Impacts Of Digital Media On Consumers

Effect of Digital Media on Sports Consumption

Question:

Discuss about the Broadcast Models For New Digital Media.

The media industry has been undergoing the radical changes in last few decades. The commendable transformation in the digital media is creating positive impacts on the industrial growth. The studios and the content publishers are looking forward to adopt the distribution models for changing the viewing perceptions of the customers (Devlin and Brown-Devlin 2017).  Especially digital media has fundamentally altered the function of media by reinventing the practice of public communication. At a particular time, people in general were very much dependent on the traditional media and its rhythmic flows. Viewers tended to wait for watching an event as per the broadcast schedule fixed by the traditional media industry (Asada and Ko 2016). However, the emergence of new media has rendered a radical change on the overall business of a particular media industry. This specific study has focused to make an in-depth analysis on how digital media technology has influenced the viewers’ consuming behavior. The history of media industry ensures that media landscape is having a dynamic progress from the initial stage of its journey.  New media has rendered immense positive effect on the overall consuming behavior of the viewers. The transformation of the sports media broadcasting has created the recognizable impacts on the consumers’ minds. In Australia, the advancements of technologies have helped in ensuring growth in this sports industry.

Effect of digital media in consuming sports has become an argumentative issue that has been elaborated by numerous eminent scholars from different point of views. As per the opinion of Dimitrova et al. (2014), media can grab the attention of spectators. Large number of viewers intends to show their own reaction by taking part on the live sports event. On the other hand, the media personalities by capturing the reaction of live audiences can enhance the significance of that sports event. The emergence of digital media has left immense contribution in gathering the people of different geographical backgrounds and cultures for taking part in the same sports events. In order to evaluate various aspects of broadcast models for digital media consumption this specific study has focused to make a critical evaluation on different frameworks related to broadcast media. The popularity of sports mass media has been widely accepted in North American Society. People gave immense positive response in watching sports event in the schedules fixed by electronic media industry (Tsiotsou, Alexandris and Bettina Cornwell 2014). Live broadcast on one hand provokes large number of live viewers. Viewers can introduce their presence in front of camera and show their point of view regarding the sports event. The movement of the consumers to the higher levels determines the innovativeness brought to the new media broadcasting. The advancements of the broadcasting technologies are much recognizable in Australia. It is notable that in order to secure the future sports media, Cricket Australia launched onto the Apple TV network. It became the first Australian sports organisation to associate with this platform. The new Cricket Australia channel would present the mixture of interviews excluding the live contents. However, there is the question arose based on maintaining the sports broadcasting rights.

Broadcast Models for Digital Media Consumption

On the other hand, another mode of sports consumption implies the presence of broadcast viewers who can watch the event through television beyond taking part in the live show. Franklin (2014) stated that the emergence of digital media has created a rapid involvement for the spectators due to its additional flexible facilities as well as benefits. Viewers do not have to wait for the scheduled time in order to speculate the sport event. The emergence of digital media is flexible enough in drawing the attention of customers at any time. As a result, viewers can watch any event even by making pause of live shows.

As per the concept of Hierarchy of Effects Theory advertisers in order to create attention of customers tend to focus on six major components including awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and purchase at the time of making the advertisement. In order to create a concrete awareness on the mind of consumers about the brands the advertisers tend to utilize the popularity of media platform. Guse et al. (2012) opined that sports event industry, in order to draw the attention of target group, focuses in utilizing media platforms. As a result, people belonging to different geographical and psychological backgrounds can focus on viewing the event. The involvement of two notions helps in identifying the two modes of sport consumption. The first is the use of media that creates much influence on the attendance of the spectators. Another notion determines the utilization of the media as a recreational substitute for the spectators’ attendance. However, as per the trend of current business industry sports organizers intend to use digital media platform for drawing the attention of viewers more effectively. On the other hand, people from different geographical backgrounds would be able to watch the event if it is broadcast in new media. The traditional method of media consumptions implies that there were the clear boundaries between the services that were linked to the specific infrastructures. It is notable the broadcasting programmes are generally distributed through terrestrial television, satellite or cable television to the consumers (H. Tsiotsou 2013). Automatically, the number of target audience would be increased. As per the current trend and psychology of customers, the market facilitators should give an in-depth knowledge and overview about the brands.

