Media Meditation1: LK's KU Convergence

Some people just watch a college basketball in a sports bar, at home at a party, or follow it online. I follow The University of Kansas (the Jayhawks) basketball in more ways than I thought was possible and tonight while I'm watching a game I'll bring you along with me to see how I connect with the players, fans, and announcers.

KU is playing their biggest rivals Missouri. It might be one of the biggest rivals in college basketball so sorry for any offensive language from fans.

Pre Game-

Anyone whos my friend knows when a KU Basketball game is coming up. I spend the entire day tweeting and blogging videos, articles, pictures, what ever I can find.

I look at videos a lot. I have an RSS feed set up for anything Kansas. From the game, fan videos, and news reports. But what I love watching videos of players off the court that THEY MAKE! The University of Kansas gave players from different sports a camera and let them video tape whatever they wanted. One of the best things about letting the players do that is it makes them see more like every other person. They use plain folks, testimonial, and humor.

Heres one from the basketball team, basically a few days in their shoes-

And of course I must post articles about why this rival goes beyond basketball and is one of the most intense and historical ones. This one was my favorite for this week. I love using my RSS feed to read not only summeries of the game, but to learn more about KU tradition. The technological shift of local news papers being put online really helps keep traditions alive wherever in the world KU fans are.

Missouri's mascot (a tiger) just happens that my favorite animal and I have a stuffed one. In honor of tonight's game I took a picture of it in a KU tshirt with my phone and posted it to Tumblr. One of my favorite things about Tumblr how good it's for smart phones. Its convergence at its best. Take a picture, write a caption, create tags, post it Tumblr, view posts of others! The individual meaning that is created before the game is different for everyone. I never wanted to go to a big college like KU but I easily could have gone just because I love watching sports. There is no other team, no other sport, that I have ever taken the time to research and be as connected to. There is something about this team/college basketball that makes me feel connected and part of a nation. Not to mention I love all the media around the currently ranked number two team in the nation. Its all over the internet!

Game Time-

The game is starting in about ten minutes andwhat is on my screen? Everything! Just look at how many tabs I have open!

I have three news sources on what's going on with the game, an article that I was reading before the game started on how one of the starting players is hurt, Twitter, followed by two Tweetchats for the hashtags #muckfizzou and #kubball, then a search for university of kansas on Tumblr and my Tumblr's dashboard.

One of the reasons I love following the stories on twitter is everyone feels united. Everyone bandwagons and creates hashtags like #muckfizzou (instead of saying fuck mizzou), #rockchalk (from the chant "rock chalk jayhawk"), and even for players #trob (Thomas Robinson). The defensive nationalism can get really intense. From 2007-a few weeks ago KU hadnt lost a home game. That was a record amount of games, 69 of home wins in a row, the next closes is in the 30s. Because of that people went crazy describing, supporting, and bragging about KU using strength, scientific evidence, name calling, denial, and humor online. Tonight's game is exactly the same thing because its against our number one rival. Twitter exploded with quotes, pictures, and sayings.

Jayhawk nation is like no other, and thats not just a fan saying it. Other players, coaches, fans, ESPN announcers all say its different from any other team/fan/location. Anything about KU automatically draws fans in. The music, chants, alma mater, or even just KU fans screaming ignites the limbic brain and gets everyone's reptilian brain wanting to get super exciting and fight the other team. What makes my limbic brain react the most? The Rock Chalk Jayhakw chant! I love it so much. The pacing and how it starts off slow and quiet then it rumbles its way to a bombing fast chant. Its just great and always gets me ready for a game.

Incase you have never heard the alma mater or rock chalk chant heres a video of it-

Post Game-

The game is over and everyone is tweeting, blogging, making videos, and re-watching plays.

When the game is over the players tweet about it, coach Bill Self has weekly interviews, and the media covers it from every angle. People re post and re tweet things and Ive seen a few times that ownership becomes a problem. On Tumblr there are some amazing pictures that a few photographers put up and Tumblr allows you to reblog the photos. Im guilty of doing it, some of them are just too great. However, Ive seen people get mad when they dont get the credit for their pictures. Ownership online is getting very complicated and easy to forget about. I decided not to follow the people who get up in arms about it, just one amazing photographer who also follows me and talks to me about the Jayhawks!

The thing that makes me love watching the University of Kansas's basketball games with my computer open is everything Ive talked about. The unity that everyone feels, individual meaning, convergence, and of course the warm and fuzzy feeling you get when your team wins is what makes watching Kansas my favorite even twice a week.

I love my Jayhawks and cant wait to visit Lawrence KS this summer and move there after college to start grad school at KU!