Dissertation final copy

Football fans, emotion and the
stadium atmosphere on Twitter
MSOC703.Y: DISSERTATION SUBMITTED FOR THE MA
SOCIAL MEDIA, CULTURE AND SOCIETY
KANEEZ ZAHRA 155992692
UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER, 2016

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Abstract
This dissertation explores the role of emotion in football fans’ behaviour on social media
and asks whether the emotions in a football stadium atmosphere can be replicated in a virtual
sphere. It studies what makes football fans motivated to share their emotions and information
on Twitter, and the role that virtual communities play in this. Sentiment analysis was conducted
on a series of tweets published by English football fans during their opening game of the
European championships in 2016, and they were categorised into groups based on the overall
emotions expressed within each tweet, in order to determine which emotions were most
prevalent. Additionally, qualitative interviews with football fans active on Twitter, social media
bloggers and industry experts were used to supplement the analysis of tweets in order to
understand the patterns better. The results showed that the football fans tended to express
negative emotions more than positive emotions, with “angry” and “sad” emotions most
prevalent. The interviews showed that expressing emotions, tended to be cathartic for fans; and
whether positive or negative, it gave them tension release and a feeling of unity to share on
Twitter. Furthermore, while the emotions of a football stadium cannot be fully replicated on
Twitter, there are many similarities to the feelings expressed within a stadium and online,
however, the feelings are less intense online as revealed by the analysis of tweets and the
interviews.

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Acknowledgments
I am very grateful to my supervisor, Diana Garrisi, for reading countless drafts and
helping me hone this dissertation; to my peers for answering my panicked queries and reviewing
my work; and to all of the interviewees: Valentijn Veurtjes, William Kedjanyi, Hussain Al-
Asadi, Sherry Joshua, Michel Munger, David Görges and James Coyle, for without them, there
would be no dissertation.

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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................4
Literature review.........................................................................................................................8
Methodology.............................................................................................................................17
Results and discussion..............................................................................................................23
Conclusion................................................................................................................................37
References ................................................................................................................................42
Appendices ...............................................................................................................................46

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Introduction
In this digitally connected era, during any major national or international event, people
take to social media to publish their opinions and express feelings on the issue and to connect
with other like-minded individuals. Social media have many different definitions, but all of the
different approaches include online sociality, “collective action, communication, communities,
connecting/networking, co-operation/collaboration, the creative making of user-generated
content, playing, sharing” (Fuchs, 2014, p. 37). With the rise in the usage of social media, the
private sphere has merged with the public sphere, whereby private, informal spaces are often
put online and shared with a mass audience. Conversations between fans that may have
formerly taken place in a living room or a stadium, during a live sporting event for instance,
often now take place online through social media. In this way, social media can be a huge
platform for engaging these virtual fan communities and enhancing their sports-watching
experience. Fan engagement over social media is a topic written about sufficiently but there is
still plenty to be researched, especially in the realm of sports fandom and the role that emotions
play in this online engagement. Specialised fan communities on the Internet have long existed,
with the likes of American science-fiction television programme Star Trek fan writers’ blogs
and television programme Buffy the Vampire Slayer groups for instance. Theorists such as
Henry Jenkins have studied the fans, the effects and the role that convergence plays in this
participatory culture online. These online fan communities, such as Buffy, allowed fans access
to an informal space to explore personal issues (Jenkins, 2006, p. 246-247). Jenkins further
asserts the importance of academic research into these virtual informal media spaces in order
to understand new media and fan culture.
This dissertation explores the role of social networking site Twitter, in particular, in
engaging fan communities during sporting events, with the focus being on the UEFA European
championship (Euros) 2016 that took place from June to July 2016 in France and featured 24

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different European teams who had qualified for the final round of the football tournament.
Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to post “short messages (tweets) of up to
140 characters and follow the updates posted by other users” (Weller, Bruns and Burgess, 2013,
p. xxix). During major live sports events, football fans take to social networking sites, such as
Twitter, to discuss the game, get information and show support for their teams, much like a
virtual football stadium. This dissertation explores the similarities between the atmosphere
within a football stadium during a live match, and the virtual atmosphere on Twitter created by
fans during a live match. The role that emotions play in creating these atmospheres will be
explored in particular. The way in which supporters of the England national team use Twitter
to support their chosen team during the tournament will be analysed in order to find out how
they use it and what motivates football fans to share information and feelings on Twitter during
live matches.
Various theories can be used to explain Twitter use by these virtual communities such
as the uses and gratifications theory as other research into social media fan groups has shown
(Hsu et al, 2015); and the social shaping model of technology, as it helps understand how fans
have adapted the use of social networking sites such as Twitter to suit their own needs. What is
unique about Twitter is that is has an open, undetermined nature, and therefore it makes itself
“subject to the interpretive flexibility of the particular social groups involved in developing and
appropriating the technology” (Schmidt, 2013, p. 3). This dissertation asks questions about
audience usage of Twitter during major sporting events and why and how this occurs. Fans use
social media for various purposes – to connect with other fans, to connect with their teams and
to discuss the game, for instance. Fans’ loyalty to their team and their desire to express this over
social media will be analysed. Participatory culture and fan communities will be studied in this
way in order to better understand sports fans’ motivations for using Twitter to show support,
how they use it and what they gain from it. Sport is powerful in mobilising people, especially

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because of the mass appeal of major tournaments such as the World Cup or the Euros. “Sport
is foremost among the appealing and valuable forms of content pursued by many global media
and technology corporations, including News Corporation, ESPN, NBC-Universal, Time
Warner, Google, Electronic Arts, and Microsoft, in the quest for large scale profit” (Hutchins
and Rowe, 2012, p. 184). The power and potential that sport fandom wields on television is
great and it has further potential in the realm of the informal spaces of the Internet and social
networking sites.
Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with a group of football fans and
some prominent sports industry fan engagement experts in order to determine their motivations
for using Twitter during games, what they gain from their usage, the importance of virtual fan
communities to them and how the industry responds to fans’ usage. Additionally, tweets
collected from English football fans during England’s first game of the 2016 European
championship, were put into various categories based on the emotions they portrayed. This was
determined by looking at the language used in the tweets, the punctuation marks and the overall
tone, in order to understand what emotions fans tended to express the most. The emotions that
football fans were motivated to express over Twitter helped to better understand what made
fans want to share their feelings and information on Twitter during football games. The
qualitative interviews with football fans helped in determining causes for the outcomes of the
analysis of fans’ tweets. Fans were asked about the feelings they most commonly expressed
through language and punctuation on Twitter, and why, and how they felt after sharing these
feelings on social media, in order to understand if expressing their emotions online helped them
feel better. Fans were also asked about the role of virtual communities in their social media
experience, and how closely they felt connected to other fans in these communities. Both fans
and industry experts were asked about how much power they thought that these virtual
communities could yield collectively. Industry experts were also asked about the emotions they

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found were most prevalent on Twitter, and how they attempted to engage sports brands and
clubs with their fan bases.
While there is plenty of literature in the field regarding fan culture, sports fans and social
media and the role of Twitter, there is not enough about the role that emotions play in football
fan culture on Twitter, which is what this dissertation studies. In even partially recreating the
atmosphere of the football stadium in the virtual sphere of social media, such as Twitter,
emotions are a key factor. As the interviews with fans, as well as the analysis of 307 tweets
from football fans during and immediately after England’s opening game in the Euro’s show,
emotions are a key motivator in football fans’ desire to tweet and share with their virtual
communities. The existing literature also shows how football fandom on Twitter is growing and
how the industry is responding with their Twitter presence in engaging their domestic and
international fan base (Bruns, 2013, p. 268). This dissertation takes this a step further, and
focuses specifically on the role of emotions in the engagement between fans and their favourite
teams and clubs, and amongst themselves.

