Annotated Bibliography
Pierce Gunderson
Georgia Southern
References
Dwyer, B., Achen, R., & Lupinek, J. (2016, September). Fantasy vs. Reality: Exploring the BIRGing and CORFing Behavior of Fantasy Football Participants. Retrieved from https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.libez.lib.georgiasouthern.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=271d7724-fe7c-40bf-b4c1-4dc4ce22ad23@pdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=#AN=118538473&db=s3h
In this academic study, Dwyer, Achen, and Lupinek conduct a series of experiments in order to observe the different ways NFL team fans and fantasy football players react to their team winning or losing. Researchers surveyed random members of each Pro football subculture immediately following the success or failure of their favorite NFL team or fantasy team, on four different occasions throughout the 2014 regular season. After gathering the data following the participants surveys researchers classified the emotions shown by the participants into two opposite categories, BIRGing and CORFing. Basking in reflected glory (BIRGing) and cutting off reflected failure (CORFing). These represent two strategies people employ to enhance or protect self-esteem, and are most commonly present when dealing with victory or defeat. The data gathered by the researchers indicates that the social-psychological reactions witnessed in traditional team fandom were nearly identical to those replicated through fantasy football. Dwyer’s purpose for the study was, “to provide a foundation for future research involving NFL fandom, fantasy participation, and social psychology behavior.” This study is useful to my annotated bibliography because it provides evidence that there is very little discrepancy between the emotions shown after a win or loss by a traditional NFL fan and fantasy football player, even in wake of the glaring differences the two cultures share. There is no detection of any bias, and the objective is to strictly inform.
Dwyer, B., & Yongjae, K. (2011, January). For Love or Money: Developing and Validating a Motivational Scale for Fantasy Football Participation. Retrieved from https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.libez.lib.georgiasouthern.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=271d7724-fe7c-40bf-b4c1-4dc4ce22ad23@pdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=#AN=59667723&db=s3h
Highly esteemed sports researcher, Brendan Dwyer investigates why the fantasy football community is growing at such a rapid rate and what factors make fantasy football so popular, in this scholarly resource. Dwyer explains that the huge increase in fantasy participation over the past 10 years is because fantasy sports participants have many more resources in today’s day and age, such as stadiums, television, radio broadcasts, internet applications, mobile devises, and sports networks than ever before. Many aspects of fantasy football contribute to its popularity, but data suggest that gambling, motivational dimensions, and the sense of power obtained from managing a team are its best attributes. With the addition of gambling to fantasy football, it gained 40 million participants in 9 years. Dwyer associates the growth of wagering on fantasy football games to the growth of internet and the introduction of smart phones. Research conducted by sports professionals suggest that fantasy football participants were driven by different motives than those of a traditional NFL fan. Fantasy participants are driven by three motivational dimensions: entertainment/escape, competition, social interaction. The study infers that fantasy football fans derive two motives that are undetected with traditional fandom, theses being surveillance, arousal, entertainment, escape and social interaction. This source is useful to be because it asserts confirms that the addition of legal gambling to fantasy football is one of the main reasons it continues to grow. It also shares data supporting surveillance, arousal, entertainment, escape and social interaction as motives fantasy players derive from the game.
Dwyer, B., & Yongjae, K. (2011, January). For Love or Money: Developing and Validating a Motivational Scale for Fantasy Football Participation. Retrieved from https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.libez.lib.georgiasouthern.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=271d7724-fe7c-40bf-b4c1-4dc4ce22ad23@pdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=#AN=59667723&db=s3h
This specific scholarly source explains what type of impact fantasy sports involvement has on the National Football League’s television ratings. Well known professors Roy and Goss proposed a conceptual framework of influences that included psychological (control, escape, and achievement), social (community and socialization), and market-controlled (product, price, and promotion), which they used to assist them in examining the attitude-behavior relationship with respect to fantasy sports involvement and television viewership. They concluded that the contemporary sport consumer is more empowered than ever, and fantasy sports participation has partly fueled the dynamic transition from passive fandom to engaged community-focused interaction. Research suggests fantasy sports participation is driven by motives traditional sports fans do not usually share, such as surveillance, arousal, entertainment, escape, and social interaction. Fantasy football allows individual participants to act as general manager of the NFL players on any of the current 32 teams within the NFL, which ultimately influences a competitive curiosity about every NFL game played each week. Resulting in increased media-consumption habits compared to those of traditional NFL fans. There is nothing that would lead me to believe that there is any bias present in the scholarly resource. This article is crucial to my paper because it backs the idea that fantasy football players have a higher NFL consumption rate and participation rate than traditional NFL fans, due to a set of motives, (surveillance, arousal, entertainment, escape, and social interaction) that only fantasy players experience.
