#as for how the player is a full grown kid again? sheer force of the heart is my guess. there's work to be done still

[thequibblingking13]

Im connecting dots here. Ik is probably very obvious but Chirithy, a dream eater, ushering you into the next life in KHUX and then arriving to the station of awakening in the Drop pose is so fucking clever.

[nikd3p-blog]

Blog 1: Audience Experience

It all started when I entered the first grade, when I was first allowed to play outside with the big kids for recess. When I first saw the older kids in the playground playing football. Not football on the gridiron, with helmets pads, whistles being blown every 10 seconds by referees, and constant stoppages in play – no, the beautiful game, the worlds game, the game played with your feet and a ball, FOOTBALL. A game that gives children of all social classes, race, and beliefs the opportunity to become heroes to their hometowns. A game where players play for 45 minutes straight, take a break, and go again. Growing up, I’d live for recess, to either play or watch others play the beautiful game. Unfortunately for me, I was never able to watch it at home because my parents never cared for the sports packages, and couldn’t play in a league because my parents believed in Kumon, not sports. But I was lucky, I had an older cousin from England, 20 years my elder, who was a die-hard Manchester United fan – that’s when it all started.

Whenever I’d sleepover at his house on weekends, we’d always watch The Red Devils of Manchester play. I’d witness the purest form of joy in his eyes when they won, and the look of absolute devastation when they lost. He became a part of the audience from his bedroom, even though a pretty big pond separated him from watching his club live. Key phrase: “He became a part of the audience” – I never was. It may have looked like it, but this isn’t my love story for United, this is about my first experience of my beloved club, Liverpool Football Club – United’s most bitter rival. A club that captured my heart in the most romantic of ways, through The Miracle of Istanbul. The greatest day in club history, the day that Steven Gerrard instilled hope in my heart. The greatest day in Liverpool history occurred after a monumental day for me, my 10th birthday, May 24, 2005 – when my cousin bestowed me a Manchester United scarf hoping to turn me into a fan like him. Unfortunately for him, the universe had a different plan. On May 25, I had to return my cousins gift, because I belonged to Liverpool.

45 minutes of play had passed, and I witnessed sheer joy in my cousin’s eyes. AC Milan completely outclassed Liverpool, entering the half with a formidable lead of 3-0. The beauty of football can be represented by many components, but it will never be the same without the fans. Come halftime, Liverpool’s manager at the time gave one of the greatest half time speeches in history.

“We have to fight”, Benitez��told his players. “We owe something to the supporters. Don’t let your heads drop. We are Liverpool. You are playing for Liverpool. Don’t forget that. You have to hold your heads high for the supporters. You cannot call yourselves Liverpool players with your heads down. We have worked so hard to be here, beaten so many good teams. Fight for forty-five minutes. If we score, we are in it. If you believe we can do it, we can do it. Give yourselves the chance to be heroes”. (Sheehan, 2014)

As the players exited the dressing room after half time, the romantics came to play. The players came onto the pitch with 50,000 Liverpool fans singing the clubs song, You’ll Never Walk Alone – it felt like watching a movie. Then it happened, 3-1 Gerrard (51’). 3-2 Šmicer (56’). 3-3 Alonso (60’). Tie game. Full-time. Extra time. Penalties. Liverpool 3, AC Milan 2. Champions of Europe. The Miracle of Istanbul complete. My heart, stolen.

