The World Wide Web and mobile telephony have transformed the consumption of professional sport globally by enabling the consumer to simultaneous occupy the role of both consumer and producer. Thus, consumers’ participation in the creation of sport content has given rise to prosumerism which fundamentally moves the consumer from a passive role to an interactive role. The spectator, assuming either a consumer or a fan role, encourages the transition from static to interactive consumerism. Prosumption is explored in this essay in relation to how it is encouraged through the World Wide Web and mobile telephony with focus on how the recent revolution of user-generated sport-based content online continues to support the transformation of global sport consumption. Examples are provided to substantiate the role of prosumers since the rise of the internet.
2. Defining main Concepts
2.1. World Wide Web
The World Wide Web, invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, serves as an online structure of various internet servers that specifically support HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language), graphic,video, audio and combination documents and files.
2.2. Web 2.0
The features and utilisation of online technology to facilitate improved interactivity,communication, secure information sharing, web functionality and collaboration of web platforms is known as Web 2.0 (Lessig, 2006). Web 2.0 has led to the development of social networkingsites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and Blogger. Thus, examples ofWeb 2.0 include blogs, web applications, file and photo sharing, social networking and so forth.Web culture has evolved into a community of users that share all forms of media content through video sharing sites, blogs, and folksonomies. Web 2.0 encompasses the convergence of media interconnectivity and interactivity of user-produced content. Web 2.0 platforms allow users to interact and collaborate, within a virtual community, through social and online media instead of passive viewership. One of the primary advantages of Web 2.0 is the openness, user participation and scalability. Web 2.0 allows companies to improve their consumer relations and build equitable, interactive relationships with their stakeholders (Lessig, 2006).
2.3. Mobile Telephony
Mobile telephony is the delivery of internet, 3G, 4G and network connectivity to cellular devices in order to move around freely whilst still being able to have full network coverage. The network to which a mobile phone connects, a cellular network, allows that phone to be connected to any other phone that has access to the cellular network.
2.4. Media convergence
Media convergence is described as the coming together of different communication mediums for the purpose of generating and revealing newsworthy content (Jenkins, 2006). There is an increasing interest among media audiences to create and distribute content thus giving rise to a prosumer culture. Media convergence is an ongoing process that delivers a combination of different media forms by blurring the boundaries between independent communication channels.
2.5. New Media
New media is defined as the convergence of all forms of traditional media such as newspapers,radio and advertising with new media such as digital and interactive form of communication technology. New media takes the form of Web 2.0 where audio and video content is streamed via the internet and mobile telephony, social networking sites and websites, microblogging,online games and other forms of interactive media (Lessig, 2006). Mobile telephony has made personalised applications and games possible for prosumers to create their own personalised experience on their smartphone by using 3G and 4G technology that provides the prosumer with internet access.
2.6. Global Sports Consumption
The consumption of global sports extends to viewing content around sport topics and reviews,spectating a sports game via television or online streaming, reviewing scores and statistics associated with sport and its players, purchasing branded sportswear in support of a specific team and other worldwide activities that facilitate a relationship between the consumer and producer of the sport content.
2.7. Prosumption
Jurgenson and Ritzer (2010) argue that prosumption involves both production and consumption rather than focusing on either one (production) or the other (consumption). The internet and Web 2.0 have given prosumption superior centrality than ever before.
2.8. Professional sport
Professional sport is described as a sport in which players or athletes receive remuneration for their participation. For the purpose of this essay the professional sports extend to football and bodybuilding. Individuals who engage in professional sports often represent their nations on a global scale. For example, professional football players represent their country in the FIFA world cup and bodybuilders represent their countries as they compete in the International Federation of Bodybuilding (IFBB) championships.
3. Argument and Discussion
3.1. New media vs. traditional media
There are two parameters that distinguish new media from traditional media. New media has an integration of text, audio, video, visual materials and other graphics while traditional media is a single medium which may only be combined with one other communication medium, such as a video with sound. New media is distributed to its users via the internet where accessibility is almost instant. Digital platforms such as smartphones, tablets and laptops can be carried with the user wherever they are thus accessing digital platforms is easily available for its consumers.The interactivity of new media is the second parameter that distinguishes new media from traditional media. Interactivity is the most paramount characteristic for the development of sport-related digital content. The increasing availability of internet access and mobile smart phones has rapidly overtaken traditional mediums (e.g. television) in most consumer markets worldwide.Thus, with the increased access to the internet and mobile telephony, prosumers are able to access sports news and watch sport games via their digital devices anywhere (geo shifting) and anytime (time shifting). The internet has been the revolution in which has transformed sport consumption and allowed large exchanges of digital content which has constituted the centrality of prosumerism.