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Literature review
Social media refers to the various networking communication websites such as
Facebook and Twitter, and each specific social networking site allows for different
functionalities. For example, “Twitter is a microblogging platform, which means that users can
publish short posts of up to 140 characters to a group of “followers” who must subscribe to an
individual's feed. Twitter has rapidly evolved into a personalized news service, in which
individuals can follow other people but also topics and issues” (Friedland, 2013, p. 1).
Audience’s activity on online social networking services such as Twitter needs to be studied in
more detail, especially when it comes to football fans as there is not enough exploration into
this; although there is some literature, a study into the motivations and the ways in which fans
use social media to interact with their teams or sports players and how they recreate the
emotions of the stadium atmosphere online has received little attention. The role that technology
plays in identity formation and the formation and reinforcement of participatory culture is quite
imperative and has been written about by Henry Jenkins (2006; 2013; 2014). The impact of
these technologies and the replication of stadium emotions online are important to be studied
because they affect the ways that people access and use social media during sports games – and
how sports stars, teams and sports marketers respond to this as well. Participatory culture can
be defined as “activities which transform the experience of media consumption into the
production of new texts, blurring the boundary between producers and consumers” (Chandler
and Munday, 2011, p. 311). Emotions are particularly important to be studied as they are key
in understanding the motivations of fans online; in fact, “emotion potentially occupies a crucial
position in general sociological theory” (Collins, 1990, p. 27). There is plenty of literature
surrounding the powerful emotions in football stadiums, and the important role this plays in
community, memory and identity formation (Ashmore, 2014; Bairner, 2014; Edensor, 2014).
There is, however, a gap in the translation of this emotion online and in virtual spaces which

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needs to be explored in order to understand the role that emotions play in the users’ experience
on social media.
Since the rise of Web 2.0 and social media, there has been a creation of virtual online
spaces, which has allowed for fans of various sports teams and television shows to participate
in discussions surrounding their shared interests and to build virtual communities, often with
strong ties, online. People who share a similar interest are no longer required to be in the same
physical location at the same time, rather, this interaction of sharing emotions and information
can take place virtually. Microblogging social media site Twitter has changed the relationship
between football clubs, fans and journalists in that it has changed the ways that information is
spread online. The emergence of computers has sped up fan communication and this has also
increased the “global expansion of the fan community” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 141). There has been
a creation of virtual online community groups which are social aggregations “that emerge
online when people communicate with each other in a public forum for long enough, and with
enough human feeling, that they form meaningful personal bonds” (Chandler and Munday,
2011, p. 451). These meaningful personal bonds are linked with strong feelings and emotions,
which this dissertation will look into.
Jenkins goes on to say that this added speed and widespread range of fandoms meeting
the Internet allows fans to mobilise on a grassroots level to campaign for issues they are
collectively passionate about or to protest what they those issues they dislike (Jenkins, 2006,
pp. 141-142). The Internet thus allows fans to have more collective power as well - which in
this case, refers to the collective and virtual influence that fans have to “achieve a desired
outcome” (Chandler and Munday, 2011, p. 332), particularly with the open nature of the
Internet and social media which allows for communication worldwide. The ability for fans to
come together to protest issues they commonly dislike over social media allows – and
sometimes forces - football clubs and companies to respond to these complaints. For example,

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one disgruntled fan tweeted Birmingham City football club when he was unhappy about rising
ticket prices. The club was forced to refer him to a customer service manager via their official
Twitter account, publicly (Price et al., 2013, p. 451). This demonstrates the power – or at least
the perceived power (that fans believe they have) - that Twitter gives to fans. It is a platform
for them to release frustrations and get actual responses from football clubs and players.
Another example of fans wielding power through Web 2.0 is the case of the Harry Potter
Alliance, where fans of the books and films recreate the Harry Potter series to fight real world
problems such as injustice, inequality, illiteracy, and human rights violations. Through this
website (similar to other social networking sites in that it allows fans to post their own content
and socialise with other members in the group) the fans have banded together and earned
hundreds of thousands of dollars for social causes that they are all collectively passionate about.
For example, with the Harry Potter Alliance, fans banded together and argued that young Harry
Potter fans should not be sold chocolate that was produced by exploiting child labour, which
was a viewpoint that fans had discussed on social media through engaging with one another
and with the books, and thereby enforcing their identities through their shared Harry Potter
fandom, while battling common social causes (Jenkins, 2014, pp. 36-37). This example of fans
of a particular concept (such as a popular book or sports team) can come together over shared
issues. Social media allows fans to have more power in these ways but also gives fans the ability
to discuss issues of public concern that may also be affecting the fan base. For example, one
study showed that football fans in England used fan message boards and social media websites
to discuss issues of racism – and some also took part in racist discourse (Cleland, 2014). In this
way, football fans used social media as a platform to tackle and discuss issues such as racism -
as some of them expressed their own racist or Islamophobic views, while others challenged that
discourse. Cleland discusses how football fans who expressed racist views on social media
tended to refer to “cultural difference that draws on the notions of national identity and

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belonging (and, as a consequence, Islamophobia) by presenting a homogenous host culture of
whiteness that defends itself against threats from the Other” (Cleland, 2014, p. 421). There is
plenty of literature surrounding the formation of identity on the Internet. Identities are formed
through various facets and social media allows people to both formulate and express these
identities. “In this ‘post-traditional’ society, people have to make a whole range of choices, not
just about aspects such as appearance and lifestyle, but more broadly about their life
destinations and relationships” (Buckingham, 2008, p. 9). Because of how football allows
people to express and define their national identity, and foster a sense of belonging, social media
also allows them to express these identities and build upon them by creating virtual
communities and expressing emotions. In these manners, football fans use social media to
express their own personal and collective identities and use their collective power to discuss
issues of social importance that they feel passionately about as a group.
The convergence of technologies has allowed for new forms of social media access and
new forms of expression as well. Twitter itself is quite contested and the literature around it
changes quite rapidly. “In a sense twitter has retrieved the telegram. It is a good telegram: Short
little sentences and things that are important for the next five minutes, but not so important after
that” (Hutchins, 2011, p. 238). Perhaps at the time Hutchins wrote this it was the case, and it is
true that in most cases this does occur, but some Twitter posts do cause lasting controversy, and
furthermore, new features such as the ability to pin a tweet onto one’s profile page allows these
messages to become slightly more permanent. The technology itself, in this case, Twitter, is
constantly changing and adding new features. While most posts are lost in the vast crowd of
tweets, some do have lasting impact. When it comes to tweets posted by famous athletes that
may be deemed as potentially controversial, they do often last longer than intended and
permeate onto different media. Many of these tweets by athletes cause public scandal in that
they are discussed by tabloid newspapers and impact footballers’ careers. Often footballers and

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managers can let certain details about transfers, for instance, slip over social media – that do
have a much longer lasting impact (Hutchins, 2012, pp. 90-91).
The concept of online blogging is noteworthy as well. Many football fans use social
media to get live score updates and news about the game they are following. The sports
journalism industry has changed in recent years such that a lot of it is relying on the Internet –
for sources, for disseminating information and for discussion of the news. The digital age has
impacted sports journalism heavily (Boyle, 2006) and as a consequence, sports fans are turning
to the online community for their news as well. Internet blogging, including microblogging on
Twitter, is linked with identity and are a means of self-exploration (Rettberg, 2014, p. 127).
Fans turn to the internet and social media for information and news, as it is fast and allows for
multiple sources to be accessed quickly.
The reasons football fans use Twitter cannot be understood until their feelings while
tweeting and emotions of their tweets are studied. “With the wide adoption of mobile devices
and the easy access to the Internet, can sports fans’ emotions manifest in their writing on social
media and through their interaction with others through the Internet and mobile devices?” asked
Yu and Wang (2015). Their research showed that fans used social media as an extension of
their thoughts and feelings that they would share with friends, or those they would be watching
the game with in a non-virtual setting. Twitter acted as an extension – to give them wider reach
to share those feelings (Yu and Wang, 2015, p. 399-400). Social media also acted as a way for
fans to form communities. Watching shared television programs or sports games acts as a
common interest for the audience, whereby they form an interconnected community that share
intimate relationships. Audiences in the digital era therefore use social media to form bonds
and build virtual communities where intimate bonds are shared – virtually. “Audience
communities and online communities co-opt mass media for interpersonal uses” (Baym, 2000,
p. 4). Often, people begin to think of their virtual community members as friends. “People start

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to read online discussion groups because they are interested in the topics of discussion. When
people first start reading rec.arts.tv.soaps (r.a.t.s.), they are attracted primarily to the wealth of
information, the diversity of perspectives, and the refreshing sophistication of the soap opera
discussion. Soon, however, the group reveals itself as an interpersonally complex social world,
and this becomes an important appeal in its own right” (Baym, 2000, p. 119). It will be
interesting to see if the same phenomenon occurs in football fan communities as does in soap
opera fan communities, however, considering how emotionally charged football is, it is likely
that a similar effect will be found.
It is also necessary to study the role that fandom plays on social media’s economic
models. This work put in by fans, in the form of content, often quite time consuming and
creative, is known as “free labor” (Terranova, 2013, p. 33). Abigail De Kosnik writes
extensively about how fans provide free digital labour that social media companies exploit to
make money out of (De Kosnik, 2013). De Kosnik provides a new way of looking at fans’
activity as free labour without getting paid for their efforts. De Kosnik discusses how fandom
around a particular cause or football team, in the case of this dissertation, increases the “market
value” of said cause (De Kosnik, 2013, p. 100). She notes that the distribution of wealth is quite
uneven between the large social media companies and the fans who engage with them and spend
their time producing content, interacting with hashtags, sometimes even blogging and providing
them with all of the content. Large social media corporations then exploit fans’ labour and often
even use this to turn fans into the product, in that they use the details and metadata they provide
to sell products to them. Furthermore, some organisations also exploit and take fans’ input and
labour on board. “As these active audiences become more prevalent, producers of media texts
(the organizations that create, develop, and manage a media text) are fast recognizing the value
of courting niche groups of productive consumers” (Milner, 2009, p. 492). Milner cites the
example of the producers of popular American television series Lost and Alias often reading