Valenzuela (2013) opined that sports organizers in order to promote their shows to the people of different geographical boundaries intend to use the popularity of media vehicle with the help of which consumers of different geographical markets intend to show their interest. In order to build the liking on a specific product the market executives intend to promote the brand either by using traditional media or by using digital media. In case of sports broadcasting the organizers for drawing the attention of viewers intend to use digital media for introducing their agenda to the target market first (Boyd and Crawford 2012). As per the current trend of consumer behavior people tend to collect an in-depth overview about the products and services before using it. Like the same way, before taking part in the live shows the viewers intend to get an overall update about the sport from various media platform. Kahne, Lee and Feezell (2012) emphasized the emergence of digital media ensures to draw the attention of different audiences even who are staying in the multinational countries. At the same time, the success of a business promotion is highly dependent on the preference level of customers. I order to create a particular preference level the sports organizers intend to create a USP of the event. Xu et al. (2014) opined that sports industries while broadcasting the show by using media platform tend to use cheer leaders who enhance the enthusiastic attitude of the viewers. Rendering cheer leaders within the sports is a part of business strategy for drawing the attention of customers. This specific study has focused to make an in-depth evaluation on how preference leaves a major impact on consumer behavior of sports industry. 

Promotion Strategies using Media Platforms

As commented by Croteau and Hoynes (2013), Conviction is the final stage where the doubt of customers regarding using the services is converted into action. With the help of excellence media presence, especially using digital media the customers can be convinced for being the part of sports events. It is necessary to ensure the sufficient amount of the audiences for fulfilling the economies of broadcasting (McCarthy et al. 2014). The sufficient amount of audience size can generate the adequate financial resources. Moreover, the audiences often share the considerable buzz in the media sector. The attractive and appealing set of programs is available in different channel. However, the advancements brought to the technological world have been influencing the motives of the spectators in consuming the digital technologies to watch sports events. Purchase is the final stage of Hierarchy of Effects Theory. The audience after going through media promotional activities shows their interest for being the spectator of sport events.

The consumption of the Sport Mass Media has the pervasive influence on the society of North America. It is notable that there is the clear linking between the attendance of the spectators and use of media during any sport events. In fact, it can be considered that the media requires developing idea about the most relevant way of organizing the sports events that would be impressive to the spectators. The involvement of two notions helps in identifying the two modes of sport consumption. The first is the use of media that creates much influence on the attendance of the spectators. Another notion determines the utilization of the media as a recreational substitute for the spectators’ attendance. It provides the alternate way of satisfying the desires of the spectators. As per the current trend of consumer behavior people tend to collect an in-depth overview about the products and services before using it. Like the same way, before taking part in the live shows the viewers intend to get an overall update about the sport from various media platform (Abeza, O’Reilly and Reid 2013). From a clear management perspective, it can be implied that media behaviour depends on the proper marketing and communication strategies for maintaining the attendance.

