applied

across other areas of study. Importantly he describes how the effectiveness of a

combination of both objective and subjective data and the effectiveness of interviews

combined with the more systematic approach of discourse analysis can benefit an

online ethnography. In addition to this he emphasizes how an online ethnography does

not need to claim to be a full ethnography, which fits with the broad definition of what

constitutes an ethnography discussed previously. He then details how elements of

ethnography can be incorporated in to different types of academic study, an approach

that could benefit this research63.

Considering this current research, a combination of quantitative and qualitative

methods will be used. However with the definition of social capital being primarily

cognitive and based on more qualitative data, the bulk of the research will be based on

qualitative methods.

Research Question

What is the nature of this community and what are the networks present within it?

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Is social capital created through the interactions of football supporters in an online

community?

Research Limitations

There are limitations to this type of research that must be discussed, especially

within the context of online research.

One limitation that is discussed by Kraut et al. is the lack of a lab setting to verify

respondents information and the possibility that participants who are acting

anonymously are filling out the survey in a frivolous manner or even attempting to

sabotage the research with deliberately incorrect responses64. However as also

mentioned by Kraut et al. using IP addresses to identify unique respondents and a close

analysis of the responses can limit this risk65.

Furthermore, Hookway details his experience in using blogs as a source of data

for research and the concerns that one has regarding the authenticity of what is

published on a blog, and by extension the authenticity of those participating in online

research anonymously. He argues that by using anonymity with screen names and

created identities it can allow the writer to actually express more honest opinions and

thoughts though he also mentions that conversely, there is no way to know that

whatever is being presented is not in fact a total fabrication and not just honesty hidden

behind a pseudonym. He counters this by discussing the different yet still interesting

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implications of a fictional blog and, more importantly to this paper, that even in a

laboratory environment a researcher cannot ensure the truthfulness of the

participants66.

Another limitation specific to online research that has been highlighted is that it

excludes those without easy access to a computer67. It is possible there are community

members with limited computer access who would choose to be more involved with site

if they had the opportunity.

Data Collection

The research for this report took three forms. The first was a basic quantitative

content analysis of the activity on the site for a period of one month, March 2013. This

analysis tracked the number of posts on the site and the commenting activity associated

with these posts. Tabulations included the number of comments per post, the number of

unique commenters per posts as well as the number of comments that were replies/

responses to existing comments and the total number of unique commenters across the

month. This is very roughly based on Angeli et al. discussion of Henris68 content

analysis of online comments.

The second part of data collection were interviews coupled with a qualitative

online survey component which was an approach recommended by Beck. In her work

on an online Israeli support community they detail their approach which first involved

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online observation, followed by content analysis and then offline interviews with

participants in the community. As she states,

This article supports the use of qualitative methodology to conduct Internet

research based on the integration of data-gathering methods online and offline

as the key to achieving rich ethnographic material. There are reciprocal relations

and links that exist between the culture of the Internet and between the wider

processes taking place in the society69

Related to this approach was the decision to employ a survey. When conducting

initial discussions with one of the sites creators and moderators they suggested that

more feedback might be acquired with the addition of a survey. She had some

experience with this data collection method and online football surveys and felt that

some users would be more comfortable with a more passive and anonymous

experience. Paldam describes some common issues with social capital related

questionnaires. While his work is more focused on quantitative analyses of social capital

he believes these issues can be applied to qualitative research as well. The four areas

of concern are saliency, goodness, concreteness, and closed versus open questions.

More salient questions provide more robust but less comparable answers, goodness is

the tendency of respondents to want to be nice and good, and concreteness refers to

the fact that more robust answers arise from more concrete questions70. With this in

mind the questionnaire was based around relatively concrete but open ended questions.

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The survey was designed to both gain an understanding of the community and

its motivations and behaviours as well as to gather information related to the existence

of social capital in the community, specifically reader relationships, and reciprocity. As

the survey was suggested in lieu of interviews for those not comfortable with an

interview or those wishing to preserve anonymity, no demographic information was

requested71 and the questions that were asked were open ended in an attempt to best

replicate the semi-structured interviews. As noted by Gray, open-ended questions allow

for much more detailed and revealing answers compared to closed questions72.

Additionally there was an opportunity for respondents to leave an email address for

follow up questions. This is another advantage of the open question format that is

described by Gray.

Interviews were semi-structured. Gray highlights how semi-structured interviews

are ideal for this kind of research as they allow the interviewer to respond to the

answers of the interview subject and pursue new avenues of questioning that the

interviewer feels are important to the research and could be enlightening 73. Interviews

conducted via Skype voice chat, Skype instant messaging, and email. Voice interviews

were transcribed after their completion.

For both the survey and the interviews, the sample was a convenience sample

made up of volunteers. There are limitations with a volunteer sample, as stated by

Coombes, the respondents have chosen to participate in the survey and when

analyzing data this must be taken in to account74. This kind of convenience sampling is

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suitable in an instance such as this where Fink identifies that convenience samples are

useful if the surveyor is certain that the responses apply to the target population75. In a

case study such as this every respondent is a member of the community and therefore

the target population. All participants were informed of their rights with regards to

personal information and consent and had the option to withdraw from the study at any

time. All names that were obtained from interviewee have been replaced with

pseudonyms and pseudonyms were generated for the survey respondents who did not

provide any information.

Data Analysis

While the research does have a question at its core, the descriptive nature of this

research lends itself to using a grounded approach for analysis. With the qualitative

nature of the research and specifically the interviews, the grounded approach allows for

the meaning behind the statements of the participants to be examined76.

The responses have been presented in general categories that align with the

goals of the research. They progress from questions relating to the community and user

behaviour within the community to the more specific analysis of the responses and what

they indicate about the amount of social capital present within the community. The

discussion and analysis will now follow.

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Discussion/Analysis

Presentation of Findings

The initial discussion of the data will begin with a basic analysis of the posts on

the blog for a month as well as the corresponding data related to the comments in each

post. This was done to establish the level of activity in the comment section, which as

discussed77 is essential to the formation of relationships between readers in a

community such as this. The data was taken from the month of March 2013 during

which there were 114 unique posts on the site. Refer to this chart (Fig1) for further data

related to the posts.

Fig1

Unique users represent the number of individual readers who posted a comment

and replies refer to the number of comments which were in response to a comment that

was made by another reader. Over this one month period there were 128 different

0

3.25

6.50

9.75

13.00

Posts Per Day Unique Users Per Post

6.237.39

12.45

3.65

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unique readers who posted a comment. Nine posts had no comments while the highest

number of comments for a single post was 113.

Again, this is a very basic form of quantitative content analysis, however it does

show an active community with a range of participants who not only voice their thoughts

on the content but respond to the thoughts of others, the very basic form of reader

interaction and relationship building.

This analysis will continue with the qualitative discussion of the site, its

community, and its users. How long people have been reading the website, how they

arrived on the website and the reasons they have stayed on the website will be

discussed.

This chart (Fig2) displays a breakdown of how long the questionnaire

respondents had been on the site. Please note that all readers were not entirely specific

and values have been rounded to the nearest half year.

Fig2

0

4

8

11

15

6 Mths Or Less 1 Year 1.5 Years 2 Years 3 Years

5

13

2

11

6

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When asked how they arrived at the site there were a variety of responses

however they can be broken down roughly into two groups. The first group are those

who found the site through a search for specific subject matter that the site covers and

the second group are those who found the site through a referral from another site.

The first group is significantly larger with 32 out of 37 respondents finding the site

through organic methods. These specific topics were mentioned by readers as reasons

for reading the site; Football, Real Madrid, the Spanish National Football Team, the

2010 World Cup, Sergio Ramos, Mesut Ozil, Jose Mourinho, Guti, hot men, and hot

guys. However this alone does not indicate why readers stayed on the site as their are

numerous websites devoted to these topics As discussed previously, the shortest period

of time for a reader on the blog was six months. For those who were referred to the site

from elsewhere, the source was the blog Kickette, which stopped regular posting in

December of 201278.

The respondents answers provided further detail as to why they remained

reading the blog. Not all respondents specified why they continued to read the blog but

for those who did there were two general answers. The first regards the tone and

content of the blog which was praised by the respondents for being fun, entertaining,

light, and positive. Two readers specifically said the blog was a welcome contrast

from other Real Madrid sites that were more news focused. For these two readers the

different tone and approach of the blog compared to a more serious site (one reader

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mentioned ESPN as an example) was an important part of why they remained on the

blog and this is consistent with the other less specific comments that reference the tone

and attitude of the blog.