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fan fiction and fan produced discussion forums in order to get inspiration for the show. Fans,
in this sense, provide knowledge, since they are so deeply involved with their particular issues
or products that they have a deeper understanding, attachment and knowledge (Baym, 2000),
which companies and producers can use.
In order to study the inequality that the exploitation of fan labour on the Internet, Karl
Marx’s ideas on labour must be studied. Marx believed that labour is only that which is paid,
however, fan labour that is exploited by media producers and social media companies on the
Internet, does not actually give payment to the fans. This is why it is important to question why
fans bother to do this work if they are not being paid for it. What other gains are they making?
How are they rewarded, if at all, for the labour they put in? What motivates fans to engage with
their chosen product or team, and to put in exhaustive work into creating content without the
motivation of money? Some have compared fan labour that is exploited, to slave labour, as both
do not get paid and are exploited – sometimes without their knowledge. “In the case of slave-
produced media goods, the exchange value created is straightforward, whereas so-called micro-
work is more akin to service work and therefore also contributes intangible exchange value,
notably flexibility (for the employer)” (Fast et al, 2016, p. 5). When it comes to fan labour, it is
much harder to quantify and therefore pay – but that does not mean fans should not be paid for
their labour.
A paper published by Fast et al. (2016) discusses fan labour and puts it into seven
different frames: the slave, the carer, the apprentice, the prospector, the hobbyist, the volunteer
and the patsy. These frames add nuance to the literature regarding fan labour and why fans put
in the labour that they do, especially over the Internet, and what rewards they gain – or do not
gain – from it. Fast et al. also mention that often, fans are unaware of the labour that they are
putting in and that this generates value for corporations – the patsy, as they call it (Fast, et al.,
2016).

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The different roles that sports fans play on social media has been studied in order to see
how sports fans respond in crisis situations (Brown and Billings, 2013) such as sports scandals.
The study looked at how sports fans took to social networking site, Twitter, to become an
extension of a University’s crisis response unit, when the University of Miami was accuses of
provided a group of scholarship athletes with illegal benefits. In this case, the sports fans
became integral in creating a positive image of the University, in defending its public image
and in implementing “reputation repair strategies” (Brown and Billings, 2013, p. 75). Since
sport is so emotionally charged, fans tend to take sides and take sports scandals personally. The
study by Brown and Billings conducted a content analysis of 75 sports fans’ tweets, specifically
fans of the University of Miami. The study found that fans did indeed use reputation repair
strategies – similar to those that PR teams were using to deal with the University of Miami’s
reputation crisis. In this instance, fans were crucial in improving brand image and improving
loyalty especially during a crisis situation. The labour that fans put in however, was not
rewarded – rather, it was simply exploited, yet fans continued to do it. One explanation that was
discussed in the paper was that sports fans tended to view their favourite team’s performance
as a measure of self-worth. “Previous fan identity research (Wann, 2006) has shown that highly
identified fans associate their favorite team’s on-field and off-field issues with their self-worth.
This can lead to severe stress when a crisis strikes, as fans will want to aid by offering a remedy
to the situation in some way” (Brown and Billings, 2013, p. 79). Studying the role that the
performance of a sports team paired with an individual’s interaction and self-representation on
social media plays is thus important in understanding fan motivation on social media. This study
also found that fans can be very useful for brands and sports teams in disseminating information
as they willingly use their social media accounts to share positive information and articles about
their favourite teams. “Fans can be utilized to disseminate crucial information during a crisis.
Fans mostly tweeted links to journalist and/or blogger articles that either portrayed the

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university in a more positive light…allowing a more positive, united message to be relayed in
direct contrast to the negative headlines perpetuated by much of the mainstream media [during
a crisis]” (Brown and Billings, 2013, p. 79). In this way, fans can be useful to sports teams and
can be used to spread positive messages about them – but do not get paid for the work that they
do for these teams, however, they do potentially get rewards in other forms – such as boosting
their self-worth and their self-identity, as they relate to their favourite sports teams on an
emotional level.
While there is plenty of literature about fans using social media to wield their collective
power; to express and enforce their identities and to form virtual communities, there is still a
gap in the literature, especially regarding sports fans’ motivations and use of social media.
There are plenty of football fans using social media, but their reasons for doing so have not
been explored adequately. Furthermore, what emotions to fans predominantly express over
social media, and how do these compare with those inside a sports stadium? Can the stadium
atmosphere be recreated virtually over social media? Football fans use Twitter to reconstruct
the emotions experienced live during a football match, to form virtual communities and thus
develop their identities as sport plays a key role in nationalism and identity development, which
is expressed through social media. This dissertation aims to find out football fans’ motivations
for using Twitter and spending time expressing themselves and sharing their emotions with so-
called strangers, by studying the emotions they recreate online through analysing a selection of
tweets posted by football fans during the first week of the European championships 2016.

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Methodology
A combination of methods – sentiment analysis of football fans’ tweets, followed by a
quantitative analysis of the same tweets, and qualitative interviews – were used in this
dissertation, as they all complement each other in order to answer the research questions. In
addition to the sentiment analysis of tweets, a quantitative analysis was conducted, whereby the
number of tweets expressing the different emotions was counted. In order to study football
fans’ motivations for using Twitter and to find out whether they could replicate the atmosphere
of a football stadium over social media, England football fans’ tweets were studied and
interviews with fans, fan bloggers and industry experts were conducted. A series of tweets were
selected during the UEFA European Championship 2016 that took place from June-July 2016.
The tweets selected were from England’s opening game of the tournament, where they played
against Russia and the game ended in a 1-1 draw. Sentiment analysis was conducted on the
language contained in these tweets. “Sentiment analysis, also called opinion mining, is the field
of study that analyses people’s opinions, sentiments, appraisals, attitudes, and emotions toward
entities and their attributes expressed in written text. The entities can be products, services,
organizations, individuals, events, issues, or topics” (Liu, 2015, p. 1). The careful analysis of
the language used to represent fans’ emotions was important in understanding their reasons for
publishing tweets during the game. These tweets were analysed to study the overall emotions
portrayed in each tweet, carefully noting the language used and the connotations of the
language. Language that expressed happiness – with words such as “yay” or statements that
showed that the fan was pleased by the performance, were categorised under the “joy” category,
for instance. On the other hand, if the tweet contained angry words such as swearing and
disappointment at the result or performance, the tweet would be categorised under “anger”.
Two different qualitative methods – interviews and sentiment analysis of fans’ tweets – were

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used because the interviews were necessary to complement and explain the phenomena found
by analysing and counting the most common emotions expressed through fans’ tweets.
Yu and Wang studied the emotions of football fans’ tweets by categorising them into
seven main emotions: anticipation, fear, anger, disgust, surprise, sadness, joy (Yu and Wang,
2015, p. 397). A similar model was used for this dissertation, however only those with the
official Euro 2016 hashtag (#Euro2016) tweeted by England football fans were taken into
account, during England’s opening game – against Russia. This is because, although it would
perhaps have been better to get more intense emotions during more vital games, it was uncertain
when the study was conducted, whether England would make it that far into the competition or
not. Additionally, it was ensured that only the tweets posted in English, and by fans in the UK,
were taken into account, so as to ensure people were watching the football games on television
rather than being in the stadium as the tweets may have expressed different emotions. The
tweets during the game and in the immediate moments after the game ended were selected by
searching through Twitter using the social media data collection website, Hootsuite, in order to
specifically search through Twitter’s API for those tweets that contained the hashtag
#EURO2016. These tweets were used because they would provide instant reactions from fans
watching the games. Before the tweets were analysed, the retweets (tweets of other Twitter
users that are curated onto one’s Twitter page) were removed from the sample so as to reduce
repetition. Then, the sample of tweets were categorised into the nine aforementioned emotional
categories based on the language and emoticons contained, similar to the techniques used by
Yu and Wang (2015, pp. 395-396), however, a ninth category titled neutral was also included.
This category included tweets that were emotionally neutral, such as observations and score
updates. Tweets from companies and news agencies were also not included in the analysis, as
they were not from fans, rather, they were from organisations with various marketing aims and

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therefore would not be suitable for the purpose of this dissertation. The different emotional
categories were defined by this study as follows:
 “Anger” – any angry, frustrated feelings expressed by fans, including swearing at the
England team, the manager, the other team, or at the result
 “Fear” – fear, including about upcoming games for England, or of their performance
 “Joy” – Happiness and positive emotions regarding England’s performance and the
game
 “Sadness” – sadness or unhappiness about the match
 “Disgust” – disgust, at the actions of the opposing fans or the England team, for instance
 “Surprise” – shock, surprise, at an unexpected result or performance by the team
 “Trust” – trusting the manager’s or the team’s decisions or performance; not seeing a
performance out of the norm
 “Anticipation” – excitement or nervousness in anticipation of future games
 “Neutral” – no overall emotion displayed, including a repetition of facts such as score
updates or statistics
In addition to the textual analysis of tweets posted by football fans using the hashtag
#Euro2016 during the first match of the European championships for England, a series of
qualitative interviews with prominent fan bloggers with large followings on social media, avid
football fans who use Twitter, and sports industry experts, were conducted to understand fans’
motivations for using social media to publish information, express emotions and to understand
what gains they make, as they are often paid very little if at all. Texts, in this case tweets, are
“cultural artefacts, material documentary evidence that is used to make sense out of our lives”