Use of the escalator model provides the clear and conceptual ideas about the sports media and the behaviour of the spectators. The model describes the frequency of the spectators to be engaged during the sports events. The sports community requires identifying the significance of attracting new customers and retaining the old customers. The conceptual analysis of the escalator model is to pushing the old customers up to the escalators whereas bringing the new customers onto the current escalator. This concept deals with different segments, such as non-consumers, indirect consumers, light users, medium users, and heavy users. The non-consumers usually do not pay much attention about the products or the sports events in this particular scenario (Boyd and Crawford 2012). These consumers are generally termed as the aware consumers. The misinformed consumers often are unaware or misinformed about the specifications. Finally, the non-aware consumers are the people who might be interested about the events presented through the digital media. It is necessary to select one of these categories to bring more consumers to the scenario. It is notable the broadcasting programmes are generally distributed through terrestrial television, satellite or cable television to the consumers (H. Tsiotsou 2013). The consumers who are much interested in consuming the product through media fall under the group of indirect consumers. In case of the digital media content in the sports industry, these spectators are just watching the streams, but they do not pay for the entire contents. Büchi, Just and Latzer (2016) defined that the light users are just the subscribers who are just above the indirect consumers. The medium users have the more contribution in the eSports products in compare to the light users. Finally, the heavy users are much involved into the eSports and they are engaged widely in building the community. The use of the digital media in sports industry is widely focusing on these spectators. The movement of the consumers to the higher levels determines the innovativeness brought to the new media broadcasting.

Escalator Model and Sports Consumption

On the other hand, Croteau and Hoynes (2013) pointed out the notions of the positive relationship between the use of media and live attendance during any sports events. It is observed that cable television or home video do not create much influence on movie or theatre attendance. Many of the studies revealed that the negative relationship depends on the degree to which the media is used for the recreational substitute or deals with the live attendance. The conceptual ideas regarding the substitutability are related to the understanding method of the participations patterns (Guse et al. 2012). This linking is facilitated because of the interchanging process of the different leisure activities for meeting the needs of the participants. For instance, it is sometimes noted that the travel companies often select the alternate ways to satisfy the tourists. These companies even focus on substituting the home-based activities for the betterment of the vacation experiences. Similarly, in spectator sports, the spectators can select the alternates between visiting the events and viewing the program at their homes. The report provides the knowledge about the spectators’ behaviour while watching television. It is notified that the spectators from England often perceive the negative attitude in watching movie. On the contrary, it is also notified that the satellite coverage of the English Soccer League often collaborates with the live attendance (Kahne, Lee and Feezell 2012). Even in Israel, the report shows that the use of television for watching sports and event spectatorships is declined.

It is even argued that sometimes the sports fan receive the scope to select the alternate means of following any match. The media coverage often influences such behavior of these spectators. Some of the optional means of sports broadcast and entertainment programs like sports bars, live webcasts, and cable television provide the scope of digital consumption without being physically present. In fact, the apparent substitutions of the industry perceptions are also much visible. Media broadcasts are thus seen to create the negative impact on the attendance of the spectators. In terms of establishing the relationship between the media use and spectators’ attendance, it is noticed that the linking is much complex (Lim et al. 2015). The dual route framework (DRF) signifies the four different behavioural modes. Such of these modes are light consumptions, event-dominant consumptions, media-dominant consumptions, and heavy consumptions. The fluctuations in these behaviours provide the glimpse of the ongoing nature in involving with each route. It is quite important to mention that due to the vast advancements in the sports media industry in Australia, The Australian Sports Commission Media Awards recognized the appreciable excellence in the sports broadcasting and sports journalism.

In the DRF framework, the four modes of behaviour are described. It is notable that each type of the behaviour holds the different significance and different media patterns based on the attendance of the spectators. According to Doyle et al. (2016), symbiotic notes provide the consistence level of consumptions on judging the attitudes of the spectators whether it is ‘light’ or ‘heavy’. On the other hand, the substitution-based modes recognize the engagement of the fans in a particular behaviour whether the ‘media’ or ‘event’ influences it. It also identifies the biasness among the spectators in selecting the method of using the media. On the other hand, the behaviour of the spectators provides the knowledge about the contrasts with many other relatable factors. These factors help in determining the validity of the consumptions modes specified in this context. The escalator model suggests that the involvement of the fans increases with the attendance degree (Dwyer et al. 2015). The survey report describes that the spectators are more likely attending the women basketball. The similar trend related to the engagement of the consumers provides the enriched ideas about the general consumptions of sports.

