Carlin Week 11

This week's article, "Participation in Internet Fantasy Sports Leagues and Mass Media Use," by Quint Randle and Ron Nyland, examined the propensity fantasy sports participants have to consume forms of mass media. The authors estimate that 15 million to 18 million Americans participate in fantasy sports leagues, which rake in more than $1 billion a year in subscription and advertising. The emergence of fantasy sports as an industry, the authors say, provide an opportunity for traditional media outlets to capitalize on a new market.

Through their studies, the authors found that fantasy sports participants consume more media across the board, opening a new outlet for traditional media outlets to meet a new audience. As the authors wrote in the article, "In sum, fantasy sports leagues are also monster sports media users."

While the study shows that fantasy participation is normally associated with consuming sports media, the authors said that it is not necessarily correlated with actual sports participation. They wrote that this could support the role-playing theory.