Additionally, there were three respondents who read the blog because of their

desire to read find a more female-centric approach. Their responses to the question

were as follows, Lara, Was searching for blogs about Real Madrid written by women,

Sydney, Huge fan of Real Madrid , place where I can discuss the team and as a

female, discuss it with other ladies who appreciate the tea and the sport, Megan, Its

one of the few communities for female Real Madrid/football fans to enjoy without

misogyny/sexism. The blog was created by women and the blogs manifesto promotes

a welcoming and tolerant environment so these respondents comments are not

surprising. Misogyny remains a massive issue in sport and the discussion of sport.

Creating a safe space for women to express their views on sport has been successful in

attracting female readers to this blog.

From these responses it appears that the blog has been able to attract readers

and create a community, initially through generally organic means. Yet it seems that it is

the tone and personality of the site, its content and creators that have kept the

respondents reading, generally for over a period of one year.

When examining the responses of those interviewed, how they found the blog

and why they continue to read, the answers were very similar to those who completed

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the questionnaire. All of the interviewees have been reading the blog for at least one

year with two of them reading for two years. Much like the questionnaire respondents

they also found the blog through organic means and enjoyed it enough that they

continued to read. Their responses about why they had continued reading the blog

again focused on the tone, attitude, and different content of the blog compared to the

bigger, more traditional football websites. As reader Chrisitine said, They seemed to

like they same sort of things that I do, she continued,

I like that they talk about the guys and what theyre wearing and all the superficial

aspects of it, but at the same time, they do watch the games. They know what

theyre talking about

In a similar vein Desiree stated it was, Football news with a more female friendly

take. These answers continued and provided a more in-depth perspective of the initial

feelings readers had about the community, Andrea had this to say about her first

impressions, When you look at the people who were posting, it was thoughtful,

considered...It seemed like a conversation you would have with someone sitting next to

you, or a friend. Jane also enjoyed the tone of the blog and the friendly attitude she

found within the community, which was a contrast from other sites she read. These

thoughts were echoed by the other interviewees who all appreciated what they found to

be an active and positive community that retained their interest after their first visits.

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As seen from Desirees answer, that she enjoyed the female-centric tone of the

blog and as discussed in the responses from the questionnaire, the female oriented

nature of the blog is very attractive to certain readers. The interviews allowed for more

detailed discussion of this topic, for example, from the interview with Desiree who was

discussing a response she got from another reader when posting on another football

blog, Someone on Dirty Tackle, like literally once said, Get back in the kitchen. This

was echoed by Christine who generally described the negative comments from male

readers she received on other sites to be, Youre a girl you dont know what youre

talking about.

Desiree continued describing the female nature of community of the blog

A blog that specifically follows one football team primarily but will sometimes

bring in things from, news from other teams, and that it is meant to be a place for

women, primarily, but that its like welcoming to everybody its not like you cant

read this site if youre not a girl. But that definitely its run by two women and that

there is definitely there is, these players are really cute in addition to the fact that

we enjoy the game

Similarly Christine had more to say regarding why the blog appeals to her,

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I wouldnt mind if there were more guys, that would be ok too...but it is ok, I like

this blog because it is run by women...men will automatically not care or that you

dont understand the offside rule

In the interview with one of the blogs creators, Julie, she identified a lack of a

safe space for women to discuss football as one of the driving forces behind creating

the site, her experiences on other football sites were similar to the readers.

That's another thing that bothered us about other football sites. If you have a

vagina, apparently you must not know about the game and you must also think

with it at all times79

However she continued to explain that she was not only worried about sexism

from male users but also conflict between female readers,

Second, was the nastiness leveled at WAGs 80. The sheer amount of slut

shaming, calling women fat, ugly or whores just because they were dating

players makes me ill. Seeing women attacking other women depresses the shit

out of me. We have enough problems without tearing each other down. And I

hate young women getting into that mindset.

This female directed blog has adopted content that attracts the female fan. The

safe space the blogs creators have encouraged and nurtured is equally attractive.

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These examples here of outright sexism and misogyny have stuck with those who have

encountered them as one would expect them to. Creating a safe space is essential to

the creation of the trust that is such a key component of social capital.

The answers of the interviewees mirror those of the survey participants. The tone

and content of the blog were successful in maintaining their readership past the initial

visit. Of equal importance was the female friendly space where the members of the

community can feel safe to express their opinions without the fear of a sexist comment

in response.

