This is it. The last leg, after a long trip to Burkina Faso, we arrive with our heads up and ready to grab that coveted DA Trophy. The shin pads are on, the fans are ready, and the boots are clean.Â
Now, what is the media niche? The media niche is sports media production around the world. Gaining much inspiration from websites just like 433, ESPN and Bleacher Report who all excel within this media niche. The DA is the YouTube channel, Instagram, and the website, named Mavro Productions, Cypriot First League English, and Talking Sports respectively.
Along the way to France, I stumbled upon many academics, and went through intensive training to be fully ready for the final. A. Caliando, who I saw while chilling in Dubai Airport approached me and told me all about interaction, and what it is like ethnographically researching. This helped in the investigation into the media niche, as I not only explored one social media but various social media to distinguish interaction between the two. Then, sipping on an apple juice in Nissi Beach in Cyprus C. Gertz using his research experience helped me the investigation of this media niche. With this, I developed a field site based on the works of Gertz. This field site assisted in consuming data and content. It was observed that content is uploaded on a day-to-day basis, however, what was learned along the way is that consistently good content is better than consistently mediocre content that is frequent.
The autoethnographic research was the main part of the training for this final DA Trophy in Burkina Faso. This made me reflect as an audience, as I become a massive part of the creation community within the field site. A key reflection was that although sports media publications aim to share sports, they also look to be monetised and commercialised as seen with the extensive amount of merchandise these channels have. A simple football YouTube channel sells merchandise, and this channel is such a simple context. Simplicity sells. Vlog channels EXPLODE on the Internet due to its simple nature of it. This focuses on decentralisation. The Internet may be free, but it comes at the expense of attention. What is being sold is attention, which extends to merchandise, sales, and commodities. This media niche is so broad and open that the reflection is an ongoing process. However, the main reflection point, which was observed in the Moldovan mountains was that simplicity is key. Being an audience member, it is the simple videos that sell, intrigue, and interact. This is seen within the YouTube channel Mavro Productions, not only do the vlog type videos do well but they are frequent because they are simple.
Looking at a particular YouTube thumbnail while sitting in a condo in Poland, the ethnography research was a comparison as an audience member of sports media productions that I watch. ESPN posted a video, with an eye-catching thumbnail over a Mavro Productions video of the same sport. This made me reflect on what video would I want to watch? Does the niche cater to those who work hard or for those who work smart?
The online presence which was observed can be broken down into the 3 main media types that were being produced, and how these medias helped with the online public persona.
Mavro Productions. Telling people, the channel name in Cyprus and Greece gave people a giggle. This helped with the public persona which was aiming to be seen. An expertise which was developed was the name. What is in a name? A simple eye-catching name grabs attention, whether this is a channel, video, or post. However, what has been developed is that thumbnails must be eye catching and not simple, this makes people click on videos according to P. Harrigan. The online presence of Mavro Productions stems to Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube and is seen in Australia, the USA, Greece, Cyprus, and the Philippines. All a channel and a media niche is one video to set the foundations for other videos which in turn, leads to the growth of the online persona that is going to be portrayed.
B. Robards stated that polls drive advocacy and communication strategies. This was key in the Cypriot First League English page. The public persona of myself in the Cypriot League page extends to further than Cyprus with a location tag, polls, and the post. This online presence therefore grows and expands as a local to global context of the media niche is in practise on the page. The communication strategy is that people get to simply vote and state their opinion on a public forum. This drives advocacy as more people will see the content. The expertise of a simple, yet monetised based content continued to develop as the online presence and public persona is also created.
Talking Sports developed its online presence as the public persona spread to more social media accounts, in particular Instagram. As articles were written and uploaded minutes after and before the news became breaking, this would make the public persona grow as more people want to engage with a small-scale sports media production niche. A massive growth in Instagram followers became apparent. This developed the expertise as it became obvious that consistency is key. There still needs to be frequent content for a page to stay relevant.
Conclusively, this DA will continue to develop and expand as the media niche is expanding and growing as social media continues to have an extensive mark on the world. The autoethnographic research as well as the corroboration with the academic resources has made the interaction as an audience as a reflective process. The research and content produced will help me win the DA Trophy as I extend my research skills into better and more authentic content. Mavro Productions, Cypriot First League English and Talking Sports will continue to create content in order to heighten the online presence and public persona that they already possess.
Bibliography
433, 2021, viewed 22nd October 2021, https://www.433football.com
A. Caliando (2017) Digital Methods for Ethnography: Analytical Concepts for Ethnographers Exploring Social Media Environments.
Bleacher Report 2021, viewed 22nd October 2021, https://bleacherreport.com
ESPN, 2021, viewed 22nd October 2021, https://www.espn.com.au
Gertz, C 1973, Thick description- Toward an interpretive theory of culture, Basic Books, New York.
J, Weismueller, P, Harrigan, 2021, Organic Reach on YouTube: What Makes People Click on Videos from Social Media Influencers?, SpringerLink.
Moller, K, Robards, B, Walking Through, Going Along and Scrolling Back, Nordicom Review, Sciendo.
Mavro Productions 