I’ve never been to Merseyside, I’ve never been to Anfield, but ever since that day, I’ve been an audience member watching every game I could, listening to every post-match analysis that I could, anything to stay connected to my club. In 2009 everything changed, I signed up for twitter, and found every Liverpool related account possible. I was an audience member as I scrolled through Twitter and an audience member whenever I watched the club play. The advancements of modern day technology increased my audience experience drastically when I was introduced to streaming sports. The CRTC has policies in place to promote home-grown content, which limit the amount of foreign content shown on TV. For me, this meant less Premier League Football, and more domestic products like the NHL, Raptors, and the NFL. If you couldn’t tell already, I’m the furthest thing from being a fan of the NFL. I personally believe that the structure of an American Football game is detrimental to a person’s attention span. In football, you watch the match for 45 minutes straight, no commercials, nothing to divert your attention. James G. Webster (1998) argued three basic models of the media audience, the first, audience-as-outcome, immediately brought me to comparisons of football, and American football. The first model “sees people as being acted upon by media. Typically, it reflects a concern about the power of media to produce detrimental effects on individuals, and by implication on society as a whole” (Webster, 1998, p. 193). American football has constant stops and starts that hinder the audience’s attention. An average football game broadcasts for roughly 130 minutes, with 15 minutes between halves dedicated to half-time analysis’ and advertisements. American football uses it time much differently. In 2010, David Biderman of The Wall Street Journal conducted a study to analyze the average football game. The average NFL game telecasts lasts about 3 hours but, “there’s very little actual football in football” (Biderman, 2010). Biderman’s study broke down how the 3 hours were allocated. The ball is only in play for an average of 11 minutes, roughly 17 minutes dedicated to replays, 60 minutes given to advertisements, and shots of players standing around averaged 67 minutes. The lapses in focus effect the outcome, which allows for propaganda being presented throughout the 3-hour game, and many different attitude changes.

Although match day tickets in the Premier League have risen drastically since the 1980’s (prices have exponentially risen above the rate of inflation), a member of the audience wouldn’t feel like a commodity. Having watched a Buffalo Bills game live at the stadium and many through television, I’ve always felt like a commodity. Sullivan states “the key to understanding the audience commodity lies in the fact that audiences perform labor for advertisers by learning about brands of consumer goods featured in commercials” (Sullivan, 2013, p. 81). I’ve felt this consistently through every NFL broadcast that I’ve ever watched. Advertisements are plastered all over the stadiums, with miniscule everyday products that the players use being sponsored by a company. 1st quarter analysis’ sponsored by company a, and instant replays sponsored by company b truly have led me to feel like I conducted labor while being a member of the audience. Overseas, The Premier League signed a record $8.487bn TV broadcasting deal from 2016-2019. Sky Sports and BT Sports didn’t spend that money to give their customers what they wanted, but to package their sports channels with other networks to ensure they could retain advertising revenue. As a football fan, I can’t bash the NFL without addressing how my beloved sport commoditizes the audience. For as long as I can remember, every kit I’ve seen has a sponsor on it. The Premier League was renamed to the “Barclays Premier League”, training kits received different sponsors from match kits, and the touchlines have been bombarded with advertisement screens that go all around the pitch. Realizing that, one can say that if the NFL has inherently bombarded the audience with advertisements and treating them as a commodity, the Premier League has taken the blind spot approach and conducted their actions in a subtler way.

Competitive sports allow audiences to watch live and unscripted entertainment year-round. Fans join in cheering their local, and not-so local teams to form a sense of community. Globalization has brought the world closer together and has helped ease the transition from Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft (society). The advancements in media technology, and the widespread televising of international sports has expanded my audience experience drastically. Before joining Twitter, I was a lonesome fan of Liverpool, forced to read about my club on two websites, goal.com, and espnfc.co.uk. I would live on these sites and finally feel apart of the community of fans when I read articles relating to my club and the comments on those articles. Twitter changed everything and brought me to a much larger society. A network of Liverpool fans who were born and raised in Merseyside who cheered their local club in large community, and then opened themselves up to the larger society of international fans who fell in love with the club. This sense of community through the audience experience is one of the main reasons I am loyal fan to my club, and will never cheer for another, chasing for glory. Football has taught me many things. I’ve learnt loyalty from Steven Gerrard, a played for his boyhood club through every success and failure. I’ve learnt about my role in the audience as a fan overseas. I’ve learnt that as a member of the Liverpool audience, falling into the spiral of silence is not acceptable. The fans are loud, and make their opinions known. Lastly, I’ve learnt one lesson through my audience experiences of Liverpool. The club motto. You’ll Never Walk Alone.

References  

Biderman, D.  (2010, January 15). 11 Minutes of Action. Retrieved from The Wall  Street Journal:  https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406

Sheehan, D.  (2014, April 18). The Greatest Half Time Team Talks - Rafa Benitez in  Istanbul. Retrieved from Pundit Arena:  http://www.punditarena.com/football/english-football/dsheehan/greatest-half-time-team-talks-rafa-benitez-istanbul/

Sullivan, J. L.  (2013). Media Audiences: Effects, Users, Institutions, and Power.  Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Webster, J. G.  (1998). The Audience. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 42(2).