Revision

My initial interpretation of an analytical research essay was very skewed, I was lacking the most
essential part which is analysis. After careful revision and more time to develop some of ideas I
was able to come up with a much more polished version of my analytical research essay. One
of the first major changes I had to do was change my introduction, the reason my introduction
was so faulty was because it heavily relied on quotes and seemed like an assignment designed
to summarize an article. I tried to deviate from this route of providing specific details and instead
focused on trying to explain the big picture of what my secondary sources actually conveyed.
Additionally i tried to compare and contrast what the authors were trying to say by dissecting the
way they felt about similar topics. My results remained pretty much the same although I noticed
I had no visual elements. I found some pictures that relate to Reddit and are of great
importance; I later on went to give my results a better use and not treat the results so much like
an analysis. I moved my opinionative sections over to analysis and give a little more information
in this section. It seems that before I had the right ideas but I never provided any support for my
analysis. My analysis now explains the interaction of the users within the app and dives into
some deeper topics something that was lacking in my previous version. I discussed one of the
most important elements which is why discourse and participatory culture exist, there are
several small details that keep the community where it is now. Finally due to time constraints I
was not able to have a good conclusion that actually showcased my findings. With this second
opportunity I was able to showcase my findings a lot better and suggest what should be
continued in terms of research. Once I was able to complete my conclusion I quickly went to
finish the references so that my analysis research paper could have no claims of plagiarism.
Thanks to the feedback recieved from my professor I was able to explain what I actually
analyzed from all of this research which is one of the most critical steps. Additionally I was not
able to wrap up the essay in a way that was clear to the reader, hopefully with these changes
there is a bigger sense of clarity of what I analyzed and what I hope continues to be done with
my community.
 Analytical Research Essay

Introduction
Soccer journalism covers every aspect of the game whether that be in game
performance scrutinization or even discussing the slightest of transfer rumours for
players.The way journalist have such a big pull in the world's most popular game is
something impressive, however I wanted to shift my focus towards the individual users
who perform in depth analysis and reporting within the Reddit community. “Reddit is the
sixth-most-popular site in the United States” (Widman,2019), however for a website that
proclaims it is the front page of the internet there is still very little research that has been
conducted in comparison to its popularity. Discourse regarding the habitual news within
the soccer journalism sphere and other interesting discussions have never been so
present. Reddit is a goldmine of user collaborations and worth taking a closer look.
Rather than studying the magnitude of the Reddit community, this research is aimed to
provide some clarity on how the platform is set up to promote user discourse and how
users have taken it upon themselves to create their own customary practices to
increase involvement.
Before we start taking a look at user interactions and the composition of the
community, it is important to offer clarification on how the community functions.Widman
gives some insight on the communities dynamic. The article is titled “What is Reddit? A
beginner’s guide to the front page of the internet” and it very well does guide anyone
who is new to Reddit. (Widman,2019) explains how to navigate through the
overwhelming amount of submissions and how to sort through all of it in an efficient
way. Guidelines are explained on what type of creation is permitted from users and how
moderators work in order to keep the Subreddits clean. Additionally he describes the
mechanics of Reddit such as the upvote system and karma which plays a big role in
Reddit.