3.2. Prosumerism and Web 2.0
Tapscott and Williams (2006) suggest that the prosumer is put to work by generating content that is utilised by corporations to strengthen their consumer relations. Thus, the prosumer maybe seen as a constituent of a ‘wikinomic’ model where businesses exploit consumers by encouraging and requesting them to produce unpaid work for their corporate websites.However, Keen (2006) argues against the wikinomic model where reliance is placed on the consumer to produce content. According to Beer and Burrows (2007), Web 2.0 has created aplatforms that encourage consumers to become producers by producing and sharing their own content. Much like the Foucauldian theory of the Panopticon where society is governed by the implied social agendas of those who possess much power and authority; Horne (2006) suggests that prosumption implies that corporations allow freedom to their consumers for the purpose of satisfying their need for freedom, recognition and agency.
Jurgenson and Ritzer (2010) purport that online sport prosumption encourages mass customisation for sport consumers. Boyd (2006 & 2008) describes a prosumer as someone that dually participates in both production and consumption roles in society. The rise of the prosumerhas been supported by interactive web and media technology such as Web 2.0 (Dignam, 2002).The internet and mobile telephony has created a DIY (do-it-yourself) approach to controlling the supply and demand in each industry. Given the significance of media to the sport industry;consumers have substantially contributed to the sport value chain by producing beneficial content for specific sports within the industry by using interactive media technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube (Web 2.0).
Gladden, Irwin & Sutton (2001) purport that companies achieve competitive advantage by acquiring superior brand equity which is sustained by leveraging consumer relations. Sport media producers such as ESPN, Super Sport, are speciality channels which offer consumers a unique bouquet of interactive sport experiences which encourage the consumers participation in polls, forum posts, comments on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook and dialogue on their websites. Thus, consumer relations are leveraged through interactive media where the consumer is no longer regarded as a viewer but as a prosumer (Dart, 2012). Sport-themed virtual communities are facilitated by interactive media that further facilitates the transaction of user-contributed information which introduces hidden knowledge that could be leveraged by producers and other users to ascertain a competitive advantage in the sport environment (Dart, 2012). Thus, it is implied that companies in the sports industry may attain a competitive advantage by encouraging prosumer interactivity whereby users exchange information via interactive media technologies such as forums, Facebook groups and blogs.
3.3. Global sport companies and Web 2.0
Some sport-based companies that utilise Web 2.0 extensively is Sportkin, FoxSports,BodyBuilding.com and ESPN. Sportkin is a company based in Australia that aims to eliminate any existing barriers to exchanging sport-related information. Sportkin has been involved in revolutionising how people from around the world engage in sport-related activities. Sportkin allows for both amateurs and professionals to gain knowledge and insights that they have yet to understand. Sportkin’s interactive website, www.sportkin.com, incorporates all known sport sand provides user specific information to assist in the start-up of an individual’s sporting activities or the start-up of a tem or club. The Sportkin website also allows for users to track and locate specific sport teams, activities, associations, attractions and other sport related information specific to their area of choice. Sportkin, as a sport management platform, utilises the extensity of Web 2.0 platforms to assist all users in improving their sporting initiatives ateither a competitive or social level. Hence, Sportkin’s organisational objective is to utilise socialand digital media to bring together individuals with a common interest in sport (Sporting NewsMedia, 2014).3eep, founded by Rob Antulov and Nick Gonios, is a social networking platform available atwww.3eep.com that offers sport coverage, discussion and sharing of sport related photos and videos. Similarly, The Roar and Chop or Champion, are Australian websites that facilitate user-generated content, criticism and discussion around sports. However, FoxSports is the largest sporting portal in Australia with Sporting Pulse being the second largest sporting website. These two sport portals are platforms that encompass all features of Web 2.0; thus creating extensive interactivity across all social and online media (EFL).Furthermore, there are three prominent sport examples that emerge from within the prosumer platforms created by web 2.0. Sport prosumers exchange information with others on platforms such as Nike's "NikeID" that embraces a mass customisation program that enables its users to formulate their own tailor-made athletic footwear which encourages prosumer engagement(Tapscott & Williams, 2006). ESPN established a "SportsCenter Showcase" poll that allowssport fans to participate in creating media content to be showcased on ESPN platforms; thusallowing consumers to become prosumers (Giulianosti, 2002). Additionally, Oakland Athletics'has adopted a systematic approach that allows baseball players to improve their individual performance through the use of sabermetrics. However there are examples of prosumption that extend to Web 2.0 platforms where the majority of available online content is user-generated.Conversely, Web 1.0 comprises of static, one way communication channels that limit users tobeing consumers (Lessig, 2006). Examples of Web 1.0 platforms include provider generated search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.