As demonstrated, the role of the blogs creators and their position as moderators

in the community has been instrumental in the sites success. This was something that

was discussed by survey respondents and interviewees. While it was not directly

addressed in the questionnaire, some readers felt the need to mention the moderators

role without prompting. These responses from the survey lead to additional questions

regarding the moderator/creator role to be included in the interviews. For those who

mentioned it all of them agreed that creator/moderator role in the community helped

create the positive feelings that they associated with community. In her interview Irina

described them as being brilliant in what they do and then had this to say about their

work on the site when asked directly about them,

Well, they're funny, kind, they stand to what they write. I like it when people can

express their opinions. They built this blog from nothing, they look at all aspects

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of Real Madrid really, they can be serious when needed and funny the rest of the

time, they really can involve the readers in their posts, they're "close" to them. not

like we're posting this and done. that relates back to community as well.

Carol had this to say,

Because of the leading girls approach. You can feel by reading the post they are

intelligent, smart, funny, and firs (sic) and foremost totally dedicated to their side.

They are hard workers and attract other individuals of the same profile. Ladies

are consistent never lose the point, they know exactly what theyre talking about

Other respondents reiterated these thoughts, especially praising the work of the

creators in maintaining a friendly atmosphere in the comments and moderating the

discussion. In her interview Andrea identified the personalities of the creators as being

instrumental to its success and Jane compared them to mothers keeping the house in

order. She also singled out one of the creators defending community members during

disagreements and maintaining fairness. When asked about the role of the creators

Desiree highlighted the existing friendship between the creators as creating the friendly

tone that she appreciates,

And I definitely think that there is a sense that like, people who are friends started

this blog because they love football and specifically love Madrid, and I think when

you have people who are already friends put that out there, it just sort of lends it

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this air of being, like a nice chatty place, and not just like, a random website or

message board that people might go on and its kind of faceless

As was discussed by8182 the role of a moderator in an online environment is

crucial. Not only do they curate content, they establish a tone, and in the case of this

blog, a safe space, that readers find very appealing.

The second portion of the survey asked respondents to describe the level of

participation in the sites community and whether or not their participation had changed

since they began reading the site. To determine if readers were participating, they were

asked if they posted in the sites comments, which are a feature of every post. This is

the base level of active participation, no personal information must be surrendered to

comment and any comment can be posted within the commenting rules established by

the sites creators. This forum for reader communication is essential to the community

and the creation of any social capital.

The first question asked if readers posted in the comments and if so, how often.

Of the 36 readers surveyed, 30 of them have posted in the comments. Of this 30, two of

them no longer post in the comments and four are very infrequent posters. This leaves

24 of the 36 readers who post on a regular basis. As seen in the examination of the

sites content and comments, this still represents only a part of one months unique

commenters.

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Of the commenters, when asked if their participation level had changed since

joining the site the overwhelming response was yes. The only readers who said it had

not, were those who do not comment at all and two readers were began participating in

the comments immediately. The remaining respondents all indicated a change in their

participation. For most of these readers it was an increase in participation, in a follow-up

email to Vanessa, they had this to say about their increase in commenting

At first I did not participate because it seemed like everyone kind of knew each

other and I was new to the blog. But then I realized that a lot of these people

have never met or solely know each other because of the blog, which gave me

confidence in voicing my opinion. It also helped that the blog writers seemed very

welcoming and friendly in their posts as well as their follow up comments

This sentiment was echoed by other readers who felt that after reading the blog

and not participating, (lurking was the word used by some readers), that their

confidence had increased and they felt more comfortable posting their thoughts. Also

mentioned by two readers was the yearly La Liga fantasy football competition (which

currently features 52 participants83) as a catalyst for increased participation in the site.

Three respondents said that their level of participation had decreased. One

stated that they felt their comments were only repeating what others had said but they

still enjoyed reading the comments of others, another gave no specific reason for their

decrease in participation and as Alexa states, it seems theres a lot more aggression

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and conflict as their reason for a decrease in participation, though they still read the

posts.

Participation levels in the site were also discussed with the interviewees. In her

interview Andrea who described herself as an introvert, said that it took her two to

three months before she felt comfortable and began to comment. She highlighted what

she believes to be a more adult community and how it eliminates the emotional

immaturity that comes with being a fan as a contributing factor to her participation in

the comments. This was echoed by Christina, its nice having it be mostly adults too.

Jane also began commenting quickly, in her words, I jumped right in. Lisa had

similar thoughts as Andrea though she began commenting relatively quickly, within two

weeks of first reading the site she started to participate in the comments. As with

Andrea, her reluctance to comment immediately was tied to her general behaviour, I

listen before I talk in large groups, so it figures that I'd read before I'd write on a

website.

