Cultural identity in the consumption of the National Football League by Brazilian fans/Identidade cultural no consumo de fas brasileiros da National Football League/Identidad cultural en el consumo de fanes brasilenos de la National Football League

• Published in: Cadernos EBAPE.BR 2020-07, Vol.18 (3), p.595
• Main Authors: Moura, Bruno Melo, Souza-Leao, Andre Luiz Maranhao de
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1679-3951; 1679-3951
• DOI: 10.1590/1679-395120190020x

Brazilians watching the US National Football League (NFL) interact on social media during the broadcast of league games. Since fan consumption practices can establish identities from the intensity of involvement with media products, this research aims to analyze how Brazilian NFL fans constitute cultural identities in their interactions on social media during the broadcast of league games. We use netnography, a method commonly used in studies that seek to understand cultural phenomena that occur through online interactions. The research corpus was formed by messages posted by fans on Twitter hashtags created by the ESPN channels of Brazil, during the games broadcasted in the 20162017 and 2017-2018 seasons. The results indicate three identity categories: nationalism, as a way of projecting an idealized image of a nation; localism, as a demarcation of tensions of the differences existing in the country; and social minorities related to gender and sexual orientation, revealing tensions and conformities in the social construction of these positions. By revealing identities strongly related to the notion of place and different representations of the hetero-masculine, these findings are evidenced as a particular version of the central values of the sport itself in its country of origin. Keywords: NFL. Cultural identity. Fans. Prosumption. Netnography. Os telespectadores brasileiros da NFL interagem nas midias sociais durante a transmissao dos jogos da liga. Uma vez que as praticas de consumo de fas podem estabelecer identidades pela intensidade do envolvimento com os produtos de midia, a presente pesquisa visa analisar como os fas brasileiros da NFL constituem identidades culturais em suas interacoes em midia social durante a transmissao dos jogos da liga. Para tanto, utilizamos a netnografia, metodo que e comumente utilizado em estudos que buscam compreender fenomenos culturais que ocorrem por meio de interacoes online. O corpus da pesquisa foi formado por mensagens postadas por fas nas hashtags do Twitter criadas pelos canais ESPN do Brasil, durante os jogos veiculados no decorrer das temporadas 2016-2017 e 2017-2018. Os resultados indicam a constituicao de tres categorias identitarias: nacionalismo, como forma de projetar uma imagem idealizada de nacao; localismo, como demarcacao das tensoes das diferencas existentes no pais; e minorias sociais relacionadas a genero e orientacao sexual, revelando tensoes e conformidades na construcao social dessas posicoes. A