It is stated that in spite of taking the different trajectories by the individuals, the involvement depends on the behaviour intensity. The spectators belong to the category of the ‘heavy customers’ display their stronger level of interests towards sports. They usually sustain longer than the sustainable period of the light customers. Similarly, the media-dominant consumers are much involved in compare to the consumers who are less inclined to the media usage. In such cases, the consumptions are associated with the high level of involvement. In fact, it is noticeable that the desires and motives of the spectators sometimes differentiate the fans (Dimitrova et al. 2014).  Many of the spectators desire for the social bonding, and appreciated skills of athleticism for their excitements. It distinguishes the level of consumptions and involvements. Some of the substitution apps in current time influence the minds of the spectators if their desires are satisfied. Accordingly, the event-dominant and the media-dominant spectators share the similar types of motivational profile by attending the events or through media consumptions. On the contrary, the motivational desires can differ in judging the desires of the light and heavy customers. Some of the specific trends influence the spectators in a significant way.

It is notable that storytelling process has been evolving the use of the digital media. Previously, the descriptions of the story through the radio and television signified the use of the traditional media. In current time, the use of the television programming is accompanied by necessary marketing experiments (Funk and Lock 2013). These experiments are not even complimenting the main screen experiences. The social media interaction and communication process provides the opportunities to the spectators to share their views. Therefore, the consumptions of the digital means are deliberately affected. The regular viewers sometimes gain knowledge about the upcoming consequences, be it in sports or in any other media. The emergence of the social media and the digitalization has transformed the spectators’ choices to attend the events or viewing the shows (Hindman 2017). The savvy-programmers often take the advantage of such dynamics and promote the use of digital medium. Controlling the televisions introduces the new innovative techniques to cut through the clutter. The technologies used for the smart phone devices are providing the sports-related news to the spectators due to which they become reluctant in attending the events or watching the television. The ‘content providers’ therefore require being involved with the process of ‘content discovery optimization’ (Croteau and Hoynes 2013).

The changes in the technological parameter are one of the most constant features in the media industries. Many of the organisations have undertaken the fruitful strategies for dealing with the growth and convergence of the internet use (Larkin, Fink and Trail 2015). The media businesses all over the world sometimes require struggling for identifying the different and innovative business models. The model is associated with the brands that pay to media companies for producing the product related contents. This practice is increasingly applied to the broadcast media of the sports. It is notable that sport is one of the most expensive media products, which is currently estimated almost US$28 billion. The cost includes the charges of dozens of the expert staffs, expensive broadcast equipment, high-priced commentators, and involvement of the new technologies (Kunkel, Doyle and Funk 2014). However, in current time, the declines in the sports media is much highlighted. In Australia, the broadcasting rights have been the major component of generating sports revenues. The advancements brought to the sports media are much remarkable in Australia. The company, Optus has provided the means to the viewers to use their mobile phone and watch the match on a two minutes delay. However, the issue was raised in considering whether Optus has the right to sell the sports media contents online or not. The decisions received from Court of Federal suggested that watching online contents by using mobile devices should stay intact. Telstra, the famous internet network provider in Australia, gained the rights to show games on mobile phones.

Currently, huge infallible attractions of sports are much vacillating. It is noticed in United States that the emergence of the live sport has not determined the reduction of the decreasing charges of the television subscribers. On the contrary, advertising rates of the sports events have been creating impacts on spectators’ minds. It is necessary for the sports organisations to arrange the host broadcast feed. The existing broadcasters usually utilize these feeds for taking control over more sports organisations (Lopez-Gonzalez and Griffiths 2016). The sponsored contents often face the fundamental conflicts with the journalism process. In general, it has been observed that the consumers usually do not watch the sports broadcasts for gathering the information. They generally use it for serving the purpose of the entertainment. Hence, it is essential to broadcast the sponsored models that may attract fewer backlashes in the sports media (Matrix 2014). However, it is still necessary to consider whether the broadcasters would continue the in publishing the content that are created by the sports organisations to create the buzz among the spectators.

