Facebook is our playground now : A study of the use of social media in equestrian sports

The aim of this paper is to analyse how equestrians in different age groups use social media to attain information about equestrian sports. There has beena significant increase in daily use of social mediaandFacebook is the most widely used media. Yet, in the age group 9–16 Instagram has become more important (Eek-Karlsson, 2015, Davidsson2016; Statens medieråd2017).Internet is extra important for equestrians, as traditional media fail to cover equestrian sports(Dashper 2017).In order to understand how information and knowledge about sports are collected and given value through socialmedia, it’s crucial to understand how different agents use media and which rules and values form their usage. According to Bruce young women today understand and use the power of social media: they tell and create their own stories (Bruce, 2015). Two research questions will guide the study: How do riders explain theirmedia habits and what information is given value and why; Are there differences, and in that case which differences can be found, in the usage of social media and the giving of value related to age, gender and riding experience? A qualitative research method is used. The source material consistsof twelve focus group interviews in Sweden and Norwaydivided in to two age groups 16–25 and 26 and above. The analysis is inspired by Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts field and doxa (Bourdieu 1984). In this project, it is argued that the horse world on Internet can be seen as (at least) one field, in which different agents interact in relation to specific rules, their habitus and capital. This study shows that different age groupsuse social media in different ways. Young and old riders stress that the other groupcan’t behave or use social media platformsin a constructive way.In addition, the results also show (in line with earlier research) that Instagram and Snapchat are increasinglypopular among adolescents. However, Facebook is still the most used social media platformamong middle aged equestrians, “Facebook is their playground now!”This leads towards the conclusion that there are clear structures of how equestrians indifferent age groups position themselves on the field of social media. Knowledge about these patterns will be valuable in order to understand how different age group collect and share information about equestrian sport. Bourdieu, P (1984) Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste.[New ed.],Routledge. Bruce,T(2015)New Rules for New Times: Sportswomen and Media Representation in the Third Wave, Sex Roles vol 74: 2016, pp. 361-376. Davidsson, P. (2016), Svenskarna och sociala medier 2016. En del av undersökningen Svenskarna och internet 2016, Internetstiftelsen i Sverige. Dashper, K (2017). Human-Animal Relationships in Equestrian Sport and Leisure,Routledge. Eek-Karlsson, L (2015). Ungas samspel i sociala medier: att balansera mellan ansvar ochpositionering. Linnéuniversitetet.Statens medieråd2017, Ungar och medier