Juan Velez

8 October 2019
Professor Dieterle

Revision Explanation
My annotated bib was very far from the format it was supposed to follow thanks to sitting down
and speaking to my professor I have had the ability to make the adequate changes to make it
not only more oriented to my research question but also less about what I think and more about
summarizing what my sources say. My 3 primary sources lacked any kind of consistency at first:
one of sources was a YouTube video, the other was a tweet, and the last one was a subreddit.
A little after I finalized and submitted my annotated bib I had a realization that I wanted to
concentrate on Reddit and how it is that users corroborate to keep the community alive.
Therefore my first major change was to change all my primary sources. My new primary
sources were all subreddits and all had their own unique way of explaining how it is that the
Reddit community and more importantly the soccer subreddit communicates and looks out for
each other. I shifted my focus a lot from how the press made a YouTube video declaring
rumours about a player and rather became more observant on how users participate and
advance discourse. Another major change I had to make was toning down on anything within
the summaries that provided too much of my opinion. On the comments provided by my
Professor and peers I was caught going on tangents talking too much about how I thought a
certain thing was good or bad. Things like this have no place in an annotated bib so I made sure
that when I was doing the annotations for my primary sources I could stay away from talking too
much about how I felt and rather focus on summarizing what the article said. When taking a look
at my secondary sources these seemed to be a little more objective but there was still some tiny
flaws that I had to correct because providing my take on the subject is something I will be
available to do just not at this stage. Finally I polished a lot of my sources and tried to find how I
could tie it back to my research question. Whenever I got the chance for example towards the
end of my first primary source I was able to explain how having a point system in Reddit is
actually a very positive example of how the platform implements elements of participatory
culture. There were little corrections like that here and there but another one that was lackluster
was my introduction which has absolutely no mention of participatory culture or of my new scop
of analysis which is Reddit. Therefore I dedicated a paragraph to talk about this very important
platform and how users interact on it to make a way to channel their thoughts.

Introduction
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Soccer is the game that makes the world spin,it is a lucrative industry that more
importantly has an extensive community and the importance of certain agents in it can
be underestimated. The media particularly is present at every major game and with the
watchdog role and ability to maneuver the narrative I decided I wanted to take a closer
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Professor Dieterle
look at what exactly was the role of the media. Fanatics all over the world have their
perceptions molded about the footballing world by the very select few mass media
organizations; therefore it is important to notice to what extent they are corrupting media
and maintaining their bias. Through my research I want to ultimately uncover whether
soccer journalism is inherently toxic or if they are a purely objective member of the
community.
In my analysis of the discourse in the soccer media I want to discuss how the
journalism parallels many of the techniques of regular journalism and dispel rumours
that it is not serious journalism. I will also be conducting a vast part of my research on
the intercommunication that happens within the online portion of the soccer world. It is
important to not overlook how soccer fans have been able to build platforms for their
selves to relay soccer journalism. Not only do communities like Reddit allow for fans to
diffuse soccer news and highlights, but it also allows the users to become content
creators and have a voice on very controversial opinions that perhaps the media might
try to suppress. Through careful analysis of communication between users I will
hopefully be able understand more about specific elements of literacy within the
community. Additionally I can learn how it is that the users are able to maintain their
platform and corroborate, ultimately exemplifying the glue that keeps the community
together which is participatory culture. Euro nations that have experienced sociological
impacts due to impact of the sport. Sports journalism is a big fountain of information for
soccer fans, many in game reviews are written for players and editorials about the
current state of a team which can get a manager fired or just cause repercussions in the
overall dynamic of the team. The media is responsible for whether sports fans are
homogenous or heterogenous which applies more in terms of national teams but is
important to note nonetheless. Formatted: Font: 12 pt

Primary Source

Formatted: Left
Moderator,A(2019, November 13) Change My View [Online Forum] Retrieved
from https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/dvrymy/change_my_view/

