Use of New Media by Turkish Fans in Sport Communication: Facebook and Twitter

This research examines the use of Facebook and Twitter, two social networks, for sportive reasons in Turkey. To this end, the literature was surveyed and a 5 Likert type data collection tool consisting of 21 questions was developed by the researcher based on the expert views. The sample of the research included 460 sport fans who are college students at Abant İzzet Baysal University and Sakarya University. It was found in the research that 91.7% of the participants had a profile on Facebook and 13.3% had a profile on Twitter. The rate of opening an account on Twitter, which still has no version in Turkish language, was low. It was found that the fans mostly followed the official site of their favorite team on Facebook, got informed about the sports activities through Facebook and learned news, which they did not hear from other sources. It was also ascertained that male fans used social networks for sportive reasons more than female fans did (p<.05). It is possible to state that social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have become a rapidly-developing alternative medium in sports against traditional media such as newspaper and television.