3.4. Fandom vs. Consumerism
Traditionally, before the role of the prosumer, consumers would display a loyal investment in a sport team and subscribe to a community that shares the vested interest in that team (Horne,2006). Conversely, the prosumer no longer has an emotional attachment to their pledged sports team. Thus, the prosumer’s support is suggested to be ephemeral and as a means to engage in social activities within a collectivist environment of matching interest. According to Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the National Football League, there are two types of sport6 supporters: fans and consumers. Fans are described as the loyal supporters who are emotionally, physically and psychologically affected by the relationship between themselves and the sports team (Dixon, 2011). However, consumers are described as those who engage insporting activities and demonstrate support for the sport in order to be associated within a specific sporting community. Consumers exchange opinions, critiques and discuss their individual analysis of the team players (Giulianosti, 2002). The commodification of sport embeds prosumption into the relationship the fan has with the sport (Crawford, 2004).Fans, who actively use social media, are not passive consumers of sport content but rather active contributors towards the content that largely shapes the sport industry (Ritzer, Dean, andJurgenson, 2012).
The sport prosumer is largely autonomous in producing content that adds to the body of information available on Web 2.0 platforms whilst simultaneously consuming content similar to their sporting interests. Although user-generated content is unpaid work; prosumers conceptualise their input as a contribution towards the body of knowledge in sport (Dignam,2002). Web 2.0 attracts consumers who actively circulate expressions, feelings and opinions with others that collectively fosters a communal identity and place of belonging (Dixon, 2011).
According to the Global sports media consumption report 2014; television remains the primary medium for the consumption of global sports. However, the report states that consumers who are connected to two or more media technologies see far more consumer benefits than from television viewing alone. The report suggests that sports fans and consumers believe that thereis greater variety of sports channels to choose from when watching television. The report states that in Indonesia; 75% of the population believes television is the most beneficial medium for sports coverage. Moreover, 55% of the Australian population; 53% of the Indian population and 62% of the Russian population all share the same belief that television is the most beneficial medium for sport consumption (Sporting News Media, 2014).
3.5. Bodybuilding and the internet
Since the introduction of the internet and the World Wide Web; both the bodybuilding and fitness industry has become over commercialised which means individuals who aspire to become fitness models or bodybuilders have access to the information, tools and resources needed to compete in this specific industry (Horne, 2006).
Bodybuilding is recognised as a professional sport and is renowned for the physical, mental and emotional discipline required to be successful in the industry. The bodybuilder engages in restrictive dieting, training and eating schedules, supplement routines and physically exhausting training regimes. In the 21st century,7 increasingly more individuals worldwide aspire to improve their physique and in return for the sacrifice and dedication needed to achieve and maintain a low body fat percentage; increasingly more individuals participate in bodybuilding competitions to receive recognition for their concerted efforts. Bodybuilders who are sponsored are required to endorse and produce content for the sponsor and assume a prosumer role (Andrews, 2006). However, both men and women bodybuilders often compromise certain aspects of their health in order to achieve acompetitive physique. Additionally, individuals who struggle to lose body fat have consulted the content on the World Wide Web as their source for immediate information. Despite the credibility of user-generated content on the internet is not guaranteed; millions of users worldwide conceptualise the available content to be credible sources of information (Andrews,2006). Research increasingly suggests that crash diets, fat burners, steroids, liposuction, eating disorders, over exercising and other extreme measures are used to achieve immediate results which may have adverse health effects on the individual (Horne, 2006). Nowadays, customised mobile applications are designed to calorie count an individual’s diets to assist an individual’s calorie control by advising what and what not they are allowed to eat. Examples of such applications available for download are BodySpace and Live Life Lean that provide eating plans and exercise regimes.
4. Conclusion
There is an interconnected relationship between sport and new media that has emerged over the past decade. The convergence of sport-related consumer needs and the increased demand for sport related content worldwide has given rise to the prosumer. New media and Web 2.0 is crucial for the advancement of sport professionals as the relationship between sport content and new media technologies remains essential to gain knowledge and make technical improvements. Prosumers who simultaneously perform a producer and consumer role in the digital world; are able to access sport news and event coverage through their digital platform of choice anytime and anyplace which is vastly different from the capabilities of traditional mediums. Web 2.0 is described as the user's ability to generate a collaboration of content and has induced an explosion in prosumption. Conversely, Web 1.0 is provider-generated that does not require input from users.
Thus, Web 2.0 has been essential in the development of the prosumer as both a consumer and a producer. However, prosumption was not established on Web 2.0 but Web 2.0 platforms such as social networking sites is where prosumption is most prevalent. Hence, the World Wide Web and mobile telephony has transformed the consumption of global sports by transferring the spectator from a consumer role to a prosumer role.
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