The media and football supporters: a changing relationship

The research presented in this article The development of ‘new’ media at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s has radically changed the relationship between the media and football supporters. Firstly, a growth in media sources created a very competitive media environment and, secondly, led to greater interaction between the media and its audience. Drawing on forty seven semi-structured interviews with media personnel and eight hundred and twenty seven questionnaires completed by supporters at four football clubs, this article assesses how fans consume the many media sources that now exist and the level of involvement for supporters in the media. The results indicated a balance of consumption between ‘old’ and ‘new’ media as well as highlighting the contrasting strategies each media source had put in place to involve supporters. The article concludes by suggesting that there remains a place for those media sources which involve their target audience.