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(Brennen, 2013, p. 193). The emotions portrayed and language used by fans while constructing
tweets during football games were studied, by analysing tweets using the website Twazzup,
which displays live tweets published under a specific hashtag; and Hashtrack, which display
analytics of particular hashtags on Twitter so that they are easier to analyse.
Additionally, some fans were interviewed to find out what they believed their
motivations were for using Twitter during football games and how it impacts fan loyalty and
connections with other fans – or opposing teams’ fans. The interviews with industry experts
who work with sports fan engagement and social media were conducted to further understand
fans’ tweeting habits and the importance of emotions in fan engagement, and how the industry
would respond to the use of emotions on social media. The interviews sought to better
understand how the fan engagement industry experts used fan emotion to communicate with
fans and provide them with a more enhanced social media experience. Interviews were
conducted in order to better understand the Twitter audience’s motivations. “An audience on
Twitter is not the same as an audience of listeners. Social media present a new kind of audience
– one that is neither live nor the silent unseen people listening to recordings” (Baym, 2013, pp.
224-225). A mixture of email interviews, telephone interviews and face to face interviews were
conducted, based on the availability of the interviewee. Questions such as the ones in Appendix
A were presented to the fans and the industry experts, with some degree of variation based on
the level of detail provided by the interviewees in order to probe them into the desired direction
to get as much information as possible. Football fans were asked about their emotions when
using Twitter, and what emotions they expressed online the most during matches. They were
also asked about how they defined the stadium atmosphere and how they compared the
atmosphere of football fans on Twitter to the stadium atmosphere. The language used by
interviewees was important, and the words used to describe the stadium atmosphere were
compared with the words used to describe the emotions present on Twitter.

21
The interviews conducted over the telephone, Skype and face-to-face were semi
structured and contained the aforementioned questions as well as allowing the conversation to
flow freely and discuss the use of emotions on social media. Football fans were asked about
their motivations for using social media and what emotions they preferred to express. They
were asked about what they felt they gained after expressing their emotions online and what
kinds of emotions they expressed most frequently. They were also asked about the importance
of virtual communities to their experience and were asked to discuss any times where they
formed close personal bonds with other football fans over virtual spaces. In this way, fans were
made to recall the emotions surrounding the virtual communities they are a part of. The results
from the interviews were then compared with the sentiment analysis of tweets collected to see
if there were any similarities in order to understand fans’ motivations for using Twitter and the
role that emotions play in this.
The results obtained through the sentiment analysis of tweets from football fans indicate
the predominant emotions displayed on social media during a football match in order to better
understand what motivates football fans to use social media during matches – and whether this
is similar to the atmosphere of the stadium being replicated in virtual communities online. The
keywords used to describe the “stadium atmosphere” during the qualitative interviews were
also compared with the keywords used to describe football fans’ Twitter usage in order to
understand whether this “stadium atmosphere” could be replicated in the virtual sphere and how
this could be done. While football fans may claim that they cannot replicate the stadium
atmosphere over Twitter, perhaps they can subconsciously replicate certain aspects of this
atmosphere online, which is why the keywords used by fans in interviews were used and
compared with the responses they gave when asked about the atmosphere online versus offline.
While the small number of tweets sampled through Hootsuite’s search and store feature
did lead to some limitations in terms of sample size, the tweets did provide a notable indication

22
of the most common emotions expressed on Twitter by English football fans during games.
Additionally, if too many tweets were selected, it would also get too time consuming for the
purpose of this dissertation. Furthermore, it must be kept in mind that the analysis of tweets
overlooks those who just read tweets and do not post anything onto Twitter (Weller et al., 2013,
p. 64). It also overlooks those who do not wish to express any emotions on social media,
however, questions regarding why fans may choose not to share their emotions on social media
should be kept in mind for future research. The aforementioned methods, however, are useful
in answering the research questions posed by this dissertation and creating a stepping stone for
further research into sports fans’ emotions and Twitter by understanding what emotions football
fans express on social media and qualitatively asking them what their motivations are for
sharing their emotions on this public social media platform.

23
Results and discussion
This dissertation sought to find out football fans’ motivations for using Twitter and the
role that emotion played in their Twitter usage. Additionally, it sought to explore whether the
emotions expressed within a football stadium could be replicated in the virtual sphere, through
social media – particularly on Twitter. Two different methods were used: firstly, a sentiment
analysis of football fans’ tweets was conducted and secondly, qualitative interviews with
football fans and football fan engagement experts were carried out. The sentiment analysis of
tweets was carried out on tweets that were placed into nine different categories – “anger”,
“fear”, “joy” “sadness”, “disgust”, “surprise”, “trust”, “anticipation”, and “neutral”. These
categories were decided based on the various emotions expressed by fans on Twitter during the
game, based on the language they used. The tweets were published by football fans who
supported England, on Twitter predominantly during the Euro 2016 (using the #EURO2016
official hashtag) match between England and Russia, which was England’s first game of the
tournament. The collected tweets, that had been organised into the different emotional
categories, based on the emotive language used by fans within each tweet, were then counted
to see which emotions were most commonly expressed by fans on social media. While many
tweets portrayed multiple emotions within one tweet, the overall emotion was gathered after
carefully studying the words used by English football fans and the overall tone of each tweet.
The results showed that fans predominantly portrayed negative emotions – such as anger and
sadness. Out of a total of 307 tweets analysed (full table in Appendix D), it was found that 62
appeared to portray anger and 61 appeared to portray sadness, which were the most common
emotions expressed by England fans during the game – emotions that were overwhelmingly
negative.
The second part of the study consisted of interviews with football fans who use Twitter;
football fan bloggers; and those that work in the social media and sports fan engagement

24
industry. The interviews were conducted either over email, telephone or in person, depending
on the availability of the interviewee. Seven qualitative interviews were conducted including
with Michel Munger, the editor of a widely read German football blog run by fans, Bayern
Central, who volunteers much of his own time into creating high quality, well-read content into
his blog but gets paid little to no money in return. David Görges, Head of New Media at German
football club Borussia Dortmund was interviewed about his experience with fan engagement
with the football club he works for. James Coyle, Senior PR Manager at Samsung electronics
who works with football fan engagement was also interviewed regarding his experience with
sports fan engagement and brands. Four avid football fans who share content constantly on
Twitter, were also interviewed: Valentijn Veurtjes from the Netherlands; Hussain Al-Asadi and
William Kedjanyi from the United Kingdom and Sherry Joshua from the United Arab Emirates.
They all collectively highlighted the importance of Twitter and emotions for a football fan and
discussed their motivations for using Twitter during football matches.
From the sentiment analysis, it was found that “anger” and “sadness” were the two most
common emotions expressed by England football fans during the England vs. Russia match.
The interviews with both fans and experts confirmed that while both negative and positive
emotions are expressed on social media, negative emotions tend to be slightly more common.
The tweets that expressed “anger” contained several heavy, swear words and the anger was
directed at the English football team, the players and the manager. One example of a tweet
categorised as portraying “anger” is, “Bati_Zo: What an idiotic coach! You have Vardy and
Sturrige yet u play Lallana and Sterling. £3.5m down the toilet #EURO2016”, where the tweet
contains an overall angry tone due to the language used – such as “idiotic” and the term “down
the toilet”. Fans appeared frustrated by their team’s performance and expressed it in tweets that
displayed extreme anger. Many abusive words were used, and directed at the team, the players
and the coach; all of these strong emotions served as an emotional release for the fans who were

25
unhappy at England’s performance – the team they felt a strong connection to. This may have
been due to England’s poor performance, and because the fans have a deeper connection with
the team, the felt more angry than others would. The interviews with football fans also helped
explain why fans tend to publish so many negative feelings on social media during games – as
it served as a way of releasing tension and feeling better, knowing that others were feeling
similar emotions to them at the same time. Fans were disappointed and sad, as displayed by the
language they used in the “sad” emotional category, where words such as “disappointment”,
“deflated”, “cry” were used. There was also some sarcasm which was slightly more challenging
to categorise because the emotions portrayed were hard to decipher, but the overall tone was
disappointment, and therefore tweets containing negative sarcasm, i.e. sarcasm with an overall
angry tone, were included in the “sad” category.
Furthermore, 9% of the tweets portrayed “surprise” – which this study took to mean any
result that the fans did not expect or were shocked or surprised by. This category contained both
negative and positive emotions, however, the overarching emotion was negative; for instance,
“TiffnyMichelle: Really #England? Really?!?? You can't keep it in your pants for just like one
more minute?!?! #EURO2016”. The excessive use of punctuation and the word “really?”
portray the surprise contained in this tweet, with negative undertones. The fan appears to not
believe the performance that she is seeing. Another 9% of the tweets portrayed disgust, which
was defined as an aversion to the behaviour of the English players or the opposing team, their
fans and their behaviour, for the purpose of this study. An example of a tweet portraying
“disgust” is, “FerdinandMarcu2: That’s what happens when you start 5 Spud players in the
European Championships. #EURO2016 #ENGRUS #RIPengland”. This tweet expressed
disgust at the performance of the England players who also played for Tottenham Hotspur
football club, most likely expressed by a fan who supports a rival football club. Many tweets in
the “disgust” category also included reactions to the sudden fan violence that occurred between