This Reddit thread was found under the subreddit for soccer, the user who
created the thread wanted a way to advance discourse given that he advises to
post your controversial opinions and also encourages conversation and be open
to understanding of what others have to say. Respectful debate is what this is
Formatted: Border: Top: (No border), Bottom: (No
border), Left: (No border), Right: (No border), Between :
(No border)
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Professor Dieterle
able to accomplish, the very first comment under the thread comes from the user
6footkilla who encourages someone to try and challenge his view of Cristiano
Ronaldo during playoffs potentially being the best player in history. In this case
debate is so specific that players are not even being compared by their soccer
careers but rather versions of these players or their prime stages of their soccer
career. However the interesting thing about Reddit is not the ability to state ones
opinion,but rather the ability to discuss soccer with users across the world within
the thread debate continues just within this reply. Martoxic another Reddit user
disagrees with the OP( terminology within Reddit meaning original Poster) and
states an opinion of his own on who merits best player by stating 2012 Messi is
better than any other player. On Reddit as well as many online platforms there is
reward systems such as likes or points, Reddit specifically has adopted a points
methodology. What this does is provide instant gratification and the more points
signifies that the reply was either found interesting, funny, or a popular opinion.
Martoxic’s reply disagreeing with the original poster got a total of 30
points,versus 6footkilla who only had 9.Which essentially means he got more
approval from his peers and in other words had the more popular opinion of the
whole exchange. This point system is a good representation of how platforms like
Reddit can enable participatory culture.This is just one of the plenty exchanges
within just this thread, there are hundreds of users who want others to change
their mind and there is definitely debate present because just within this thread
there is a grand total of 2.3 thousand comments.

Oh My Goal-news “The texts Messi sent Neymar to make him come back to Barça | Oh
My Goal” Youtube, YouTube, 2, Sep. 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3FDPdg62Ws Formatted: Font: 12 pt
Formatted: Font: 12 pt
My first primary source is on the lighter side of things ,this is a side of soccer
journalism that is orientated more to entertainment then reporting on serious
investigative work such as racial issues or club fraud. YouTube is a large source that
has gained popularity over the last couple of years. Soccer journalism made a large
transition from the press to written columns on websites but it seems that it is always
adapting itself to the new age of consumerism which is a lot more interactive. Interviews
and leaked photos are shown on these videos which are made day in and day out by
these big soccer journalism companies to give what they write a new spin with images
to entertain the viewers. These types of soccer news channels such as Oh My Goal are
esentially a TMZ for the footballing community it has to be read with a grain of salt,
meaning that it is meant to entertain the reader and keep him updated on all the football
funnys and transfers to watch out for. In this video we observe the so controversial talks
between Neymar a
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Professor Dieterle

professional soccer player who used to play for Barcelona FC he was an idol at the club
but left for a record breaking signing to the French giants Paris Saint Germaine however
throughout the whole year he was unhappy and almost every single soccer page
claimed they had allegations about Neymar and his move back to Barcelona. The news
got out quick that Neymar did not see a future for himself at the club and when the
management in PSG heard about this they placed an unreal number on Neymar
basically blocking the player from leaving. At a price of over 200 million Euros it seemed
the most likely he was going to be forced to stay, but to make matters even worse he
was benched for being a “disloyal” player so ultimately the reason I wanted to include
this video is to show how toxic media can be claiming they have texts about players and
all these other shady pieces of information that end up damaging a players career.
These are a great source for a quick read and it is fun in the soccer world to speculate
about important players maybe one day coming to your team, however as it was
apparent with Neymar the media can block a lot of doors in the market of player passes
and exert its influence as the watchdog.

#2 primary source
Moderator,A(2019, November 13) Change My View [Online Forum] Retrieved
from https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/dvrymy/change_my_view/

Moderator,A (2019, October,16) Daily Discussion [2019-10-16][Online Forum].

