It wasn’t until years later that I realized she recognized something crucial in the changing landscape of American sports fandom: people invest far more in individual players today than they have done in the past.
American Sports Fandom: From Team to Player
In years past, sports fandom was strongly defined by location, and people generally cared more about their favorite sport. teams than their favorite players. Many of the fiercest rivalries in NFL history, for example, have been based on proximity. It’s just 184 miles between the home stadiums of the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears, the two titans of the NFL’s most notorious rivalry; only 85 miles separate my Eagles from the home of the Giants at MetLife Stadium. In the past, fans picked a team and stuck with it, and it was easier to stick with a team that had a local fanbase.
This trend seems to be changing for sports fans lately. Brendan Dwyer (2011) explored some of these shifts in his paper on the evolution of fan loyalty: they argued that digital sports technology, especially fantasy sports, could shift our fan feelings from a team-based approach to a player-oriented approach. In the context of fantasy sports, contestants earn points based on the athletic performance of their chosen players. Players earn more points for their fantasy team “managers” by posting better stats, and they lose those “managers” points by making mistakes in the game. More than ever, we are tracking and monitoring contributions closely individual players.
This move towards the player-based spectator has fascinating implications for the relationship between professional gamers and sports fans. Many of us watch teams we don’t even like just to see their star players in action. The Milwaukee Bucks aren’t a worthy sight without Giannis Antetokounmpo; the Memphis Grizzlies don’t make the headlines, unlike Ja Morant. We should expect this heightened scrutiny of individual players versus teams to impact fan perception of these players, but that’s unclear at this time. how these changes in sports leagues have altered the parasocial relationships of fans with athletes.
Parasocial relationships with athletes
The term “parasocial relationship” was first seen in a 1956 publication by Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl in which they analyzed mass media and how consumers relate to personas. Parasocial relationships are imaginary bonds between us and people who don’t know we exist; they are, in essence, our manifestations of the supposed intimacy between us and the people we see on our screens. These (usually one-sided) relationships exist, as Horton and Wohl would say, “between viewer and performer.” Horton and Wohl argued that parasocial relationships can be seen as integral to normal life, tools that can help us socially understand ourselves in relation to others. However, they also cautioned readers against the development of intense parasocial relationships that obscure the realities around us.
Parasocial relationships can look different in different settings. Some of us have posters of our favorite artists on our bedroom walls. Some of us see ourselves as part of a global network of fans, a kind of hive, united by the common goal of defending our “favorites”. Some of us really, Really like watching Bob Ross videos. Even though we haven’t called them by name, parasocial relationships have been around all around us for a long time.
Add comment