War for a Ball The impact of user-generated-content over the behavior of media consumer in times of crisis. A Football case study Master within business admisistration Author: Halima El Joundi Supervisor: Dr. Leon Barkho May, 2010 1 Acknowledgment My deepest gratitude goes to Dr Leon Barkho for his guidance and help and to JIBS for an experience of a lifetime. To Hayat Zeroual and Mohamed El Joundi My fortune, my parents Halima El Joundi May, 2010 2 Abstract Master Thesis within Business Administration Title War for a Ball : The impact of user-generated-content over the behavior of media consumer in times of crisis A Football case study Author Halima El Joundi Supervisor Leon Barkho Date 05/23/10 Subject terms User-Generated-Content, Social Media, Opinion, deindividuation, Collective Behavior, active audiences, Communication Models Introduction The recent breakthroughs in communication technologies have reintroduced the user to Internet. Media consumers became empowered with the capabality to produce, and will gradually shift from the traditional role of an audience to generate content, compete with mainstream media and construct new social and cultural realities. The impact user-generated-content is having on individuals and groups is still ambiguous and requires a better understanding of both the nature of UGC as a source and the particularity of social media platforms as a channel. Purpose The pupose of this paper is to further the discussion on how user-generated-content impact audiences in terms of opinion and behavior, particularly during periods of crisis. Method The research question will be approached from a qualitative perspective. Thus an examplary case study entitled ”War for a Ball” is designed and analyzed based on data collected from different sources; including official documentation of the incident described in the case, and the author´ personal observations as a participant observer of the phenomenon. Conclusion Communication is reshaping the world, redefining responsabilities and bringing in new (dis)orders. Channels of social media, through which audiences are mostly active, are vulnurable platforms where Noise is integrated with the message by default, resulting in a participatory form of control and a state of deindividuation as the user gradually merges in the goup. 3 Table of Content 1. Introduction...............................................................................................................................7 1.2 Background................................................................................................................................7 1.3 The problem...............................................................................................................................7 1.4 The importance of the topic.......................................................................................................8 1.5 Perspective.................................................................................................................................9 1.6 Delimitations..............................................................................................................................9 1.7 Definitions..................................................................................................................................9 2. Method.......................................................................................................................................11 2.1 Qualitative versus quantitative .................................................................................................11 2.2 A qualitative research method: a case study..............................................................................11 2.3 Data gathering and validity......................................................................................................12 2.4 Case analysis: the strategy........................................................................................................13 3. Frame of References...............................................................................................................14 3.1 Communication.........................................................................................................................14 3.1.1 Communication models.......................................................................................................14 3.1.1.1 Aristotle´s model.........................................................................................................14 3.1.1.2 Shannon and Weaver´s model.....................................................................................15 3.1.1.3 Berlo´s model..............................................................................................................16 3.1.1.4 Schramm´s model........................................................................................................17 3.2 Revisiting audiences..................................................................................................................17 3.3 Social media: the user generated content.................................................................................18 3.3.1 Citizen journalism.........................................................................................,,....................19 3.3.2 Online social network.........................................................................................................20 3.4 Collective behavior....................................................................................................................21 3.4.1 Opinion................................................................................................................................21 3.4.1.1 Revisiting Propaganda................................................................................................21 3.4.1.2Deindividuation............................................................................................................22 4. Research Question..................................................................................................................24 5. War for a Ball: case description..........................................................................................25 5.1 The trigger.................................................................................................................................25 5.2 Convergence..............................................................................................................................26 4 5.3 More convergence.....................................................................................................................27 5.4 War! ..........................................................................................................................................28 5.5 Aftermath .................................................................................................................................29 6. Case analysis and discussion..............................................................................................30 6.1 The danger of words..................................................................................................................30 6.1.1 The message and the stimulus.............................................................................................30 6.1.2 The channel and the receiver...............................................................................................30 6.1.2.1Receiver of television...................................................................................................31 . 6.1.2.2 The receiver of Noise..................................................................................................31 6.2 The danger of crowds...............................................................................................................33 6.2.1 Slips and opinion shifts.......................................................................................................33 6.2.2 Deindividuation by default ................................................................................................34 . 6.3 Convergence.............................................................................................................................34 6.3.1 Integrating the consumer....................................................................................................35 . 6.3.2 Realm of confusion.............................................................................................................35 7. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................37 References....................................................................................................................................39 Appendix 1....................................................................................................................................45 Appendix 2.....................................................................................................................................46 5 Table of Figures Figure 1: Aristotel´s communication model......................................................................................15 Figure 2: Shannon and Weaver communication model ...................................................................16 Figure 3: Berlo´s communication model..........................................................................................16