Christine and Desiree had very similar experiences when it comes to

participation in the comments and the community as a whole, both of them did not

comment initially but do so now. Desiress describes herself as a more active participant

who comments, a lot, she is active reading other comments and will respond to

comments that she finds interesting or is in response to one of her original comments.

Christine limits her comments to what she described as the bigger topics.

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knowledge, they did mention how reading the interactions and conversations in the

comments section had lead them to know that the readers were adults and specifically

they both mentioned how they had learned that many readers were grad students.

The responses of the readers regarding comments and participation on the blog

demonstrate again that by creating a positive and welcoming environment described by

readers in the discussion of their reading habits and motivations, you can develop a

comfort level that will lead them to active participation in the community. While not all of

those questioned do comment and some have decreased their level of participation, to

see the majority of the respondents increase their participation is a positive sign towards

creating goodwill. This was especially clear in the interviews where all interviewees who

were active participants in the site found they were getting to know other readers

through what they read and the conversations found in the comments section.

Without reader interaction there is no way social capital can be created and

posting a comment and feeling comfortable doing so is the first step towards these

interactions. It is the first chance for readers to gain any knowledge about the other

readers, limited as such knowledge may be. In the following section these more in depth

interactions will be examined.

Readers and interviewees were asked if they had ever been in contact with

another reader outside of the site either online and offline, how would they describe

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their relationship with other readers, and about the methods of communication they had

used to interact with other readers.

For the original question regarding interaction with other readers outside the site,

eight of the 36 questionnaire respondents said they had been in contact with readers

outside of the site and of those eight, three readers said they had met other readers in

person. Twitter and email were the main methods of interaction between readers

outside of the site. For those who had met offline, they met at the Real Madrid matches

in the United States. Of the seven interviewees, all of them indicated that they had been

in contact with other readers outside of the site, and two of had met another reader

offline.

The question asking readers to describe their relationship with other readers was

characterized by generally very positive responses. For those who had not been in

contact with other readers, many indicated that they had no relationship at all with

another reader. However of this group there were also a number of readers, 15 of the

26, who even without direct contact with each other felt there was a relationship to be

described. The most common description from these readers was, friendly, along with

words such as, cordial, good, jovial, and informal. Two readers did mention that

there had been heated interaction and debate in the comments but that overall their

feelings were positive.

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Interesting were some of the longer responses, from Kelly, I feel like were

friends, yet Ive exchanged virtually nothing with them. We all love Madrid and the boys

associated with them. Of, and we love futbol!, from Melanie, They act like family.

Football bonds people together., and Allison, Group of friends with the same hobby.

While these feelings regarding other readers are just that, feelings, and they do not

meet the definition of social capital it does show people who feel positively about a

community and with the right facilitation, these passive readers could become more

active and begin to interact with other readers.

When examining the responses of those who had interacted with other readers

the responses were also very positive. Again things were characterized as friendly,

cordial, and fun. Interestingly two more specific answers from readers who had met

other readers in person had very different tones. From Alexa,

I feel like the people who have been commenting for a long time are friends of a

sort. I enjoy their company online and look forward to the times I get to meet

them in real life. The people Ive met are so different from me in so many ways,

but theyre awesome to talk to

However, Victoria had a different perspective,

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i dont have a relationship with any of them. i recognise (sic) names, i remember

a few details about the people behind those names, but i dont live near any of

them and because i dont post on the site any more, there is no relationship at all

Obviously reader interaction and site participation is not sufficient enough to

meet the definition of social capital but as can be seen from the thoughts and feelings of

the readers, a feeling of community persists. The readers feel positively about other

readers even without any interaction. This positivity can be useful in creating social

capital among readers as interaction is more likely when goodwill and trust exists.

The interviews allowed for a more in-depth examination of the relationships

between the readers and how they felt about each other. All of the interviewees

described their feelings about the other readers as generally positive. Andrea described

the blog and its community as a team and she continued further, describing her

thoughts about the other readers,

Diverse, welcoming, sense of humour, I think those are maybe the best three...its

just fun...its fun to read comments from people who post all the time...its fun to

read comments from new people. It seems to have a great deal of diversity

behind it

She does not communicate with any other readers outside of the site except for

one of the blogs creators and those interactions were through Twitter. She highlighted

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the use of screen names as a hindrance to interaction as the anonymity they provided

made it difficult to contact other readers, or as she said, you dont want to track

somebody down, thats creepy.