26
the English and Russian football fans in France, whereby the tweets expressed disgust at their
behaviour; for instance, “jashjude: Don't understand why these fans go to watch the football.
Useless pricks #Euro2016”. The interviews conducted in the second part of the study attempted
to provide an explanation for the negativity of the tweets, as one industry expert claimed this
may be something unique to England fans (Coyle, 2016, per. comm., 21 Jul). The interviewed
fans claimed that the negativity may be a form of releasing one’s frustration, as this dissertation
will explain. Furthermore, the violence that erupted in the stadium between Russian football
fans and English football fans may also be similar to the release of frustration portrayed in the
tweets. While in the stadium, when negative emotions run high, it may manifest itself in
physical violence, if these emotions are translated online, they may result in negative or angry
tweets.
Many tweets portrayed “trust” – 13% of the total tweets sampled (see chart in Appendix
C). For the purpose of this study, “trust” was understood to be any tweets where the fans
expressed seeing what they expected, emotions that are the opposite of surprise. An example of
a tweet from this category was, “manks_cat: Same old england. Why sit back after scoring?..
go for 2 goals ffs. Same old mentality. #EURO2016 #EUROS”, where the fan says “Same old
mentality”, which shows that he or she was expecting the performance that England delivered.
In this case, “trust” was often, but not always, portraying negative emotions, however, this
could have been due to England’s performance. While the result of the match was a 1-1 draw,
England’s performance, especially towards the end of the game was deemed poor by many fans,
as was portrayed by the overall negative emotions expressed in the tweets gathered.
A total of 7% of the tweets expressed anticipation, which was understood to be those
tweets where fans were excited or apprehensive about upcoming matches or the remainder of
the tournament. Words such as “come on!” or “hope” were common in this category as fans
were trying to push their team on, albeit virtually, and hoping for a good performance. Some

27
examples of the tweets contained in this category are, “sajai03: #EURO2016 #TeamEngland
threw away the match against Russia, hope all next matches they can win!” and “zubi89: What
a great performance today lads, need to pick ourselves up and give the Welsh a beating on
Thursday #ENG #EURO2016”, where the fan is anticipating England’s next game and hoping
they perform strongly. The fear category contained similar tweets but with more apprehension
and negativity than the anticipation category. The fear category contained completely negative
emotions, but was the least common emotion expressed with only 5% of all tweets. Most of the
tweets in this category expressed fear, not just about the game or the team, however, but of the
fan violence erupting in the stadium. Fans heard a loud bang noise and expressed fear that this
could potentially be related to the fan violence or to terrorism. An example of the tweets
contained in this category is, “JohnnyMassacre: That bang was no firework it www [was]
fucking deafening #EURO2016”, where the fan is expressing fear about the loud noise they
have heard during the game on television.
The second least common emotion expressed was joy, which was expressed in 6% of
the tweets sampled. The tweets in this category contained words of encouragement and
happiness at England’s performance against Russia. A key example from this category is
“LanaMajeed: What we learn from England vs Russia game! NEVER GIVE UP! England
played very well but the Russian[s] didn't gave up! #euro2016” and “Haden69: That was in the
bag until they threw is away. #RUS were gifted that draw. A better #ENG than ive seen in a
while tho #ENGRUS #EURO2016”. There were not much use of emotive language – such as
“yes!”, “brilliant” or “wow!”, for example, but this may have been due to England’s
performance. The emotions in the joy category were muted and reserved but contained a
positive tone overall, however, there were not many tweets in this category. The interviews
revealed that fans expressed joy and positive emotions on social media because they wanted to
share these with other fans and because this helped them celebrate with an online community –

28
instantly. One interviewee said that Twitter made him share his emotions during celebrations
much quicker than he would have offline and noted that the instant nature of Twitter was a
source of enjoyment and togetherness.
The final category contained “neutral” tweets that could not be categorised into any of
the other emotional categories. This contained tweets that simply had score updates or statistics,
without any overall emotional language used. There were not many tweets in the “neutral”
category, with just 6% of the total tweets falling into this category. This may indicate how
football fans use Twitter to obtain information from official accounts – such as a sports club’s
official account that has match updates and statistics – rather than providing their own
information. Since the retweets (tweets from other accounts copied onto a Twitter user’s
timeline) were not included in this study, further studies may look to study the role of retweets
and what kind of tweets are retweeted by fans. As the interviews from the second part of the
study have explained, football fans use Twitter to obtain information as well as to express their
emotions; thus, it is likely that they would predominantly retweet statistics and information
from official sources – such as journalists and football clubs. This is, however, a hypothesis and
would need to be analysed through further studies.
All of the fans interviewed stated Twitter as an important source of information,
communication as well as an emotional outlet. Veurtjes said that Twitter was a good outlet to
“vent” emotions after a football game, especially when the results of a game did not go the way
he would have wanted them to. Kedjanyi’s responses were similar, and he highlighted how
there are plenty of emotions expressed on Twitter, especially negative ones that act as a bonding
mechanism between fans who share similar feelings. Al-Asadi agreed with this and said that
Twitter was a good way to let out his frustrations about a game as well as to mock fans of
opposing teams. All of the fans and experts that were interviewed, including James Coyle,
Senior PR Manager at Samsung electronics who works with football fan engagement, said that

29
football fans turned to Twitter for information during a game, such as statistics. The role that
Twitter plays as a source of information, particularly due to its instant nature was cited by
several fans who were interviewed. They agreed that the analysis and statistics they got during
a match on Twitter was important because of its speed and because it was easy to share with
other fans – as they could be “re-tweeted” and thus shared on one’s timeline so that their
followers could see.
The interviewees unanimously agreed that the stadium atmosphere – one of extreme
unity and excitement - could not be replicated fully on social media, however, there are certain
elements of the stadium atmosphere that can be found in virtual spaces such as Twitter. The
stadium atmosphere was described as “electric” and as being a “united” atmosphere, with
positive words used by interviewees to describe it. While the stadium atmosphere cannot be
fully replicated online, there are certain similarities in the emotions expressed by football fans
in the stadium and on Twitter. For example, fans that were interviewed described Twitter as a
place to unify with other fans who share similar viewpoints to their own and to connent and
share with like-minded football fans. This description is similar to that of the football stadium
atmosphere, where there is a “united” atmosphere. Fans also claimed that before a match begins,
there is plenty of statsitics, news, emotions and information shared via Twitter – which,
interestingly, is similar to the stadium atmosphere where fans come together to share their
emotions and talk about the match. Additionally, social media allows football fans to “feel like
they are a part of something”, says Coyle, which shows the slight similarity in the previously
mentioned “united” atmosphere of the stadium. Coyle also mentioned how social media can
bring out “tribalism” in football fans in particular, as they are so intensely passionate about the
game. As other interviews with fans, Sherry Joshua and Hussain Al-Asadi showed, this
tribalism and extreme emotion expressed by fans, can be translated in the virtual sphere in the
ways fans come together to make fun of opposing teams on social media, which they say is part

30
of the enjoyment of using Twitter. Extreme emotion can be defined as any emotional extreme
– where plenty of adjectives and exclamation marks are used to enforce the emotion being
expressed online. Coyle also highlighted how Twitter can allow fans to hide behind a mask,
however, where fans shield themselves behind their social media accounts and use abusive
language against fans of rival teams. While the stadium atmosphere described earlier cannot be
fully replicated on Twitter, there are some similarities in the virtual atmosphere created by
football fans online and the atmosphere within a football stadium during a game which were
obtained by looking at similar keywords used by the interviewees to describe the atmospheres
online and offline.
The emotions that football fans express on social media can be either negative or
positive, however, there tends to be more negative emotions expressed, as the analysis of the
tweets during the England vs. Russia match showed, and as the interviews reaffirmed. Both
David Görges, Head of New Media at German football club, Borussia Dortmund and James
Coyle said that they noticed that fans expressed extreme emotions – either positive or negative
– on social media. “The emotions can vary from the highest highs to the lowest lows, most
likely depending on your performance on the pitch,” said Görges. Football fans appear to use
Twitter as a platform to vent out their frustrations as well as to express extremely positive
emotions and share these with other like-minded fans. The interviews with football fans showed
how fans claimed they feel “better” after publishing their negative emotions on Twitter. In this
case, Twitter is a release of emotion that helps fans to feel somewhat calmer after letting out
their sadness or anger – as the analysis of tweets also showed. Some fans admitted that the
tweets they publish during games may not be rational, but instead are more emotionally charged
and that they enjoy this fact. From the research conducted, football fans gain tension release as
well as sharing their extreme emotions during games. They enjoy sharing their emotions,
whether they are positive or negative, especially since they know that there are other like-

