Cultural identity in the consumption of the National Football League by Brazilian fans

Abstract

Brazilians watching the US National Football League (NFL) interact on social media during the broadcast of league games. Since fan consumption practices can establish identities from the intensity of involvement with media products, this research aims to analyze how Brazilian NFL fans constitute cultural identities in their interactions on social media during the broadcast of league games. We use netnography, a method commonly used in studies that seek to understand cultural phenomena that occur through online interactions. The research corpus was formed by messages posted by fans on Twitter hashtags created by the ESPN channels of Brazil, during the games broadcasted in the 2016- 2017 and 2017-2018 seasons. The results indicate three identity categories: nationalism, as a way of projecting an idealized image of a nation; localism, as a demarcation of tensions of the differences existing in the country; and social minorities related to gender and sexual orientation, revealing tensions and conformities in the social construction of these positions. By revealing identities strongly related to the notion of place and different representations of the hetero-masculine, these findings are evidenced as a particular version of the central values of the sport itself in its country of origin.