Tuesday 1 April 2014

Real - Time In - Game Interaction (Sports, Social Media, and Security?)

by Erecca Nacion
When social media was introduced into the world and our community, privacy is a huge issue associated with these new platforms of interaction. Through social media, people are able to find valuable personal information on any given individual. Police are even taking advantage on these social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to monitor chatter that could tip them off to potential criminal activity in their communities.

Now these privacy issues in social media are now coming into regards of live sporting events. Turns out officials from sporting events are watching what fans are doing before they ever even scan a ticket to get inside a game. Security firms tasked with monitoring fan behavior to stop them from rushing the court, threatening a coach or player, or getting rowdy during a big game are increasingly turning to social media as a predictor of whether or not fans will get feisty.

For instance, A the Minnesota Vikings fans were getting ready for the final game at the Metrodome in December, officials at Whelan Security notices social media chatter suggesting some might rush the field and try to steal a piece of history. The firm that provides security for the Vikings had more guards present that day to maintain calm during the team’s win.

Sport enthusiasts were able to post anything they would like on social media in regards to live sporting events, but now as security is now looking at fan’s tweets or posts to predict behavior can diminish the interest of real – time in – game interaction due to the risk of getting arrested or kicked out of stadium. Let’s say a fan would to post or tweet something feisty during a sporting event, but only did so in good fun and ends up getting consequences for it. As a sports fan what is your opinion on this? Comment down below and tell us if this will affect the amount of tweets a post per game. (Meredith, 2014)


References:
Meredith, L. (2014). Security Eyes Social Media For Feisty Fans. Retrieved from Associated Press: http://www.columbian.com/news/2014/mar/30/security-eyes-social-media-for-feisty-fans/

1 comment:

  1. Hello Erreca,

    I found this post very interesting. I never knew that security officials monitored social media to look for suspicious fan behavior that may occur at a game. It surprises me that with just a simple search or hashtag on social media can reveal so much information that can protect the game of sports. I found an article online that discusses a program that can track people on social media to see what they are up to. It's called the Riot program and is referred to as the "Google for spies". I think this relates to your post because many security firms use this program to predict suspicious fan behavior. Here is a link to the article: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/10/software-tracks-social-media-defence

    - Jessica Cruz (The Social Athlete Bandwagon)

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