Retrieved from
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/diwnv9/daily_discussion_20191016/ Formatted: Font: 12 pt
Formatted: Font: 12 pt
My secondary primary source is a Reddit thread under the same subreddit of soccer,
this thread is a bit different from the first thread we took a look at. Daily discussions are
a common thing on Reddit for a wide range of topics. Since my topic is topic is soccer
ofcourse I decided to focus on the daily discussion occurring within the soccer
subreddit. These daily discussions are posted every 23 hours so that they can have a
different start time each day and their main objective is to get users discussing any
matches that happened on that day,post highlights of anything related to the sport, or
even just ask a quick question. The specific thread touched on a lot of interesting topics
some users particularly were discussing whether winning a domestic league or an
international tournament is more important. Users back up their viewpoints with facts for
example the user Hamcole brought up that domestic leagues might take more
consistency from a team given that there are 38 games played which is significantly
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Professor Dieterle
higher than tournaments like the Champions League. Users are free to discuss any
number of things and there are even more serious topics such as the political situation
that Spain is experiencing with the Barcelona region trying to secede from the country
which as a result has impacted soccer in the country. As serious as the subreddits get
there is one thing that has to stay consistent and this is respect within the threads, on
many occasions comments may not meet the guidelines of Reddit and therefore it is a
common occurence to see a notice that reads”comment removed by moderator”. The
type of communication was not exactly uniform throughout this discussion, what I mean
by this is that I observed some users asking general questions which other users
collaborated with, while some of the comments were not so much inquiries, but rather
controversial or trying to formulate a discussion.
My second primary source is a reddit thread under a subreddit of Soccer this
subreddit group is all about news and opens up the door to important discourse such as
debates about best players of all time and other topics a soccer fan might find
interesting. This specific thread is a very interesting concept and an outlet for fanatics I
had no idea about. Essentially it is a daily discussion board where there is no topic but
rather people ask questions and those who have answers or want to dive deeper into
discussion answer. An example of something that might be asked here is some users
asking for streams to watch games that might not be shown by their T.V. provider and
updates on match suspensions and other world soccer news that intrigue fantaics all
over the world. What is so important about this is the way soccer fans communicate
their opinions about teams, managers, or players. The reason this is so beneficial for
the sport is because at the end of the day this is representative of how involved the
soccer community is, through these discussion threads(there are thousands of threads
just in this very subreddit) soccer fans can share their knowledge on certain aspects of
the game and give back to the rest of the community. Another takeaway from looking at
these users interact on the thread is that they can bond with others who share their
same opinions or passion for a common team; the discussion I was able to observe
users making recommendations to each other on how to improve their soccer
knowledge and little exchanges online like this made me realize how tightly knit the
soccer community is.

#3 Primary source
Tim-sanchez(2019,Febraury) Please don't ask for or post illegal streams on
/r/soccer[Online Forum] Retrieved From
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/apwg1e/please_dont_ask_for_or_post Formatted: Font: 12 pt
_illegal_streams_on/ Formatted: Font: 12 pt