Censorship is an inherent part of Reddit and controversy has revolved around to what
extent it should happen. (Whaling,2019) ;(Hoover,2016) both discussed scenarios
where intervention from staff has been necessary. Both showcased users who were not
showing adequate behavior and as a result the subreddit suffered equal consequences
for its actions.The articles discuss the strong presence there is from moderators and
even the CEO who both monitor what is theirs.However there are some differences in
the authors viewpoints (Whaling,2019) discusses how the users had multiple warnings
by the moderators that illegal streams for soccer games were not allowed. However a
vast majority of streams were not legal. The continuous violations of this subreddit
caused its termination. The author supports why the punishment fit the crime and there
was no outrage by users for shutting this subreddit down. (Hoover,2016) is not as
conclusive about the punishment fitting the crime. A subreddit that was dedicated to
Donald Trump was put under probation after they made some spiteful comments about
the CEO. He called it a joke but too many this was an abuse of power and not very
funny. Social media has already had challenges with what posts to censor, this created
a lot of backlash as a result since it was so invasive. The author was sure to emphasize
the whole communities discontent over this potentially setting precedent for selective
censorship; no judgement was passed over the termination of the subreddit in
(Whaling,2019). Reddit is not all about offenses and punishments there is also a
lighthearted side to it. (CBC,2014) discusses an incident that happens with Fletcher a
FIFA referee. Before a match he tried to shake hands with one of the players, who
accidentally ignored him. The young referee tried to play it off but this was a sensation
online. Reddit and viral videos are very closely tied and this article simply discussed
how such a simple protocol like a handshake ended up all over the internet. The very
first secondary source explains the structure of the community: Reddit is subdivided into
more than a million communities. Each community has a unique name, these are called
subreddits and they serve as a unique online addresses for the members to keep the
thread exclusive to only those subscribed to that subreddit. A reddit such as the soccer
subreddit only notifies the users within that subreddit when there is new threads. These
subreddits can range anywhere from three to a million subscribers, but there are those
that are dedicated full time to reddit to keep their community alive with new threads and
discussion.”Next to a post, you’ll likely see up and down arrows, as well as a number.
Users click the arrows to upvote or downvote posts, increasing or decreasing their
visibility,”(Widman,2019). This source even provides explanation of the mechanics of
Reddit, specifically showing how its users have the ability to determine what stays at the
top of the page. If a discussion is found to be interesting, this would typically mean that
its numerous upvotes would conserve it at the top,and therefore increasing discourse.
With the current age of technology, malicious intent over the internet is always a threat;
what Reddit decided to incorporate is moderators who are just volunteers and have the
ability to dictate what the appearance of the subreddit will look like. The second source
goes more into the specifics of how Reddit has decided to regulate the kind of actions
its users take. Any post or comment that can be deemed offensive will clearly be taken
down by one of these moderators. However, power is not completely internal. In fact,
there are also Reddit workers called admins who even have the ability to shutdown a
whole subreddit. For example, the soccer community had a subreddit that was
dedicated to streaming soccer games that had to be shut down.Its massive gain in
popularity was not something ordinary since it quickly rose to the top of subreddits —
perhaps too quickly. A moderator had to announce that the community had reached its
peak capacity.The subreddit was quite big at over 425,000 subscribers and it was a
collaborative effort amongst the users, in order to share streams for important games so
that they could all enjoy the game they loved. Multiple warnings were issued by
moderators that advised against these illegal streams. However, eventually enough was
enough,A warning over copyright violation eventually forced the page to be shut with the
majority of streams classified as illegal.The Reddit community was designed so that
there are checks and balances, because the internet is an inherently toxic place. To
keep a community running it is important to eliminate any threat to its well being.The
third secondary source addresses the popular rumour that moderators are selective in
what kind of information they censor. The CEO in fact has taken it upon himself to edit
the kind of comments being made on a Donald Trump subreddit . The CEO of Reddit
CEO and Steve Huffman admitted that he used his executive power on the website to
edit some degrading comments that were directed towards him,and even threatening to
expose the names of members of the subreddit, r/The_Donald. Steve Huffman received
a lot of backlash for his actions because it makes it seem like speech within this
community are being suppressed and this is the last thing that should be happening in
the United States.The CEO explains that it was all in good intention and made these
remarks,”I abused my power to give the bullies a hard time,”(Hoover,2016). Although
this might have been done in a joking manner it caused plenty of worry to those
involved in Reddit who are scared this might set precedent for more censorship.
Additionally the subreddit was placed on probation so there were was a punishment
addressed.My final secondary source is a bit more lighthearted and demonstrates the
viral aspect of Reddit.Reddit is not always so serious the community is a place where
interesting facts are shared as well as memes. “During some customary handshakes
with a person who appeared to be a FIFA organizer, Fletcher was snubbed. But
Fletcher didn't let it faze him, pretending instead to style his hair (he's bald)”
(CBC,2014). Funny and lighthearted moments like this are shared all the time on Reddit
and this says a lot about the community as a whole. Although there is the constant
debate and plethora of information cycling around about soccer news, there will always
be time for Reddit users to simply just share a funny video or picture.
