Thursday, November 18, 2010

Works Citied

Randle, Quint, and Rob Nyland. "Participation in Internet Fantasy Sports Leagues and Mass Media Use." Journal of Website Promotion 3.3/4 (2008): 143-152. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.
Dae Hee, Kwak, et al. "How Confident Are You to Win Your Fantasy League: Exploring the Antecedents and Consequences of Winning Expectancy." Journal of Sport Management 24.4 (2010): 416-433. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.

Poulton, Emma. "Toward a Cultural Sociology of the Consumption of "Fantasy Football Hooliganism." Sociology of Sport Journal 25.3 (2008): 331-349. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 18 Nov. 2010.

O'Brien, Susie, and Imre Szeman. Popular Culture: a User's Guide. Toronto: Nelson Education,
            2009. Print.
Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football. Web. 18 Nov. 2010. <http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/>.

Reading blog 10

List:
Vagabonds
Older people/ elderly- that don't want change and don't want to adapt
Very stubborn people who don't want to conform

Tourists
Youth and younger people who accept change
Middle class (age wise) are very willing to adapt to change

No tourists don't just exist in the first world, and vagabonds don't just exist in the third world. Everyone lives in the same world. We may think that we live in different worlds but in reality there is only one world. We must all adapt and conform to each other or this one world we all live in will not be functional. As stated by O'Brien, most of the people around the world can't afford expensive vacations that involve leaving the continent that they call "home", they are simply just too expensive. People who are able to go on these very expensive vacations should consider themselves lucky, the other people around the world don't have the economic means to go accross the world for a week, just because they want to. ( O'Brien 338)


 The roles that race and gender play in the politics of mobility are great. Stereotypically some races are much more impovershed that others, therefore those races don't have the same oppurtunity to be in political power. Gender also plays a vital role, women around the world are thought of as being second in line to men. These categories are changing in that more minorities are becoming politically impowered such as Barack Obama. There are still not many minorites in political power, but with Obama's election it's a start, to a every changing future.



O'Brien, Susie, and Imre Szeman. Popular Culture: a User's Guide. Toronto: Nelson Education,
            2009. Print.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

responses to reading blog 9

posted on samantha's and deavins

research blog 13

Randle, Quint, and Rob Nyland. "Participation in Internet Fantasy Sports Leagues and Mass Media Use." Journal of Website Promotion 3.3/4 (2008): 143-152. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 16 Nov. 2010.

This article was published to show how much interaction with fantasy sports, increases the amount of mass media a person uses throughtout a period of time. Studies showed that when people were involved in fantasy sports team they watched more tv, listened to more radio, and looked up more stats on the internet. The studies also showed that users of fantasy teams were slated to watch more sporting events each week. It also talks about reasons why people like sports. It gives a list of reasons and backs them up with very reasonible explanations.

I found some very interesting statistics in this article. One was that an estimated 15 to 18 million americans participate in fantasy sports every single year. This has made fantasy football go from a hobby to a business. With all of these users an estimated 1.5 billion dollars is gained in subscription fee's and advertising. Another very interesting fact I found was that 85% of boys ages 14 to 18 said that they "loved sports" or "liked them alot. What was even a bigger shock to me was that 74% of girls the same ages said they "loved sports" and or "liked them alot." The last stat that shocked me was that 73% of females and 83% of males thought of themselves as sports fans. I would have that the males was about right, but the females I thought would be much less, I don't see that many females that are sports fans. I think the biggest thing I can take from this article is that fantays sports have gone from being a hobby to being a big business, maybe unlike anything else ever has.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Reading blog 9

I live near two small towns, and I have seen the effects of "brands" in these towns, and they are quite devastating. There is one main street, which encompasses a wide variety of hometown eating, buying and selling cars, grocery shopping, and many other services. Subway is also in this same town, not on the same street, but in the same town. Subway is a bargain to get a footlong sub for five dollars, you can't beat it. That's exactly why these local small restaurants can't compete, they have to make money, and they can't sell footlong subs for five dollars. Same thing with the grocery store, prices are more expensive here than at larger stores, because the local store needs to make money to stay a float. When it all boils down to it small businesses can't compete with brand names like meijer, kroger, or k-mart. It's destroying little towns like the one I live near.

Living near toledo and detroit there are always rumors, and/ or jokes about them being "bad". There are bad sides of every town, but not as bad as people make them out to be. The people that say bad things about these neighborhoods are just contributing to the stereotypes that this area has already recieved. This "bad" space/ side of town is avoided by people at all costs. I guess this is a way of people having a feeling of self security. A public space such as detroit and toledo should never be as unsafe as people make it out to be. This space is for all to use, unlike private which is used for monitary profit or however the owner see's fit.

In this chapter it talks about people going on vacation to one of two locations or types of locations. One is a very urban city where their is alot of things to do. The second is the "nature" vacation where people go to be secluded and enjoy the space that is open and free, not conjested with people. My family and I go on vacation often and most of the time our family chooses the second option. We would much rather prefer a non conjested nature vacation rather than going to a city. I would relate our decision with where we live, we live in the country and are more likley to enjoy a nature vacation rather than someon who dwells in the city.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

posted on for reading blog 8

samantha's and sarah's

Research blog 12

The website that I chose is yahoo fantasy football. This is an example of a subculture, because it's not in the social norms of people to sit on their computer for hours on end to look up stats about football players, or fantasize about what stats players might bring. This fantasy world is exactly what the word fantasy means. It's FAKE, anything that isn't real, and people religiously act in or on is a subculture. Fantasy football also has the space on the internet needed for it to be considered a subculture. Where members can pick up, drop, trade, cut, change positions, and bench players. They can also talk to other "owners" of teams in their league. Authenticity plays a crucial role in this subculture, it's role is that it's completley rid of authenticity. Everything in this subculture is fake the team names, the owners names, what teams the players play for, and many other things. My argument for fantasy football as a subculture is simple, it's not in the social norm and it has it's own "space" to meet or talk and still be in existance therefore it is a subculture.

Reading blog 8



LAIRE stand for live action interactive roleplaying explorers. This is an example of a subculture, because this is a society that exists not in "secret" but behind the scenes. Laire is very much outside the norm. Laire has their own "space" or place they can meet or have their battles, which every subculture needs. This is a subculture because everyone who participates in laire has something in common, and that is their interest in interactive roleplaying.



This picture from the movie American History X depicts a counterculture. In this picture is the leader of a gang which is for white supremecy. This is an example of a counterculture because it's trying to change the world. It's trying to rid this particular city of everyone other than "whites", they go into an asian owned and run store and trash the place, assault the workers, and rob the store. This is a counterculture because this group is contradicting everything that these not "white" people bring to the culture.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Research blog 11

I have been in this subculture for sometime now, so I have been interacting this entire time. When i first got into fantasy football i was very anxious and very excited to see how i fared. After awhile it wore off and i wasn't very "into" it anymore. I still "play" in the leagues but i just do it usually just to be apart of my friends. Most of my friends take part in this fantasy sport. I don't have that much time to watch the nfl anymore so thats why i'm not into the sport anymore. I was responded to well in my first interaction of this cite. My brother and my friend are the creator of the league, so I know just about everyone on a first name basis. I felt very included because i was taking part in trades and free agent signings, adding a dropping players and the conversations that were taking place on the cite and in the league. Well there were boundries i didn't cross because some people get pretty amped up about fantasy football and use curse words and such i stayed away from that but other than that i have enjoyed fantasy football alot.

http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/

posted on for reading blog 7

dustin and sarahs