When the admins of Reddit banned an alternate subreddit that was made for
sharing illegal streams this got a lot of attention in the Reddit community. This
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Professor Dieterle
thread is quite old but it is a great example of how important taking care of
subreddit is and how much users look out for one another. Here it is seen how
a user by the name of Tim Sanchez makes an announcement on the soccer
subreddit after becoming aware of what the consequences were for the closely
tied subreddit. The subreddit for “soccerstreams” was made so that users
could bypass paying for soccer games on expensive networks such as
SkySports,however after several copyright infringements and the admins of
Reddit warning them, there seemed to be no option but shutting the subreddit
completely. Many of the users in the thread argued that Reddit was selective on
what they restricted given that there were so many other violations of copyright
easily accessible and it seemed the administrators turned a blind eye.One user
was particularly unhappy about this censorship he does not have a registered
name but stated”I wouldn't have to ask for them if the cost of watching football
wasn't so expensive. 😢”. The use of emojis is a common thing to see on Reddit
it is a much mor simple way to emphasize the emotion being felt without having
to use a large number of words. Ultimately this post was made because the
soccer subreddit is so important to these users and even the thought of
potentially losing their medium is a large concern,however Reddit has become
more strict with what they allow on their platform and the users have to quickly
adapt in order to keep what they have alive.
AnonymousPro12 EiFSoccer(2019, September,23) Real Madrid were bounced out in
the Round of 16 in the Champions League and were 19 points off the top of La Liga,
yet had more players in the Fifa World XI than any other team.Yet people will try to
convince us that marketing doesn’t matter[Tweet]
https://twitter.com/EiFSoccer/status/1176230863996170241 Formatted: Font: 12 pt
Formatted: Font: 12 pt
My 3rd primary source is about a tweet that tries to expose corruption in the footballing
world Twitter soccer is a very big driving force in the soccer community because many
get their news directly from twitter prior to checking any other actual websites. It is no
surprise that this is the routine of soccer fans because twitter is an easy way to get
information at a simple scroll and see news trending without the need to read long
articles. The main thing to highlight from twitter journalism is that it is much more
opinion based than reading an article from a big sports page. Twitter has a very
interesting dynamic because when someone makes a tweet about a controversial topic
such as Real Madrid having inside influence in the european league of football there will
be plenty of backlash involved. All these users who are exposed to the tweet have the
chance to reply or quote tweet either agreeing or more commonly sharing a different
viewpoint. The thing I like about seeing these twitter threads is that users call out the
original poster for misinterpretation of the facts if that is the case or just simple
clarification. So in that sense twitter is a floor for debate where millions of users can
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Professor Dieterle
report their ideas and feelings simultaneously as big soccer events go on and present
cases for very big controversies supported with statistics many times. Similar to Reddit
twitter is an online resource soccer fans have at their disposal to communicate and
share their passion and knowledge for the sport, however twitter soccer seems a little
more controversial and hostile all in all this is a common thing to expect from a bigger
online community.

Formatted: Font: 12 pt

Secondary Sources

Starc, G. (2007). Bad Game, Good Game, Whose Game? Seeing a History of Soccer
through Slovenian Press Coverage. Journal of Sport History, 34(3), 439-458. Retrieved
from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43611754
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8 October 2019
Professor Dieterle
My very first secondary source goes into the basics of Slovenian press coverage
and briefly describes its history.Ever since Slovenia was in the Soviet Union there has
always been an inclination for soccer it was even criticised that on newspapers the
soccer section took up a vast majority of the sports column. This journal looks at the
very specific impact slovenian journalist have on the development of the game and
when the national team plays how press can change the dynamic of how fans treat their
national team. The journal mentions the sad stigma that sports journalism may have as
an unimportant branch of journalism and as entertainment rather than knowledge but
quickly dissaproves of this thought and explains how sports journalist are required to
stay objective and hold an important role in the specific community which is to validate
information and ultimately serve as an authority figure.
The excitement of a team of athletes representing a nation can be divisive or
unifying depending on how it competes but what is known for certain is that it brings a
huge level of charisma when the team does good and is the pride of the nation. Soccer
took a long time to make a break through in Slovenia and although It is not exactly
known when it was brought to the country there is talks that it was there from as early
as 1903 and brought by Hungarians in the area. Throughout the country teams started
branching based on ethnic groups but what is known for sure is that the game was
overlooked and was not considered a national identity of Slovenia. The manipulation
and war of media to tryo to link root of problems is also evident throughout this piece,
“When, for example, a match between the Croatian club Gradjanski from Zagreb and
the Slovenian Maribor ended in violence, the Slovenian press attacked the Croatian
press for claiming that the Slovenians started the incident: “ (Starc,2009) the media in
deed did not stay objective in this very instance and this shows a prime example of how
media bends the narrative to benefit its best interests.

