I was
raised by a mother and father from central New Jersey, and they are both big
sports fans. My mom loves the New York Giants and my dad roots for all New York
sports teams. Sports have always been a big part of our household. After
watching the underdog Giants win the Super Bowl in 2007, I became obsessed with
football, and my enthusiasm only continues to grow. I own a lot of Giants
merchandise and I never miss a game. One of my sociology professors noticed how
much I loved the Giants and suggested that I study sports fans, which is how I
got started in this research. I found
that sports fandom is a phenomenon that has been studied for years, and
researchers have used a variety of methods to learn more about it. I wanted to
bring something new to the table and provide new discoveries on the behavior of
sports fans.
One of my long term goals is to become more involved in
scholarly research. This is my first independent research project so I am very
excited to be getting hands-on experience. I also have interest in market
research, and my research on sports fans is very relevant to companies who
market to athletes or sports fans. If I
decide to have a career in this field, I will already have had experience and
knowledge on sports fandom.
My plan for my project is to first sample and recruit
participants, conduct the interviews, transcribe, code, and analyze the data,
and then develop conclusions. Every week will be different in the process of
this project. On a weekly basis, I make sure I am where I want to be in my
research. I need to stay on track of the work that needs to be done while
making sure I am heading in the right direction. I spent this week sampling and
preparing to recruit while brushing up on the literature. One new thing I learned
this week was that geographical location does not have as much of an effect on
sports fans choosing their preferred team as I had previously thought. I look
forward to see what else I will discover!