From last few decades, internet has become of one of the most challenging factors for the media and entertainment industry. Concentrating on the American tradition, it is noticeable that the people are quite inclined towards movies and entertainments. Therefore, they select the internet media to download the movies as per their preferences. Similarly, in case of sports, it has been observed that the smart phone devices have been permitting the people to access many of the live videos of sports. This behaviour of the spectators has been influencing the digital media consumptions. Netflix, and entertainment media has provided a different idea to change this myth. It is observed that logging into the entertainment media has become the weekly routine to the American people (Pierson and Bauwens 2015). However, the question is focusing on the fact whether the similar ideas can be poised to the sports media as well. It is presumed that the similar tradition can be brought to the sports media. The current layout is showing the enormous success of ESPN whereas on the other hand, Disney-owned network is losing above 10,000 subscribers on a daily basis. Many of the major cable companies have been facing the severe declines since the long-term consumers are not viable for these networks.

Such competition is taking place due to the price fluctuations and generational shifts. Due to the shifts in the generations, the viewers usually lose interests in shelling out hundred dollars that they do not even want to watch. They even want to get the proper access to their favorite programs on different devices (Pritchard and Funk 2006). The flexibility available in the internet sites is attracting the people more significantly. Hence, the expectation level of the spectators has also increased drastically. It is observed that the social media has created the significant impact on increasing the expectations and customized experiences. In current times, the consumers or the spectators are much interested on surfing internet and subscribe to their favorite games, matches, or races (Schmid, Kexel and Djafarova 2016). The availability of the different apps and video channels has made this surfing easier to the spectators. Hence, the consumption behaviour has drastically transformed. It is notable that the sports sectors have been earning benefits from the media/sports complex. The investments from the sponsors are making this earning possible for the sports industry. It has been observed that selling the sports tickets has been the major source of gathering revenues for the sports media in the previous time. However, the emergence of the television sports has reduced the stadium attendance (Valenzuela 2013). Currently, people can get access to the sports channel from their living rooms. The live coverage of the sports events is demonstrated to increase the number of fans. On the other hand, the sponsorship dealing is also one of the most important sources for generating revenues for both the teams and the sports organisations. The sports teams and organisations thus have been relying on these sponsorships in a recognizable way. Such increasing involvement of the sponsors and media companies has been dictating the powerful position in the sports and media industry (Taneja and Webster 2016). On the other side, the sports organisations are also receiving the considerable benefits from the broadcasters, media publicity, and live coverage of the sports events.

In case of Australia, people are much fond of watching sports on Television. The media market has been experiencing the drastic transformation over the last 10 years. This transformation has brought the positive changes in sports media. Consumers have enormous option to select the sports contents. In the year of 2015, more than 127,000 hours of sports programming were broadcasted in Australia. It is even reported that more than 31 billion hours were spent in viewing sports. Currently, some of the sports media companies have been generating more revenues by selling sports contents by reserving the broadcast rights. These organisations have been determining the associated benefits, such as increasing number of the public exposure, lucrative sponsorships, high level of brand recognition, and merchandising licensing opportunities.

This live coverage has been ensuring the credibility and profile in the marketplace that becomes much helpful for the advertisers to generate the supports from the audiences. It is necessary to ensure the sufficient amount of the audiences for fulfilling the economies of broadcasting. The sufficient amount of audience size can generate the adequate financial resources. Moreover, the audiences often share the considerable buzz in the media sector. The attractive and appealing set of programs is available in different channel (Pritchard 2014). However, the advancements brought to the technological world have been influencing the motives of the spectators in consuming the digital technologies to watch sports events. The interests of the stakeholders in the sports and media industry can be similar or differ to each other. It is essential for the commercial organisations and media organisations to generate revenues by selling the broadcasting rights (Wrynn 2014). However, the changing expectations of the consumers have affected the economic structure of the digital media industry. In twentieth century, the media industry has gone through the evolution. It changed the roles and attitudes of the stakeholders associated with the sports media. The traditional method of media consumptions implies that there were the clear boundaries between the services that were linked to the specific infrastructures. It is notable the broadcasting programmes are generally distributed through terrestrial television, satellite or cable television to the consumers (Xu et al. 2014). On the other side, the telecommunication network was distributed through telephonic methods. The emergence of digital media has left immense contribution in gathering the people of different geographical backgrounds and cultures for taking part in the same sports events. In order to evaluate various aspects of broadcast models for digital media consumption this specific study has focused to make a critical evaluation on different frameworks related to broadcast media. The popularity of sports mass media has been widely accepted in North American Society. People gave immense positive response in watching sports event in the schedules fixed by electronic media industry. The emergence of digitalization blurred the clear boundaries whereas the broadcasting sectors have been using the similar infrastructure technologies.