31
minded fans who share similar feelings. Some studies have discussed the role that social media
plays in allowing users to release their tension (Zolkepli and Kamarulzaman, 2015) by building
on the uses and gratifications theory proposed by Blumler and Katz (1974). Tension release can
be operationalised as a need for escapism, belongingness, companionship or playfulness
(Zolkepli and Kamarulzaman, 2015, p. 193). Fans tend to look for virtual communities as they
share information and emotions on social media, and this could also be linked with the need for
tension release – through companionship. As the interviews and analysis of tweets have
displayed, Twitter can act as a platform for football fans to release tension and express their
negative emotions, such as anger or sadness.
The role of virtual football fan communities on social media such as Twitter were
highlighted by the interviewees. Virtual communities, described as social aggregations that
form on virtual spaces such as the Internet, when people communicate for a long enough period
of time and thus form meaningful, personal bonds (Chandler and Munday, 2011, p. 451). The
role of emotion is therefore important in these virtual communities as well because of the
interpersonal bonds formed between members, in a virtual sphere. The interviewed fans pointed
out the importance of these communities for them and how they created close friendships with
other football fans whom they had not met, but shared these close bonds with. These virtual fan
communities on Twitter are important, both to fans as well as to content creators and those that
work in the fan engagement industry. David Görges expressed the importance of virtual
communities in allowing fans to share information and emotions about their favourite team –
what they “truly love” (Görges, 2016, pers. comm., 30 June). The interview with Michel
Munger, the editor of Bayern Central, revealed the role of virtual fan communities in football
fans’ experiences, “They are much more important to the isolated fans discussed above. If you
are in a city where there are few Bayern Munich fans, online communities matter more because
they allow you to reach out and talk to like-minded folks,” said Munger. Industry experts realise

32
how important these virtual communities are for fans, especially as a way to express passion
and share information, and also realise that some fans may be willing to pay to be a part of these
virtual fan communities, as the interviews with experts revealed. The payment that fans put in,
however, may be in the form of money or in the form of labour – whereby they may have to do
some work in order to be a member of the virtual community. These communities are important
for fans in feeling a sense of being a part of a large group of people who are connected as they
are “supporting the same team, feeling the same thing as millions of other people in the world
at the same moment,” as Veurtjes put it.
While fans’ labour can be exploited by social media companies on social networking
sites like Twitter, often they are rewarded although it may not be in monetary ways. The
interviews with fans showed that the work that many of them put in can pay off in the long run,
for example if they are looking for jobs related to the sports or media industry. For instance,
one interviewee claimed that the work he put into his Twitter presence helped him get a job in
football journalism and also helped him network - and it paid off in the long run, although he
admitted this is not the case every time. Often fans are inundated with advertisements and
promoted content on social media, or their work in being a part of a football fan community is
exploited by companies who capitalise on it. The issues surrounding the exploitation of fan
labour are written about by several academics such as Christian Fuchs (2010; 2014) and Tiziana
Terranova (Terranova, 2013) who have highlighted the dangers of exploiting fan labour. Fuchs
(2013) discusses how all of the work that fans do for ‘free’ – posting content, sharing feelings,
interacting with friends online, and engaging with their favourite sports teams, for instance –
leaves their sensitive and personal data exposed to these large social media companies that
profit from storing it and selling it. The type of labour fans put into Twitter may “differ in
amount in regard to the levels of payment; health risks; physical, ideological and social
violence; stress; free time; overtime; and the forms of coercion and control the workers are

33
experiencing, but all have in common that human labour-power is exploited in a way that
monetarily benefits ICT corporations and has negative impacts on the lives, bodies or minds of
workers,” says Fuchs (2013, p. 3). It must, however, be kept in mind that from the interviews
conducted, fans claimed that they felt better after venting out their negative emotions and
sharing them with others who feel similarly, and also stated the importance of Twitter in their
own enjoyment. The fans voluntarily publish their emotions and analyses of football matches
onto Twitter and this gains traction from other fans and companies. This is necessary to sustain
the existence of Twitter – which is how the corporation makes money, and does not give any
money back to the users; however, while the fans’ labour power is exploited by these ICT
corporations, the fans do gain some rewards themselves, even if they are not monetary rewards.
They do not gain these from the corporations themselves, but from other community members
on Twitter – through sharing, communicating and validating them, as the interviews with fans
and experts have shown. In this way, Twitter may be a democratising force in that all of the
football fans who have access to it, can publish their emotions and replicate a stadium
atmosphere online, on a much smaller scale and can share and gain rewards – such as
entertainment, catharsis, communication and information sharing.
Additionally, the interviews with industry experts revealed how they continue to tap
into fans’ emotions by forming bonds with them and providing them with unique information
that they could not get from any other source. Industry experts realise that it is difficult for
brands to create an emotional bond with fans in a natural way, which is why they partner with
football clubs’ social media presence to form personal bonds with fans. In this way, emotions
once again play a vital role in the football fans’ social media experience and both football clubs
and brands realise this as well and try to access this vital emotional connection, as the interviews
showed. Fans mentioned the importance of Twitter in giving them information, transfer news
and statistics, as well as more personal details about their favourite football players and their

34
lives – such as their weddings, the birth of their children, or even who they have recently
unfollowed or followed on Twitter. The industry capitalises on this by appealing to fans’ desires
and emotional needs, through social media. Brands and football clubs in this way manage to
enter football fans’ private spheres’, by appealing to their personal emotions which tend to run
high, especially during matches as the analysis of tweets showed.
These interviews and analysis of tweets explored the motivations of football fans to
express their emotions on Twitter and sought to find out how they expressed their emotions on
Twitter, including a replication of the football stadium atmosphere online during games. The
uses and gratifications theory originally proposed by Blumler and Katz (1974), creates a
grounding for this dissertation which found out what motivates football fans to use Twitter so
avidly during matches. This theory proposes that users consciously seek out their choice of
media according to their needs. In this instance, football fans turn to Twitter to get some kind
of social gratification or information – whether perceived or actual – from it. Using this theory,
the motivations for football fans to use Twitter and to publish certain tweets – and retweets
were analysed. The uses and gratifications theory studies audiences rather than the medium
itself which is what this dissertation did, however it does not study how audiences consume the
media. Football fans use Twitter to gain information about a particular match or their team; to
communicate with other like-minded fans; to express their emotions, both positive and
negative, about a game; and to express disdain at opposing teams. Tweets by English football
fans published during and immediately after England’s opening game of the Euros 2016, were
analysed and tended to be mostly negative – expressing anger and sadness. From the interviews
with football fans, the negativity of these tweets was explained by a need to vent out frustrations
during a difficult game. Fans admitted that reactions about a particular decision, such as a
referee’s decision to award the opposing team a penalty, are often hugely divided on Twitter,
indicating that they may come from an emotional rather than rational place for many fans, as

35
was said in one of the interviews with Dutch football fan Valentijn Veurtjes. In this way, Twitter
acts as the platform for fans to publish their catharsis of emotion.
There is very little literature in the field about the role that social media plays in allowing
users to release their frustrations about an issue and thereby feel better, which indicates that
there is plenty of room for research into this area. While football fans do tend to turn to social
media to express their frustrations – and to Twitter in particular, because it allows for quicker,
shorter text to be published to a wider audience than Facebook, according to the interviews –
the question still remains: do they feel better after doing so? The fans interviewed said they did
feel better, however, this needs to be studied on a much larger sample to get more significant
results into the concept of Twitter and catharsis for sports fans. Furthermore, the current study
could have been improved if the tweets from more matches rather than just one were taken into
account, however, due to time constraints this was not feasible. Studying more tweets would
allow to understand whether the negative emotions and extreme levels of emotions displayed
by football fans in the tweets was something unique to England fans, as James Coyle’s interview
hinted at, or if the negativity could be extrapolated to a larger group of fans. Additionally, more
fans could have been interviewed and for longer periods of time, but it was not possible for the
purpose of this dissertation, however, it should be kept in mind for future studies that explore
similar issues. It would also be interesting to replicate the analysis of tweets over other social
media platforms such as Facebook to see if the same phenomenon of football fans expressing
extreme and negative emotions on Twitter also occurs over other platforms. It must also be
taken into consideration that some interviews were conducted over email because some
participants were unable to make telephone calls due to time constraints. This may have
impacted how deep and analytical some answers were as the interviewer could not probe for
more information and clarify the questions as was done with the telephone interviews.

36
Furthermore, more controls over fans’ demographics, such as age, gender and socioeconomic
background may also have some effect and would be noteworthy to control in future studies.

