Abstract
This article considers the cross-media dynamics related to controversies surrounding the Tour de France 2017. It posits sports controversies are prime cases for studying how mainstream media and online platforms impact each other. Based on a large data set of tweets and combining a digital methods approach with a close reading of tweets, we show how the often discussed potential of sports’ live events to synchronize different media becomes intensified in case of controversies, which trigger an influx of users and spawn additional moments of shared attention. Additionally, controversies in sports incite visual activities of fans using and augmenting material from different sources to support their take on the issue. We suggest to understand this as an example of ‘forensic fandom’ and show how it entangles different temporal and visual affordances: the liveness of television, the ad hoc publics of Twitter and the archival function of YouTube. Adding to prior cross-media and cross-platform research, we argue that media (including their seemingly specific temporal and visual qualities) are always dependent on and shaped by particular cultural practices, topics and events that trigger connections between different media and platforms.
Highlights
During an early stage of 2017’s Tour de France, an annual 3-week long bicycle race, the British rider Mark Cavendish crashed just before the finish line
This article focused on the pace, cross-media dynamics and forensic fandom surrounding the Tour de France 2017
By only offering insights into the particular dynamics of this specific event, the findings might differ with other topics and practices
Summary
During an early stage of 2017’s Tour de France, an annual 3-week long bicycle race, the British rider Mark Cavendish crashed just before the finish line. The first part (comprising the sections ‘Cross media pace’ and ‘The pace of controversy’) analyses how the ‘pace’ of Twitter communication is shaped both by the characteristic liveness of sports events (and by television coverage) and by individual tweets of relevant actors. Before analysing in detail how controversy-related communication on Twitter creates connections between different media and platforms, we want to zoom out for a moment and look at the basic temporal pattern of tweeting during the 4-day period. Athletes and fans can provoke intense moments of debate that do not result from the pacing of the TV transmission but become their own micro-event This is especially visible in the timeline of stage 4’s tweets, which is conspicuously different from the three following stages because it shows a second peak 2 h after the stage finish. #TDF2017 Stage 5 and into the #YellowJersey Amazing job by the team today Good to be back in yellow but still a long way to go!
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