Smartphone devices are currently enabling the access to the uploaded sports content via different applications. The trends of accessing these applications through internet have been creating high impact on the spectators. It is necessary to select one of these categories to bring more consumers to the scenario. In case of sports broadcasting the organizers for drawing the attention of viewers intend to use digital media for introducing their agenda to the target market first (Boyd and Crawford 2012). As per the current trend of consumer behavior people tend to collect an in-depth overview about the products and services before using it. Like the same way, before taking part in the live shows the viewers intend to get an overall update about the sport from various media platform. Kahne, Lee and Feezell (2012) emphasized the emergence of digital media ensures to draw the attention of different audiences even who are staying in the multinational countries. Large number of viewers intends to show their own reaction by taking part on the live sports event. On the other hand, the media personalities by capturing the reaction of live audiences can enhance the significance of that sports event. The emergence of digital media has left immense contribution in gathering the people of different geographical backgrounds and cultures for taking part in the same sports events (Pritchard 2014). The consumers who are much interested in consuming the product through media fall under the group of indirect consumers. In case of the digital media content in the sports industry, these spectators are just watching the streams, but they do not pay for the entire contents.

Many of the supporters who use the smart phones or digital cameras during the matches and then uploading the entire content may lead to violations. These supporters violate the contracts agreed by the sports organisations (Pritchard and Kharouf 2016). The sports organisations ensure that apart from broadcasters, no one has the right to cover the entire sports events. It would be the matter of devaluing the exclusivity of the sports contents. As a result, it would cause the lower prices for the broadcasting rights. On the contrary, it is also noticed that some of the sports organisations even extracted benefits from the user-generated contents. There is the keen possibility in extracting the benefits from the user-contents in terms of reaching to the fans. The interests towards the sports gradually increased. It is necessary to note that the editing or the sports contents are not aligned with the legal consequences (Lopez-Gonzalez and Griffiths 2016). It is essential for the commercial organisations and media organisations to generate revenues by selling the broadcasting rights. However, the changing expectations of the consumers have affected the economic structure of the digital media industry. In twentieth century, the media industry has gone through the evolution. It changed the roles and attitudes of the stakeholders associated with the sports media (Linaza, Moran and O'Connor 2013). The traditional method of media consumptions implies that there were the clear boundaries between the services that were linked to the specific infrastructures. Depending on such infrastructures, the risk of liability would be different to each of the sports organisations (Devlin and Brown-Devlin 2017). The emergence of digital media has left immense contribution in gathering the people of different geographical backgrounds and cultures for taking part in the same sports events.

The revenues collected from the sports events have been significantly increasing in US and Europe. The broadcasting rights are against the free-TV sources and subscriptions. These price structures and generation shifts are quite recognizably creating impacts on the spectators in current time (Ha 2017). The emergence of the more advanced technologies and subscription methods has generated more amounts of revenues. However, the spectators’ choices of accessing the internet-based applications are affecting the broadcasting rights in a significant manner. The emergence of digital media has left immense contribution in gathering the people of different geographical backgrounds and cultures for taking part in the same sports events (Dwyer et al. 2013). In order to evaluate various aspects of broadcast models for digital media consumption this specific study has focused to make a critical evaluation on different frameworks related to broadcast media (Franklin 2014). The popularity of sports mass media has been widely accepted in North American Society. People gave immense positive response in watching sports event in the schedules fixed by electronic media industry.