37
Conclusion
This dissertation sought to find out football fans’ motivations for using Twitter during
matches to express their emotions, and to find out if the atmosphere of the football stadium
could be replicated on social media. This was done by using two different qualitative methods:
a sentiment analysis of tweets published by English fans during England’s opening game of the
European Championship 2016; and through interviews with football fans, fan bloggers and fan
engagement experts. A series of tweets, published by English football fans using the hashtag
#EURO2016 during England’s first game of the European championships (England vs. Russia)
that took place in June 2016, were analysed. The predominant emotions expressed by fans
within each tweet, by carefully looking at each word used by the fan, were identified and each
emotion was counted to see which one was the most commonly expressed on Twitter by football
fans. Rather than only asking questions and recording the responses given by interviewees,
sentiment analysis adds another layer, by looking closely at the language used by interviewees,
was conducted to try to understand how fans and industry experts felt about their Twitter
experience.
By looking through 307 tweets published by English football fans, and categorising
them into different groups based on the predominant emotions contained within each tweet, it
was found that the most common emotions expressed seemed to be anger and sadness.
Furthermore, it was also found that fans expressed extreme emotions – such as extreme anger,
extreme sadness or extreme joy – which was found by the intense language and adjectives
contained in the tweets. While this could be a phenomenon unique to English football fans, the
interviews with football fans from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United Arab
Emirates and Germany showed that they had also noticed that football fans publish more
negative tweets than positive tweets in general. The interviews with both fans and fan
engagement experts showed that this negativity could be explained by the need to vent out

38
frustrations about a match with other like-minded fans through social media. Twitter has
allowed itself to be shaped by football fans as a mode of communication, expressing and sharing
emotions, and recreating the atmosphere of a football stadium during a game – albeit on a much
smaller scale, as the research has shown. Twitter is therefore “subject to the interpretive
flexibility of the particular social groups involved in developing and appropriating the
technology” (Schmidt, 2013, p. 3). Its use is determined by its users and not necessarily as the
creators may have intended. In this case, the social shaping theory comes into play, as the users
of the technology affect how it is used and the role it plays in their lives. Football fans use
Twitter as a platform to express the emotions they feel during games, and to share information,
as the interviews showed. Initially, Twitter was a microblogging platform launched in 2006,
and sports fans were not in mind when it was created. Since fans express their negative emotions
on Twitter, it could be used as a means of tension release.
This dissertation asked whether the atmosphere of a football stadium could be replicated
online over virtual spaces such as Twitter. The interviewees unanimously agreed that it was not
possible to completely replicate the stadium atmosphere online, however, once the language
used by interviewees to describe the atmosphere of the stadium and atmosphere on Twitter
during a football game, was inspected deeply, there were certain similarities. The words used
to describe the stadium atmosphere were “united”, “electric”, “community”, and the words used
to describe the atmosphere on Twitter during a football match were also “community”, “unity”,
“coming together”. The descriptions of the two atmospheres bear some similarities, however,
the stadium atmosphere is said to be more extreme and passionate. Interviewees, particularly
industry experts, said they liked the fact that the stadium atmosphere could not be replicated
online, as the atmosphere inside a football stadium is unique; however, fans can get a glimpse
of this atmosphere online if they cannot be inside the stadium. This stadium atmosphere is
recreated online through sharing information and images, and particularly through sharing their

39
own emotions with other fans, and making fun of the fans of opposing teams. Interviews with
football fans revealed that they liked creating bonds with other fans and they enjoyed cheering
for their team and communicating with their favourite football team along with other fans as it
helped them create meaningful bonds, or virtual communities. One interviewee even claimed it
made them feel happy to share their feelings and know that they are feeling the same emotions
as millions of others around the world who support the same team, at the same time.
Twitter is also used by fans to obtain information, such as statistics and score updates,
and to communicate with other fans and with their favourite football club or team, as the
interviews revealed. Virtual communities are particular noteworthy as they are an important
means of communication and creating meaningful bonds over social media, particularly for
football fans. From the interviews, fans also highlighted the importance in communal power
that fans can wield over social media especially when tackling collective issues and protesting
over topics they are collectively passionate about. They agreed that social media can be a great
tool in allowing fans to quickly get information about and mobilise around a shared issue, such
as football ticket prices. Social media, by its very definition, is media that allows people to
come together collectively, to share and socialise. Understanding social media, thus, requires
an understanding of what it means to be social, and how this translates online (Fuchs, 2014, p.
48). It is important to understand participatory culture and how it is applied to these virtual
communities, in order to understand what motivates fans’ online behaviour on social media,
such as Twitter. Thus, the social aspect, and the importance of virtual communities, as
highlighted by the interviews, are important to be studied.
Future studies could look at football fans from different nationalities and the effect this
has on their expression of emotion online. Nationalism and identity play important roles, both
for sports fans as well as on social media. Additionally, the study could be replicated to see how
football fans use other social networking sites, such as Facebook, during games to share their

40
emotions. One of the industry experts who was interviewed hypothesised that there may be
something unique about English football fans and the negativity they express on social media,
however, when fans from around the world were asked about the emotions they most express
on social media, they said that the emotions leaned towards negative emotions such as
frustration and sadness. Studies that look into the reasons why fans tend to express negative
emotions on social media during games may be important. While the responses from this
dissertation have said it could be a form of tension release, whereby fans express their
frustrations online in order to make themselves feel better and also foster virtual community
bonds, further studies could expand on these responses. Some studies have shown that tension
release through the media can be done through escapism, belongingness, companionship or
playfulness (Zolkepli and Kamarulzaman, 2015, p. 193). The interviews highlighted the link
between social media, emotions and tension release for football fans, however, more research
is still needed. The role that Twitter plays in the context of tension release, especially regarding
fans’ needs for tension release is yet to be explored on a deeper level, and this is what future
studies could explore.
The findings of this dissertation are particularly important in adding to the body of
literature surrounding fan culture and social media. Emotions play a key role in a football fans’
experience, and this includes their desire to publish content, share feelings and form deep,
meaningful bonds with people they may never physically meet, through social media. Several
media scholars such as Nancy Baym and Henry Jenkins, among others, have published studies
surrounding fan culture and social media. Additionally, Twitter and sports has also been written
about (Bruns, et al., 2013), however, the role of emotion in linking Twitter and sports has not
been researched enough and therefore there is a gap in the literature. This dissertation helps in
creating a base for future studies regarding emotion, sports fandom and social media, which is
important for both scholars who study behaviour on social media, as well as industry experts

41
who seek to engage users for their own motivations. Emotion plays a major role in motivating
fans to publish content onto Twitter, whether negative or positive, however, there may appear
to be a slant towards negative emotions. This may be a way for fans to vent and release tension,
which is what the interviews revealed, however, future research can look deeper into this.
Emotions play a major role in fans’ experience, whether online or offline, and this dissertation
has explored how they translate onto the virtual sphere through Twitter through the careful
analysis of language and interviews’ responses about their usage of social networking site
Twitter.

42
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46
Appendices
A. Interview questions
For fans:
1. What do you use Twitter for?
2. What is unique about Twitter for a football fan experience?
3. In your experience, what motivates football fans to use social media?
4. Why do fans such as yourself use social media and blogs and what do they
stand to gain from the work they put into this?
5. What is the role of emotions in football fans’ social media experience?
6. What emotions do football fans express most on social media such as Twitter?
7. How would you define the atmosphere of the football stadium?
8. Can football fans recreate a stadium atmosphere on social media?
9. How important are virtual football communities (over social media sites) to
football fans?
10. What is the role of social media in identity for football fans?
11. What role does Twitter play in allowing football fans to come together over a
shared issue?
12. How is your experience as a football fan on Twitter different from your
experience as a football fan before you joined Twitter?
For industry experts:
1. In your experience, what motivates football fans to use social media?
2. What is the role of emotions in football fans’ social media experience?
3. What emotions to football fans express most on social media such as Twitter?
4. How would you define the atmosphere of the football stadium?

47
5. Can football fans recreate a stadium atmosphere on social media?
6. How important are virtual football communities (over social media sites) to
football fans?
7. Are there any differences in football fan communities from different parts of
the world, and the ways in which they use social media?
8. What is the role of social media in identity for football fans?
9. How does the industry respond to the ways in which football fans use social
media (like Twitter)?

