THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN BUILDING UP RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAN CLUB AND POPULAR FOOTBALL CLUBS

Abstract

This independent study aimed to explore 1) structural functionalist approaches used by popular football clubs and fan club on Facebook and Twitter and 2) the use of media type on Facebook and Twitter. The samples were top 5 teams competing regularly according to UEFA Champions League's 2015-2016 season rankings which consisted of Real Madrid CF, FC Barcelona, FC Bayern Munich, Manchester City FC and Club Atlético de Madrid. The research methods were divided into two parts. The first part was to observe each media type by screencapture Facebook and Twitter's posts of each football club in order to explore media type then analyse whether their use of media matched with any of structural functionalist approaches. The second part was to classify data and analyse the use of new media by observing the use of each media, classify data according to the dates used, group data into Facebook and Twitter tables and features and the use of frequency then identify top 3 media used on each new media of each football club. 

The result founded that every football clubs served structural functionalist approaches by using various media types of both social media. Six main types of media were used which were text, picture, video, hyperlink, emoji and hashtag. Facebook and Twitter's features were also used which were Event, Live, GIF, Retweet, Quote tweet, Mention, Poll and Reply. “Text” was the most used media. There were different types of media used in each day. More than one media types were used in one post. Poll and Reply helped football clubs to learn fan club's opinions while Reply helped both to communicate.