Helal, R., & Soares, A. J. (2014). The decline of the ‘Soccer-Nation’: journalism,
soccer and national identity in the 2002 World Cup. Soccer & Society, 15(1), 132–146.
Retrieved from
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sph&AN=94420312&site=eds-
live&scope=site
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Professor Dieterle
My next secondary source describes the role of soccer journalism is a more narrow
fashion it is merely concentrated on how they conducted their work during the 2002
world cup on Brazil one of the greats. With a large following comes great responsibility
and the Brazilian federation of soccer has to fight an uphill battle against journalism
because very few teams in the world have the pressure Brazil has. The expectations
are enormous and newspapers have started convincing the fans that this is not the
same team it used to be. The golden age of Brazil as it is called had idols that left their
mark on not only the countries history but on soccer as a whole, the picture that was
being painted during and prior to the 2002 world cup is that figures like that are no
longer in existence.
This piece has shown me the irony of the whole media business because it is
purely a numbers business; Ssoccer journalism was a rare phenomenon to see, “Even
so, afterwards, specifically during the 1950 World Cup, soccer was not the main
headline of the front page of middle-class or upper-class newspapers.”(Helal,2014) it
has been a whole facade that soccer has always been a part of Brazilian identity rather
it was forced upon Brazilians through newspapers and other media outlets because it
was known that it would sell. After reading this very informative journal I also came to a
very clear understanding that objectivity is not a necessity in soccer journalism but
rather a drawback, soccer is a very passionate sport and fans have just as passionate
opinions, therefore when they are reading print about their favorite team they want
strong convictions about player performances and about what changes need to be
made. Soccer was supressed in Brazilian culture and it was slowly allowed to be
included in popular culture as corporations learned about the growing popularity of the
sport. Although the golden age of 1950s happened many years prior the true
exploitation of the soccer journalism industry occurred when it was seen as
lucrative.This was interesting to learn because I had a flawed ideology that if journalism
was not purely based on research and investigative per se then it was discredited and
not as pure in its field, rather what really happens is that these opinions open up
discourse for debate and very interesting opinions which are out there about the soccer
world.
Formatted: Font: 12 pt

Carmeli, Y. S., & Grossman, R. (2000). “It’s a Game between Jews and Arabs”: Soccer
Journalism, Otherness and Abjection in the Israeli Context. Culture, Sport, Society, 3(2),
23. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-
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Professor Dieterle
com.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sph&AN=6903163&site=eds-
live&scope=site

My final secondary source is about a very real conflict and the role the media has
played in it. The Israel Palestine conflict has been ongoing for many years and there
does not seem to be an end to it. This conflict is especially unique because there is
some places inside of Israel that have a high concentration of Arab citizens. It so
happens that in a region of Israel Taibe to be more specific there was a team that
seemed to be the pride of the people and after much suffering they were finally
promoted to the Israeli National league in 1996 the accomplishment was seen as
something holy and this is not far fetched due to the fact that the people from the very
same region refer to their region as a garbage dump according to the text
(Carmeli,2000). Fast forward a couple years and the Taibe team had one of its biggest
challenges being presented in front of them, they were now playing Beitar Jerusalem
one of the biggest teams in Israel and a rival in every aspect of the word. The year of
the teams debut into the league followed the 1 year anniversary of a very important
political leader Izhak Rabin who was making efforts to come to a peace agreement, but
now with Netanyahu a right wing nationalist things had taken a very different turn.
Tensions were at an all time high and the two teams played in a domestic tournament,
the media saw this as a representation of the country's current conflict and shaped the
discourse to be seen as a war between Arabs and Jews. The media overhyped the
event but at the same time it was a very significant analogy about the country and the
current state it was in. Heavy police presence was a large reason no incidents
happened but the chants from supporters on both sides were disgusting and reported
by the media which took up the front cover of all newspapers.