Maybe more than any Olympics before, or any world sporting mega event for that matter, the upcoming 2016 Rio Olympic Games will be the first truly online Olympics. Slightly more than half of the NBC television viewers of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games simultaneously used a computer, tablet or smartphone to get online statistics and data about the Games. Looking retrospectively, only 9 per cent of Americans reported owning smartphones during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, compared with 60 percent during the Sochi Winter Olympics. Similarly, the 2014 Football World Cup in Brazil is believed to have been the biggest social event in media history: 671,957,433 messages were posted on Twitter over the 32 days and 64 matches. A new record was set when 618,725 tweets per minute during the World Cup final between Germany and Brazil, compared with a peak of 80,000 tweets per minute during the London Olympics in 2012. Indeed the emergence of “networked media sport” (Hutchins and Rowe, 2012) has created a dense, rich media environment in which sport can be viewed, discussed and, in some cases, organised among online sport constituencies in ways that challenge the traditional distinction between audience and participant.
This 2016 Special Issue ‘Texting, Tweeting and Playing’ of Online Information Review seeks international submissions featuring case-based or empirical papers presenting new insights into the following (but not limited to) topics:
- The changing face of global online sport-consuming audiences
- Convergence of traditional and new media and fan experiences
- Fan-athlete interaction in the digital environment
- Social media and mediated participation in online platforms
- Imagined communities and fantasy sports
- Rhetorical investigation into sport online texts
- Sport, national identity and the new media
- Gender perspectives in online sports consumption
Guest Editors
- Dr Yair Galily, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel
- Dr Galen Clavio, Media School, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Please feel free to contact either Guest Editor if you have questions or queries about the issue or submissions.
Important Dates
- First submission papers due: 2 February 2016
- First round decisions made: 20 April 2016
- Revised manuscripts due: 1 June 2016
- Final decisions made: 1 July 2016
- Publication: OIR Vol 40, no 6 (2016)
Submissions
Every submission must spell out the implications of findings in the paper for online information and the online environment as distinct from implications just for sport and sports activities. (These implications should be mentioned in the introduction, discussion and conclusion sections of your paper.) Papers which focus on findings for specific sectors without adequate attention to the online environment will not be accepted.
There are several types of submissions that OIR prefers not to publish:
- Papers that require mathematics to develop, test or analyse concepts or findings (these require non-mathematical explanations for the readership of OIR)
- Questionnaire-based studies with low levels of novelty and advance on previous knowledge. Further, if convenience samples are used, their use needs to be convincingly argued.
- TAM or other standard model-based submissions applied in a formulaic way to a limited population and which do not significantly advance our knowledge of the topic.
Prospective authors should ensure their papers meet the Special Issue scope and must adhere to OIR author guidelines. For further information, please go to http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/journals.htm?id=oir
All papers must be submitted online. Submissions to Online Information Review are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts, the online submission and peer review system. Registration and access are available at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/oir. Full information and guidance on using ScholarOne Manuscripts is available at the Emerald ScholarOne Manuscripts Support Centre:http://msc.emeraldinsight.com.
About the Journal
Online Information Review is an international, double blind peer-reviewed, ISI-listed (2013 Impact Factor is 1.443) journal devoted to research in the broad field of online information in academic, government, corporate, scientific and commercial contexts. Within this broad framework the journal seeks to provide a forum for experts from a range of information-related disciplines, including information science, information technology, information management, knowledge management and related social sciences.
‘Online information’ encompasses any information that is stored and viewed in electronic form, from e-books to databases, document management systems and any other information-bearing artefacts in electronic format.
OIR focuses on issues relating to online systems, services and resources, and their use, with a particular focus on the processes and procedures involved in creating, managing, utilizing, disseminating and repackaging online information (including social, political and ethical aspects).
For more information on the journal, click here!
