Ensayos propuestos

The participants featured in this research come from a range of ages, disciplines, club

loyalties and genders in order to provide as holistic a picture as possible to provide empirical evidence to each research question. The topic of the boundaries of this study and SCFC as a vehicle of this study were previously discussed. Some of the participants in this research were involved with SCFC and some were involved with other football clubs and relevant

organisations. The rationale was to provide answers to the research questions from a variety of perspectives.

5.12.1.Participant observation

The data from participant observation is presented in the next chapter as illustrative examples to support other data and answer the research questions. The data presented includes

screenshots from various social media channels including websites, forums, Twitter, Facebook and others. As discussed in the methodology chapter, these observations were taken from two years of regular and extensive participant observation and screenshots and annotations of key moments. This data was transferred to Nvivo and analysed using the same coding system as the other methods. It is worth noting that the sheer size of this file caused Nvivo some problems in terms of dealing with the data, which repeatedly crashed the software. Updating the software and persisting overcame these issues.

The identities of participants were disguised by the use of strategic cropping or blurring out of names, profile pictures and other information in order to keep the identity of the

participants anonymous. The only exception to this is where the person is a public figure on a publically accessible website such as a football player or celebrity. These few examples remained as illustrative examples in the spirit of fair use in order to fully answer the research questions and to present an accurate portrait of the culture under study. Obscuring the

identities of celebrities would have compromised the meaning and presentation of the data as an illustrative example. This ties with the earlier point around ethical standards and flexibility (Markham, 2012).

5.12.2.SNA

SNA diagrams from Twitter are also presented in the findings where relevant. SNA was used as part of the blend in order to identify the boundaries, participants and key influencers in this study. In some cases, the diagrams themselves are presented to support a specific point. It is

single method, but the data was blended with the other two methods in order to improve the quality of the data presented overall. Usernames remained visible, but no other qualitative data was displayed relating to those users on the public and open network of Twitter. Data from SNA was coded in the same way as the other two methods. SNA was used as a foundation and a ‘glue’ to enable and support the other two methods. The type of research questions answered by SNA as a single method would be more related to digital netnography as discussed earlier. This was not the focus of the research questions used in this thesis, but SNA was still an important part of the blended methods strategy.

5.12.3.Interviews

There were a total of 35 interviews with 25 interviewees who were officially interviewed as participants for this study. Some of these participants were interviewed multiple times at varying intervals to ask new questions including what (if anything) had changed over time. There were three primary phases of interviews at different parts of the study:

• Phase 1 in 2015 – initial interviews

• Phase 2 in 2016 – new and follow up interviews

• Phase 3 in 2017 – a final three verification interviews with social media and football brand managers / experts

The dates of interview varied depending on the phase of study and the availability of

participants, so the timing was also fluid. In some cases, interviews conducted online spanned over several days and sometimes weeks.

All participants are outlined in the table below and were assigned an interview participant ID number in order to protect their anonymity as per the ethical guidelines adhered to in this study. The Participant ID is represented in the data as P1, P2 etc. The table below outlines the people interviewed and their roles, which is relevant information regarding their connection to the research whilst maintaining their anonymity. The interviewees were chosen because of their connection to football and social media and relevance to this study. All of these people are fans of football who use social media to communicate about football. Some use social media and website channels within their job role or voluntary role in order to communicate with fans and some are the fan recipients of this message locally or internationally.

The table indicates the number of interviews that occurred. The number depended on the availability of the interviewee and their importance to the study.

Participant

ID Role

Number of interviews

P1 Football Social Media Officer, non league 2

P2 Football Webmaster, non league 1

P3 Football club Project Manager, non league 1 P4 Director of Communication, Championship football club 1

P5 FA communications official 1

P6 Football Fan 1

P7 Football Fan & social media volunteer, non league 1

P8 SCFC Follower from the UK 1

P9 SCFC Follower from India 3

P10 Head of Communications of a non league football club 1

P11 Football journalist and academic 1

P12 Football Fan / forum user 1

P13 Football Fan and photographer 1

P14 Football social media officer 3

P15 Social Media expert and football fan 1 P16 Managing Director and social media expert 1 P17 Manager of Digital Sports Communications company 1

P18 Football social media officer 2

P19 SCFC Fan from Venice, Italy 2

P20 SCFC Follower from Florida, USA 2

P21 SCFC Follower from Russia 2

P22 Owner of SCFC 2

P23 New current fan of SCFC 1

P24 Founder of Digital Sport Company 1