New media and identity among fans of a Norwegian football club

Abstract

This article contributes to the literature on sport, new media and identity by investigating the case of a club (Rosenborg) located outside the dominating football leagues, but still very much affected by migration and other global flow. The study introduces participatory media as sources for information on fan discourses on identity, identification, migration, “us”, “them” and community. Fans of Rosenborg reacted and adapted to global flows of players by questioning borders of identity and community, inviting in new members and reconstructing imagined communities, facilitating de–ethnicization of the local community. Many of the postings at Web forums and blogs for fans are humorous and witty, while the discussion investigated at Web editions of newspapers grew ugly when people started to call each other names. There is a sense of mutual respect on Web pages run by fans themselves which is often loudly missing when similar themes are discussed by fans online elsewhere.