Social Media Becomes Traditional: Sport Media Consumption and the Blending of Modern Information Pathways

As sports media evolves, it becomes more integrated. The mobile sport consumption only blurs these lines further, as fans may be finding “information” they do not regard as platform or outlet-specific. A survey of 199 sports fans reveals differences in the uses sought and gratifications from three forms of sports news social media offerings: (a) official team-managed social media outlets, (b) media-managed social media outlets, and (c) fan-managed social media outlets. Results showed that fan-managed social media outlets were less utilized than the other two forms of sport-related social media outlets and gratifications obtained from fan-managed social media were less than those for the other two options. Ramifications are offered on the theoretical and applied levels.