Fan Studies Network (@fanstudies.bsky.social)

The Language of Fandom | Ithaca College Venkata S. Govindarajan, an assistant professor of computer science, studied the language choices of NFL fans in Reddit comment threads. If you’re a fan of sports, you’ve almost certainly engaged in passionate discussions and debates with your favorite team’s fellow supporters during a game. Whether it’s the thrill of beating Cortland, or—if you’re a Bills fan—the agony of losing to the Kansas City Chiefs again, being a fan means riding the roller coaster of emotions that comes with following a team.And, if you’re a digital native, there’s a strong chance this discourse takes place at the message boards and comment threads that populate the Internet.An assistant professor of computer science at Ithaca College, Venkata S. Govindarajan describes himself as a “computational linguist at heart.” (Broadly, a computational linguist is someone who blends linguistics and computer science to understand human language.) Govindarajan’s research examines how we talk about in-groups (groups you consider yourself a part of) and out-groups (ones you don’t).“In language, people us phrases like ‘us’ and ‘we’ when making themselves part of the in-group and ‘they’ and ‘them’ when making themselves part of the out-group,” he explains. “Usually, it’s done to reinforce good qualities about an in-group and vice versa.”Sports, with its clearly defined lines of fandom, provides the perfect avenue for that type of analysis.Specifically, what Govindarajan wanted to do was study how the language people use to describe in-groups changes based on the current state of the world and the current fortunes for the in-group.“I needed a way to attach a number to indicate how good the state of the world is for the in-group independent of language," he said. “Sports is perfect for that, because the changing score and team’s odds for winning provided a clear state for the in-groups.” https://www.ithaca.edu/news/language-fandom