Scholarly interest in the relationship between sport and new media has increased significantly in recent years, yet research about online sport fan groups remains limited. This article contributes to this body of literature through an ethnographic examination of a fan-produced hockey blog called Nucks Misconduct. The article examines the blog’s social characteristics by conceptualizing it as an electronic tribe—that is, a fluid, neotribal social formation located in cyberspace. Specifically, it explores how the interplay between topographical website features and the social interaction of members constructs the blog as a social space; and the tensions and ambiguities that arise from this process. The possibilities and limitations for online sport fan cultures to destabilize dominant constructions of sport are discussed, with a particular focus on the gendered construction of hockey as a masculine realm.
AdamsM. L. (2006). The game of whose lives? Gender, race, and entitlement in Canada’s “national” game. In WhitsonD.GruneauR. (Eds.), Artificial ice: Hockey, culture, and commerce (pp. 71-84). Peterborough, ON, Canada: Broadview Press.
2.
AdamsT. L.SmithS. A. (2008). A tribe by any other name . . ..” In AdamsT. L.SmithS. A. (Eds.), Electronic tribes: The virtual world of geeks, gamers, shamans, and scammers (pp. 11-20). Austin: University of Texas Press.
3.
AllainK. A. (2008). “Real fast and tough”: The construction of Canadian hockey masculinity. Sociology of Sport Journal, 25, 462-481.
4.
BaymN. K. (1995). The emergence of community in computer-mediated communication. In JonesSteven (Ed.), CyberSociety (pp. 138-163). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
5.
Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, & Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. (2010). Tri-council policy statement: Ethical conduct for research involving humans. Retrieved from http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/pdf/eng/tcps2/TCPS_2_FINAL_Web.pdf
6.
CrawfordG. (2004). Consuming sport: Fans, sport and culture. New York, NY: Routledge.
7.
FernbackJ. (2007). Beyond the diluted community concept: A symbolic interactionist perspective on online social relations. New Media & Society, 9(1), 49-69.
8.
FerriterM. M. (2009). “Arguably the greatest”: Sport fans and communities at work on Wikipedia. Sociology of Sport Journal, 26, 127-154
9.
GieseM. (1998). Constructing a virtual geography: Narratives of space in a text-based environment. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 22, 152-176.
10.
GiulianottiR. (2004). Celtic, cultural identities and the globalization of football: Notes from the 2003 UEFA Cup Final in Seville. Scottish Affairs, 48, 1-23.
11.
GruneauR.WhitsonD. (1993). Hockey night in Canada: Sport, identities, and cultural politics. Toronto, ON, Canada: Garamond Press.
12.
HardinM. (2011). The power of a fragmented collective: Radical pluralist feminism and technologies of the self in the sports blogosphere. In BillingsA. C. (Ed.), Sports media: Transformation, integration, consumption (pp. 40-60). New York, NY: Routledge.
13.
HarveyJ. (2006). Whose sweater is this? The changing meaning of hockey in Quebec. In WhitsonD.GruneauR. (Eds.), Artificial ice: Hockey, culture, and commerce(pp. 29-52). Peterborough, ON, Canada: Broadview Press.
14.
HineC. (2008). Virtual ethnography: Modes, varieties, affordances. In FieldingN.LeeR. M.BlackG. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of online research methods (pp. 257-270). London, UK: Sage.
15.
HughsonJ. (1999). A tale of two tribes: Expressive fandom in Australian soccer’s A-League. Sport in Society, 2(3), 10-30.
16.
HughsonJ.InglisDFreeM. (2005). The uses of sport: A critical study. London, UK: Routledge.
17.
HutchinsB.RoweD.RuddockA. (2009). “It’s fantasy football made real”: Networked media sport, the Internet, and the hybrid reality of MyFootballClub. Sociology of Sport Journal, 26, 89-106.
18.
KivinenO.MesikämmenJ.Metsä-TokilaT. (2001). A case study in cultural diffusion: British ice hockey and American influences in Europe. Culture, Sport, Society, 4(1), 49-62.
19.
MacGregorR. M. (2003). I am Canadian: National identity in beer commercials. Journal of Popular Culture, 37, 276-286.
20.
MaffesoliM. (1996). The time of the tribes: The decline of individualism in mass society. London, UK: Sage.
21.
MarkhamA. (2012). Fabrication as ethical practice. Information, Communication & Society, 15, 334-353.
22.
PitterR. (2006). Racialization and hockey in Canada: From personal troubles to a Canadian challenge. In WhitsonD.GruneauR. (Eds.), Artificial ice: Hockey, culture, and commerce (pp. 123-142). Peterborough, ON, Canada: Broadview Press.
23.
PoniatowskiK.WhitesideE. (2012). “Isn’t he a good guy?”: Constructions of Whiteness in the 2006 Olympic hockey tournament. Howard Journal of Communications, 23(1), 1-16.
24.
RheingoldH. (1993) Virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. New York, NY: Addison-Wesley.
25.
RobidouxM. A. (2002) Imagining a Canadian identity through sport: A historical interpretation of lacrosse and hockey. Journal of American Folklore, 115(456), 209-225.
StarkT. (2012). Ice hockey, Europe. In NaurightJ.ParrishC. (Eds.), Sports around the world: History, culture, and practice (Volume 2, pp. 343-348). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
29.
StevensJ. (2006). Women’s hockey in Canada: After the “Gold Rush.” In WhitsonD.GruneauR. (Eds.), Artificial ice: Hockey, culture, and commerce (pp. 85-100). Peterborough, ON, Canada: Broadview Press.
30.
WennerL. (1998). In search of the sports bar: Masculinity, alcohol, sports, and the mediation of public space. In RailG. (Ed.), Sport and postmodern times (pp. 301-332). Albany, NY: State University of Albany Press.
31.
WilsonB. (2006). Selective memory in a global culture: Reconsidering links between, youth, hockey, and Canadian identity. In WhitsonD.GruneauR. (Eds.), Artificial ice: Hockey, culture, and commerce (pp. 53-70). Peterborough, ON, Canada: Broadview Press.
32.
WilsonB. (2008). Believe the hype? The impact of the Internet on sport-related subcultures. InAtkinsonM.YoungK. (Eds.), Tribal play: Subcultural journeys through sport (pp. 135-152). London, UK: Emerald Group.
