Sports media landscape: Investigating parasocial interactions, behaviours and the impact of sport absence due to lockdown

• Autor(a) principal: Fadista, Pedro Miguel Bicho
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/21911
• topic: Sports; eSports; Relationship marketing; Parasocial interactions; COVID-19; Desporto; Marketing relacional; Interações parassociais

Sports popularity is undeniable, being one of human’s main leisure activities. Its evolution does not go unnoticed, with eSports figuring as the latest upgrade, which has been generating much controversy, with some categorizing it as just an activity while others defend the competitive gaming as a proper sport. Disputes aside, eSports are here to stay, with an on-going growth all over the world, presenting disruptive events and engaging its audience, mainly, in new media platforms. Therefore, this dissertation will review the sports evolution panorama, incorporating the role of eSports in Portugal, and consequently, how digital evolution leveraged new habits of media consumption. With that in mind, parasocial interactions topics were reviewed and related-data was analysed, being clear that in both types of platforms, enjoyment, attachment and social interaction seem to positively influence the user experience. Lastly, the experience in sports environment came under scrutiny, embedding the recent SARSCOV2 pandemic impact in the research, trying to elaborate on the main behaviours and emotions felt by sports-enthusiast population. To do all that, primary research was conducted where respondents were asked to selfevaluate themselves regarding their experience while watching sports in both Traditional and Digital platforms. One of the main conclusions drawn from this research indicated that Digital platforms are predilect for eSports enthusiasts. On the other side, conventional sports fans still prefer Traditional media, however, the discrepancy between platforms preference is less notorious. It also became clear that sports absence was much noted, with people urging to get back to live events.