Conclusion

Digital media has fundamentally altered the function of media by reinventing the practice of public communication. At a particular time, people in general were very much dependent on the traditional media and its rhythmic flows. The study also concludes that the Australian sports industry is much depended on the broadcasting media to generate revenues. Accordingly, the emergence of the innovative technologies allows the viewers to watch the sports online by using their mobile devices. Viewers tend to wait for watching an event as per the broadcast schedule fixed by the traditional media industry. The popularity of sports mass media has been widely accepted in North American Society. People gave immense positive response in watching sports event in the schedules fixed by electronic media industry. Live broadcast on one hand provokes large number of live viewers. The concept of Hierarchy of Effects Theory advertisers for gathering the attention of customers that tend to focus on six major components including awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction and purchase. The conceptual analysis of the escalator model is to pushing the old customers up to the escalators whereas bringing the new customers onto the current escalator. This concept deals with different segments, such as non-consumers, indirect consumers, light users, medium users, and heavy users.  The study also generates the in-depth knowledge about the effective advancements brought to the Australian sports media. With the help of broadcasting copyrights, Telstra received the opportunity to broadcast matches on mobile devices. The desires and motives of the spectators sometimes differentiate the fans.  Many of the spectators desire for the social bonding, and appreciated skills of athleticism for their excitements. It distinguishes the level of consumptions and involvements. Some of the substitution apps in current time influence the minds of the spectators if their desires are satisfied. The availability of the different apps and video channels has made this surfing easier to the spectators. Hence, the consumption behaviour has drastically transformed.

References

Abeza, G., O’Reilly, N. and Reid, I., 2013. Relationship marketing and social media in sport. International Journal of Sport Communication, 6(2), pp.120-142.

Asada, A. and Ko, Y.J., 2016. Determinants of word-of-mouth influence in sport viewership. Journal of Sport Management , 30(2), pp.192-206.

Boyd, D. and Crawford, K., 2012. Critical questions for big data: Provocations for a cultural, technological, and scholarly phenomenon. Information, communication & society, 15(5), pp.662-679.

Büchi, M., Just, N. and Latzer, M., 2016. Modeling the second-level digital divide: A five-country study of social differences in Internet use. new media & society, 18(11), pp.2703-2722.

Croteau, D. and Hoynes, W., 2013. Media/society: Industries, images, and audiences. Sage Publications.

Devlin, M.B. and Brown-Devlin, N., 2017. Using personality and team identity to predict sports media consumption. International Journal of Sport Communication, 10(3), pp.371-392.

Dimitrova, D.V., Shehata, A., Strömbäck, J. and Nord, L.W., 2014. The effects of digital media on political knowledge and participation in election campaigns: Evidence from panel data. Communication Research, 41(1), pp.95-118.

Doyle, J.P., Filo, K., Lock, D., Funk, D.C. and McDonald, H., 2016. Exploring PERMA in spectator sport: Applying positive psychology to examine the individual-level benefits of sport consumption. Sport  Management Review, 19(5), pp.506-519.

Dwyer, B., Drayer, J., Greenhalgh, G. and Lecrom, C.W., 2013. Substitute or complement? Fantasy football and NFL fandom. Marketing Management Journal, 23(2), pp.71-85.

Dwyer, B., Mudrick, M., Greenhalgh, G.P., LeCrom, C.W. and Drayer, J., 2015. The tie that blinds? Developing and validating a scale to measure emotional attachment to a sport team. Sport Management Review, 18(4), pp.570-582.

Franklin, B., 2014. The Future of Journalism: In an age of digital media and economic uncertainty.

Funk, D.C. and Lock, D., 2013. Sport Consumer Attitudes. Leveraging Brands in Sport Business, p.37.

