Monstrosities, Money, & Machines: A Metaphoric Analysis of Fantasy Football as a Social World
In this study, the world of fantasy football is examined through the lens of the ethnography of communication and the utilization of metaphor/cluster analysis. Fantasy football has emerged as a highly popular sports-related activity and has become a multi-million dollar industry. By analyzing two popular fantasy football podcasts, I explore the use of metaphors within the social world of fantasy football. Through an examination of these metaphors, 11 defined metaphor categories emerged. I explored the context in which these metaphors were used to determine the premises needed to employ these terms and meanings. Finally, by analyzing these premises, terms, and meanings, 15 rules for communicative conduct emerged from the data and were found to be integral for shared meaning and understanding within the fantasy football speech community. The findings of this study have implications for the examination of fantasy football as unique culture, for the examination of language use on podcasts, and for those aspiring to understand and participate within the fantasy football speech community.
Ethnography of Communication, Metaphors, Fantasy Football, Speech Codes Theory
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations