FANTASY FOOTBALL

Fantasy football has emerged as a male-bonding experience of our online age. A close examination of how these fantasy football communities represent the larger culture is required. Ernest Bormann's theoretical framework of fantasy theme analysis is used to examine how the sharing of group fantasies creates a symbolic convergence. Once symbolic convergence has occurred, group members are then able to share rhetorical visions that shape their world's view. Bormann's methods have been modified to better understand the small group dynamics of fantasy football participants. This thesis examines the Fantasy Fairies Futbol Club, which consists of 12 managers who all share the same rhetorical vision. Dividing messages into their relationship to the fantasy league, the real world, and places in between reveals an overwhelming use of "I" and "me" but nothing noting the plurality of an actual team. The coded message content also shows that the topic is the team manager's emotional investment and never about the actual NFL players' emotional investments, showing how each member sees himself as the most important character in this rhetorical vision.