Chan, A. (2015, February 2). Every Sunday Is Super Bowl Sunday. Retrieved from https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.libez.lib.georgiasouthern.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=27&sid=271d7724-fe7c-40bf-b4c1-4dc4ce22ad23@pdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=#AN=100675402&db=s3h
Isidore investigates the increase in fantasy football participation, and how a spike in cash prizes within fantasy football accounts for its boost in popularity. Data collected in 2014 by researchers show that there were 20.2 million fantasy sports players in 2007 and nearly 40.5 million seven years later. The study claims the growth of fantasy football is due to changes it has underwent when becoming available on the internet. Researchers inferred that the addition of legal gambling to fantasy football is the most impactful change that took place. Participants compete in head-to-head cash games for anything from $1 to $5,000 or in tournaments, where only top percentage finishers win money but take payouts-up to $1 million off a single entry on any given NFL Sunday. Isidore says that the low risk high reward system fantasy football uses gives its potential participants a larger incentive to play fantasy rather than just follow the NFL. Scott, a lifelong fantasy football player shared an experience in which, “he turned a single $5-dollar entry into a first-place finish among 57,000 lineups and won $15,000.” The data represented in this article suggest that fantasy football participation and an increase in cash rewards, both benefit from each other. More money and larger cash prizes in fantasy football become more available as fantasy participation increases. There is potential bias detected because researchers only investigated one facet of fantasy football participation. However, this information strengthens my annotated bibliography, because it suggests the gambling (DFS) subculture within the fantasy football community is a complement to fantasy football as a whole. It also endorses the concept that fantasy football is a major contributor to the increase in NFL media consumption.
Dwyer, B., & Yongjae, K. (2011, January). For Love or Money: Developing and Validating a Motivational Scale for Fantasy Football Participation. Retrieved from https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.libez.lib.georgiasouthern.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=271d7724-fe7c-40bf-b4c1-4dc4ce22ad23@pdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=#AN=59667723&db=s3h
This specific study examines the differences in motives and consumption between the three subcultures present in the fantasy football community, TFS players (traditional fantasy sport), DFS players (daily fantasy sport), and hybrid (both) fantasy football players. Weiner developed four research questions to take into account when examining the subcultures consumption differences, “Q1: What media consumption differences exist between those who play only TFS, only play DFS, and those who play both? Q2: Which of the MSFFP factors of those who only play TFS, (Q3: DFS) (Q4: hybrid) significantly impact their media consumption of NFL?” Nearly 511 members of the fantasy football community were selected at random, grouped into their respected subculture, and asked to complete several online surveys. The conductors of the survey took precautions such as, adding screening questions to ensure fantasy football knowledge, tracking IP addresses to avoid ballet stuffing, and eliminating surveys that provided pattern responses to ensure there was no bias. The data collected suggest that the three subcultures are driven by different motives, yet the DFS-only and hybrid participants appear to be an advanced version of TFS participants from a media consumption stand point. Results indicated statistically significant motive score differences across the groups, gambling, social interaction, and competition are the leading motives for DFS-only and hybrid players, while TFS-only is represented by escape and entertainment. James Weiner and Brendan Dwyer’s research paper is vital to my annotated bibliography, because it separates the fantasy football community into three subcultures. It also concludes that each subculture is driven by different methods, due to the different variants of fantasy games available for play and the vastly different platforms they can be accessed from. The data collected proves fantasy football to be a major complement to the NFL.
Dwyer, B., & Yongjae, K. (2011, January). For Love or Money: Developing and Validating a Motivational Scale for Fantasy Football Participation. Retrieved from https://eds-b-ebscohost-com.libez.lib.georgiasouthern.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=271d7724-fe7c-40bf-b4c1-4dc4ce22ad23@pdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=#AN=59667723&db=s3h
In this source, researches study the paradoxical relationship between fantasy football and NFL consumption, while illustrating the conflict between fantasy and favorite team fandom. The paradox Dwyer proposes is a conflict in choice of behavior between fantasy football and traditional NFL fandom. Dwyer uses the example of a traditional team fan who is also involved in fantasy to further explain the conflict between fantasy and favorite team fandom. “He watches more NFL game, knows more NFL players. and follows more NFL-related media. He confidentially emphasizes his favorite NFL team’s success over his fantasy teams. However, he also has a preference for watching and rooting for those players, potentially having a negative impact on his loyalty to his favorite NFL team.” In an attempt to gain data supporting Dwyer’s paradox, researchers selected several random participants to undergo several non-biased interviews that cover every aspect of their lived experience regarding fantasy football. The findings of the study state that fantasy football is positive complement to traditional NFL consumption with higher media consumption and greater attitudinal loyalty to favorite NFL teams; however, behavioral loyalty such as the preference to watch favorite NFL teams over fantasy teams was demonstrated to be lower with highly-involved fantasy football participants, forming a conflict in rooting interests. Accordingly, the study infers that the conflict stems from the non-traditional co-creation opportunities inherent in the empowering fantasy sports experience. This experiment holds no bias, because precautions were taken in order to eliminate any interview questions that may cause a participant to take sides. I found the data represented in this scholarly resource to be purposeful to my paper because it supports idea that fantasy football has a positive impact on the NFL’s media ratings. It also explains that the increase in participation of fantasy football players is due to the sense of empowerment they obtain through managing a team. This empowerment produces a set of motives that differ from a traditional team fan.