48
B. Total counts of tweets by England fans
Emotion Count
Anger 62
Fear 15
Joy 19
Sadness 61
Disgust 28
Surprise 28
Trust 39
Anticipation 22
Neutral 33
TOTAL 307

49
C.
D. Full table of tweets by England football fans, categorised by emotions portrayed
(see following pages)

Complete sample of tweets by English football fans using #EURO2016 during England vs. Russia 50
Anger Fear Joy Sadness Disgust Surprise Trust Anticipation Neutral
kuliar89: Why the fuck Kane taking corners
#eng #EURO2016 Katie_K
ats1:
England'
s gonna
England.
#EURO2
016
KumudNakar
mi: #Sterling
playing so
awesome. so
much activity
by him... go
#Eng #ENG
#ENGRUS
#EURO2016
#EURO2016
onSONYSIX
salkhan5:
Hope
England
perform
better
throughout
the
#EURO2016
because
today was
disappointin
g
MetalGiroud: You do realise that if England
get to the final, they've got so many Spurs
players they'll finish third. #EURO2016
ibha_jaleel: not sure if england is
actually playing well or russie is crap.
#EURO2016
ParksJoshpark
s: Played well,
can only blame
the
substitutions
for the draw
Experience
needed in the
end, always
needed a
second goal
tonight
#Euro2016
#ENG
lou_mason : And so it begins.... Come on
@England!! ⚠⚠
#euro2016#togetherforengland #football
#england https://t.co/4h8FmaXgFw
WaveyTimz277 : Luke Shaw is our best LB... #ENG
#EURO2016
SaeedAdebayo: The little Rashford to me is more
preferable to Sterling. Nothing but to
run aimlessly.#EURO2016 @KennyOlowu
TimonJr
: That
was
absolute
pants.
Now
there
will be
more
trouble
with
those
ridiculou
s
fans in
France.
*smh*
#Euro20
16
Sikander023: A
good game
between #Eng
and #Rus..
#EURO2016
mattlyyn
ch: When
Raheem
Sterling is
on form
like this
you
simply
can't stop
him when
running
directly at
defenders
.
#EURO20
16 #ENG
jkirkmanmusic: Russia had absolutely
nothing to offer. Had to try and kill the game
with Vardy and his pace. #ENG #EURO2016
Drumlaw80: England vs. Russia today
.... wow. Just wow. Kudos to Russia
for hanging in there. #EURO2016
thejoshuatreat
: Fair result.
Neither team
should give
#WAL, far
superior, too
much
trouble.
#EURO2016
#ENGRUS
#Cymru
#Ramsey #Bale
#waiting
MillyChaplyn: #EURO2016 COME ON #ENG
BOYYYSSS⚠⚠
Mr_Vuthuza_N: Sterling and Walker #EURO2016
NMQ_Edi: That sound of ginormous amounts of shit
hitting the fan..... #ENGRUS
#EURO2016
Horrorfi
ed46:
#EURO2
016 this
was me
when I
heard
that
loud
bang.
Jesus.
So glad
it
was just
a
firework
#ENGRU
S
https://t
.co/YLzB
CFFrbB
Duckers88: Best
England
performance in
an opening
game for some
time. Glad to be
able say we
were robbed!
#ENGRUS
#EURO2016
piikaaachuu
uu: Full time
1-1 #eng Still
can't win the
opening
game of
#EURO2016
what a
disappointm
ent for
England
kylegabemeistar: I'm actually waiting for England to
bottle it and never pass the group
stages ... They're a fraud... All of them #ENGRUS
#EURO2016
CarolineBusson: Vardy should of
come on for Kane too... we played
well tho till them
subs was made! #EURO2016
arshhashemi:
Finishing was
poor overall.
Drop Sterling.
Woeful.
Promising
overall tho.
#eng
#EURO2016
brijmgmt01: never give up.stay hard @England
#EURO2016 #EURO2016onSONYSIX
#EngvRus #RUS #ENG @BBCSport @SonySIX
https://t.co/hbfQEWws8P
AhmedLawati99: England are looking dangerous
#EURO2016

RhettWilsmore: Seriously??? Only #ENG
could stuff that up #EURO2016
KSR_19
95_:
England
will still
win the
Europea
n
Champi
onship
and
then we
will be
stuck
with
Hodgso
n
forever.
#ENGRU
S
#EURO2
016
Galactic_Indie:
Great game
#euro2016
#ENG
https://t.co/eEK
JEIpTxr
JustSaphPro
mo: Atleast
England
tried?
#EURO2016
EDGEtheRED: 21st century team, 20th century manager
#EURO2016 #ENG
queenshaylea: Ugh England? Really??
#EURO2016
gnallgubben:
Well, seems to
be 'bout time
to dig up the
English
Eurobingo-
sheet once
again..#EURO2
016
christylianou23: C'mon lads! Get the wins
mates #EngvRus #EURO2016
iAmKelvin_: England laxity cost them their one goal lead.
#Euro2016.
joshylove96: A bit of a joke that, but not a funny one
#EURO2016
ryan_w
hiteman
: France
will be a
war
zone
this
evening
after
that
result...
#ENGRU
S
#EURO2
016
katiemarley96:
What a great
team effort
from @England ,
keep that up
and we've got
this⚠
#TogetherForEn
gland
#EURO2016
#ENG
ThatDaveW:
So
deflated...
#EURO2016
#Eng
ashleigh_yeo: There's fucking hell on right now!
#EURO2016
joelfentem: Roy's substitutions beyond belief
#ENGRUS #EURO2016
dansilver_:
With that
many Spurs
players in the
England side
we
were always
going to bottle
it at the last
minute
#ENGRUS
#EURO2016
lordtiago16: Come on!! #ENG #EURO2016
stants1902: Turns out the mrs @tinagee29 has 2 correct scores
today on the
@SaintAnthonysFC #euro2016 predictor. I thought she had 2-1
england
DeeperUK: If that was in a qualifying game, England
would have wrapped Russia 4-0.
Always come up short when it counts #Eng #EURO2016
BMK108
0: Also,
given
security
concern
s,
setting
off
those
loud
flares
outside
the
stadium
seems
like a
SUPER
GREAT
IDEA,
GUYS.
Yikes.
#EURO2
016
cymrogav:
Football is
awesome
#EURO2016
adambolton
88:
Disappointe
d yeah but
at least we
didn't loose
#ENG
#EURO2016
f1silverarrow: Back to watching English, Russian and
French thugs beat the shit out of
each other. Im cheering for the police to win that match
#EURO2016
scottie_clark: Can someone come round and
tell me that didn't actually happen. Feel
free to pick my jaw up from the floor whilst
you're at it. #EURO2016
adambolton88
: Disappointed
yeah but at
least we didn't
loose #ENG
#EURO2016
killianftklaus: England NEED to win against Wales in the
next match #EURO2016
lazarusrichards: #EURO2016 England played well enough - lack
of sharpness upfront
Roy should have changed & gone for 2 - so that leave
#walesontop

Hamaad_Rai99: England had one fucking job, not to
concede. What did they do?
Concede. #EURO2016 #EnglandRussia #England
linzoire:
And
what
was that
massive
bang
just
before
Russia
scored?!
? Did it
put
them
off??
#EURO2
016
michaelchristod
: #ENGRUS
#EURO2016
Well, look at the
bright side,
Wales are in the
lead!
JamesBottril
l: Well that
was kick-you-
in-the-crotch
spit-on-your-
neck
fantastic
#ENG
#ENGRUS
#EURO2016
shadowplay3: Vardy, Drinkwater, Townsend should be in
the
squad. England pays the price for weak selection. #ENG
#euro2016 rpullen7: Raheem Sterling is sooo bad holy
wow #EURO2016 #ENGRUS
Gwennaelle_
W: England 1 -
Russia 1 well
logical after
the second half
of Russia
England can
have regret in
the first half
#EURO2016
LadyZara1986: Gutted, that was proper harsh!
#ENG - on to the next! Let's win these
last 2 games boys!! #EURO2016
Falconhawkman: Why isn't Australia playing in
#Euro2016?Australia almost won
Eurovision soooooooo....
LazarusNadebu: Is there any football reason that made
Roy Hodgson to play Adam
Lallana full time rather than substituting him?
#Euro2016
bcdoola
n: You
think
the
trouble
was bad
before
the
game ....
Gonna
be a
long
night for
the
Gendar
merie
#EURO2
016
Only1mourinho:
THREE LIONS ON
THE SHIRTJULES
RIMMET STILL
GLEAMING
#EURO2016
#ENG
John_WHU:
Deluded
fans year in
year out
have faith
that we can
go and win a
major
competition
its like they
forget how
shit we are
#ENG
#EURO2016
AndyJProbyn: Seeing as I've got #CZE and #IRE roots I
might get more enjoyment
watching them play footy than my actual nationality
#EURO2016 #ENG
SiGriff1985: Rooney off? llana left on? What a
joke!!!!! #England #EURO2016
manks_cat:
Same old
england. Why
sit back after
scoring?.. go
for 2 goals ffs.
Same
old mentality.
#EURO2016
#EUROS
James_Buckley: Any young fans maybe
watching their first
tournament, strap yourselves in. This is what
being an England fan is all abou…
Shiner71: Standard #EURO2016
kevchess: Poor results on the field. Fans disgraceful off
the field. Same old #England
#Euro2016
Liam_co
rr1253:
Did
anyone
else
hear the
bang in
the
#ENG vs
#RUS
match?
#EURO2
016
#ENGRU
S
Ruan_K1: A lot
of positives can
be taken from
tonight's game,
#ENG played
well!
Marseilles is
going to be a
bundle of joy
tonight #ENG
#EURO2016
Mikeholdfor
d: Why am I
not
surprised?
#EURO2016
#ENG
FerdinandMarcu2: That's what happens when you start 5
Spud players in the European
Championships. #EURO2016 #ENGRUS #RIPengland
silverandsmoke: Wow!! What a game! Russian
goal in the final seconds!! ⚠⚠
#EURO2016
TapsNC: That's
#England for
you people.
#EURO2016
DaddyPigF1: Makes the game vs #Wal on Thursday
even bigger than it is already.
Couldn't bare it if we lose it. 100% must win. #eng
#Euro2016
aimansays: No Vardy, No Party, #Eng #EURO2016

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