Irina characterized her relationship differently. As opposed to Andreas feeling the

blog was a team, Irina focused more on the specific, more personal relationships she

had formed with readers from the site. She mentioned readers that she had met through

the site by name and explained that she now communicated with them through Twitter

and email. Even with her more personal approach she still had good feelings about the

community as a whole, while at HB&HB you've those people you just know because

they're always around, and all the insider jokes. She contrasted this with another Real

Madrid blog where she found its more formal tone made it difficult to create the type of

community shes found on HB and HB.

When she was asked to describe her relationship with the other readers, Lisa

had an interesting response,

To me, chatting on a website is like chatting with people on an airplane- striking

up a conversation with a bunch of strangers to have some fun. Sometimes

they're deep conversations, sometimes they're small talk... I'd say my relationship

with the other readers is generally friendly. I'm not super close to anyone on the

site, but I like to talk to most everyone

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In a similar vein, Jane compared her relationship to that of colleagues in a

workplace, placed together through a common circumstance though not necessarily

with the depth of friendship that one finds through more natural means.

Christina and Desiree had very similar thoughts. They both found the readers to

be friendly, and both felt that the common interest in Real Madrid and the specific way

this manifests on HB and HB defined their relationships with the other readers. Desiree

felt that this was partially a result of what she described as the self-selected nature of

the community and the fact that people want to be here. As she described when

discussing another football blog, people get so angry that someone is talking, like,

about something that you dont like, that you have to come and like comment.

Any negative feelings about the readers and the community expressed by the

interviewees were related to disagreements in the comments section. In her discussion

of the community Irina talked about the rude people who had been a part of the

community. She felt that those rude participants did usually leave the blog and believed

their presence was more symptomatic of the internet as a whole, They're everywhere.

Desiree found things could get heated between readers in the comments section

though she believed this was due to specific content related to Real Madrid. Lisa

echoed these sentiments,

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I've chimed in about everything from "the great goalkeeper debate" to the

cuteness of Fernando Torres. So the level of seriousness varies, and the

potential for tempers to flare varies

These are relatively minor issues for these readers as they are established and

confident members of the community. However, these debates and arguments in the

comments section could discourage new readers from continuing to read the site or

making the choice to participate in the comments. As found in the definition of social

capital used for this research, social capital has both positive and negative effects

Overall these interviewees have positive feelings about the community and its

participants. They find the other readers to be friendly and they are interested in reading

their thoughts through the comments section. Desirees comment about the community

being self-selected is informative. Similarly, Irinas belief that the rude people leave

the blog seems to reinforce this idea. This again speaks to the general tone and attitude

of this website or any website. Readers do self-select and to create a healthy and

vibrant community a sites creators/moderators must make an effort to create an

environment where users do choose to be there.

The final series of questions on the questionnaire were designed to be the most

specific in determining the amount of social capital that has been created as a result of

the community and the interactions amongst the readers of this site. In the first of these

questions respondents were asked if they have ever helped another reader or been

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helped by another reader and in the second question respondents were asked about

any in-person meetings between readers. This had been partially covered previously

but this question asked for further detail regarding those meetings.

The first question cuts to the core of the concept of social capital, and specifically

reciprocity. Simply interacting and talking with other readers is not enough to qualify as

social capital, those relationships and friendships are important in the creation of social

capital but it is when the more transactional, exchange based interactions occur that

social capital is created.

Of the 37 responses, 24 of them reported that they had no interaction with

another reader where they helped someone or they were helped themselves. These

were readers who generally had very little to no interaction with other readers and

described their relationship with the others as non-existent or insignificant. It should be

noted that one respondent did answer that they had helped other readers and been

helped but they specified they had done this on another site. Robyn, Not yet!

expressing a willingness to participate in the future.

For the 13 respondents who did report that they had helped another reader or

been helped, there were a variety of ways in which these acts manifested themselves.

The size and nature of these interactions were generally smaller and less involved,

though some of them formed deeper connections with more involved commitments.

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The most basic of these interactions were focused on topics relating to the sites

content, Real Madrid/football. These minor acts included posting score updates for a

match for other readers, translating a Real Madrid related video that was not in English

for other readers, and one reader who said they found the posts helpful in finding other

stories and content both football related and not football related. The most serious and

involved of these actions relating to Real Madrid/football was from Sydney who needed

assistance purchasing tickets for a match. They used the comments section to solicit

advice

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