Guse, K., Levine, D., Martins, S., Lira, A., Gaarde, J., Westmorland, W. and Gilliam, M., 2012. Interventions using new digital media to improve adolescent sexual health: a systematic review. Journal of Adolescent Health, 51(6), pp.535-543.

2013. Tsiotsou, R., 2013. Sport team loyalty: integrating relationship marketing and a hierarchy of effects. Journal of Services Marketing, 27(6), pp.458-471.

Ha, L., 2017. Digital advertising clutter in an age of mobile media. Digital Advertising: Theory and Research, p.69.

Hindman, M., 2017. 9 Journalism Ethics and Digital Audience Data. Remaking the News: Essays on the Future of Journalism Scholarship in the Digital Age, p.177.

Kahne, J., Lee, N.J. and Feezell, J.T., 2012. Digital media literacy education and online civic and political participation. International Journal of Communication, 6, p.24.

Kunkel, T., Doyle, J.P. and Funk, D.C., 2014. Exploring sport brand development strategies to strengthen consumer involvement with the product–The case of the Australian A-League. Sport Management Review, 17(4), pp.470-483.

Larkin, B., Fink, J.S. and Trail, G.T., 2015. An examination of constraints and motivators as predictors of sport media consumption substitution intention. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 24(3), p.183.

Lim, J.S., Hwang, Y., Kim, S. and Biocca, F.A., 2015. How social media engagement leads to sports channel loyalty: Mediating roles of social presence and channel commitment. Computers in Human Behavior, 46, pp.158-167.

Linaza, M., Moran, K. and O'Connor, N.E., 2013. Traditional Sports and Games: A New Opportunity for Personalized Access to Cultural Heritage. In UMAP Workshops.

Lopez-Gonzalez, H. and Griffiths, M.D., 2016. Understanding the convergence of markets in online sports betting. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, p.1012690216680602.

Lopez-Gonzalez, H. and Griffiths, M.D., 2016. Understanding the convergence of online sports betting markets. International Review for the Sociology of Sport.

Matrix, S., 2014. The Netflix effect: Teens, binge watching, and on-demand digital media trends. Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures, 6(1), pp.119-138.

McCarthy, J., Rowley, J., Jane Ashworth, C. and Pioch, E., 2014. Managing brand presence through social media: the case of UK football clubs. Internet Research, 24(2), pp.181-204.

Pierson, J. and Bauwens, J., 2015. Digital Broadcasting: An Introduction to New Media. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Pritchard, A. and Kharouf, H., 2016. Leisure consumption in cricket: devising a model to contrast forms and time preferences. Leisure Studies, 35(4), pp.438-453.

Pritchard, M.P. and Funk, D.C., 2006. Symbiosis and substitution in spectator sport. Journal of Sport Management, 20(3), pp.299-321.

Pritchard, M.P., 2014. Building loyal consumers in sport business. Leveraging brands in sport business, pp.123-141.

Schmid, B., Kexel, C. and Djafarova, E., 2016. Multidimensional Sports Spectators Segmentation and Social Media Marketing. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering, 10(8), pp.2657-2660.

Taneja, H. and Webster, J.G., 2016. How do global audiences take shape? The role of institutions and culture in patterns of web use. Journal of Communication, 66(1), pp.161-182.

Tsiotsou, R.H., Alexandris, K. and Bettina Cornwell, T., 2014. Using evaluative conditioning to explain corporate co-branding in the context of sport sponsorship. International Journal of Advertising, 33(2), pp.295-327.

Valenzuela, S., 2013. Unpacking the use of social media for protest behavior: The roles of information, opinion expression, and activism. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(7), pp.920-942.

Wrynn, A.M., 2014. Sport History: We're More Than Just the Back in Back to the Future. Kinesiology Review, 3(1), pp.71-79.

Xu, J., Forman, C., Kim, J.B. and Van Ittersum, K., 2014. News media channels: Complements or substitutes? Evidence from mobile phone usage. Journal of Marketing, 78(4), pp.97-112.