 Methodology
In order to choose my primary sources I made sure to find a varied amount of
Reddit threads. Given that I was relatively new to using the platform, I had to sort
through the large quantity of threads and find those that showcased communication
between users. All the primary sources are from Reddit; however, they all show very
different parts of the communication process occurring within Reddit. The scope of my
research is very narrow with the sole purpose of understanding how the communication
between the users exemplifies participatory culture.I did not want my primary sources to
become redundant given that they are all from the same platform.One of my primary
sources is about a daily discussion that I noticed to be a daily trend on Reddit. Rather
than replying to a news article or speculating on an upcoming matter, this is a positive
way to just say anything that is on the users mind. Another one of my primary sources
came as a result of analyzing a new story on the controversy involving the termination
of a subreddit. I searched for what users had to say and found a thread from a user that
serves as a public service announcement for the community. Therefore, I can
confidently say that my process for collecting my primary sources was very selective I
had to carefully filter through a plethora of threads in search of prime examples that
described some sort of unique communication trends.An influencing factor for why I
choose to use these is because since I am making a strong remark by claiming that
soccer journalism and rhetoric is so closely tied to controversy and debate I had to dig
through my primary sources and find some with similar characteristics. From what I was
able to compile from the different subreddits, there was a clear goal to display
controversy and constructive criticism between users so I felt this was representative
and a great selection of sources to use. I would definitely be inclined towards doing
textual research, the reason I say this is because generalizing a whole category of
writing and calling it controversial and driven by debate is a very harsh statement to
make without any source of proof to lean on. So in order to make the association I need
to study excerpts or specific discussion posts and explain how the wording advances
my point by reflecting the pure essence of controversy within soccer. I will need to be
meticulous when looking at word choice because this can show the overall bigger
picture. Textual analysis is understanding written language as well as visuals this works
out perfectly because the combination of these elements are what compose my primary
sources so I need to look deeper and find cues that show the writing in the community.
Due to the soccer community having such a large aspect of participatory culture I need
to explain how these mediums work where people can make their writing understood. I
felt textual analysis was my best option because I do not see other forms such as
multimodal present in my community there is a limited form of communication.

Results
The users of Reddit threads have performed plenty of examples of communication. The
first Reddit discussion is titled “Change my View” this post is made by user
AutoModerator the post asks for users to have understanding of others opinions and
when they refute your points to be respectful he specifically states. “Post your
controversial opinions, but encourage conversation and be open to understanding other
perspectives” (AutoM,2019). The post had a grand total of 3.4 thousand comments
along with exchanges amongst hundreds of users.The way that the filter for what
comments are shown first is by an upvote system.The post with the most upvotes stay
at the top. The posts from the users follow a format, the users post their controversial
opinion and then state an explanation of why it is that they feel that certain way. The
very first comment under the thread comes from the user 6footkilla who encourages
someone to try and challenge his view of Cristiano Ronaldo during playoffs potentially
being the best player in history. In this case debate is so specific that players are not
even being compared by their soccer careers but rather versions of these players or
their prime stages of their soccer career. Martoxic another Reddit user disagrees with
the OP( terminology within Reddit meaning original Poster) and states an opinion of his
own on who merits best player by stating 2012 Messi is better than any other player.
On Reddit as well as many other online platforms there is reward systems such as
likes or points, Reddit for example has adopted a points system. What this does is
provide instant gratification and the more points signifies that the reply was either found
interesting, funny, or a popular opinion. Martoxic’s reply disagreeing with the original
poster got a total of 30 points,versus 6footkilla who only had 9.Which essentially means
he got more approval from his peers and in other words had the more popular opinion of
the whole exchange. In another thread named daily discussion that was conducted on
October 16 there is also a great deal of information being passed around. What was
uncovered through examination is that these daily discussions are embedded in the
culture of the Soccer subreddit. These daily discussions are posted every 23 hours so
that they can have a different start time each day and their main objective is to get users
discussing any matches that happened on that day,post highlights of anything related to
the sport, or even just ask a quick question. The specific thread touched on a lot of
interesting topics some users particularly were discussing whether winning a domestic
league or an international tournament is more important. Users backup their viewpoints
with facts for example the user Hamcole brought up that domestic leagues might take
more consistency from a team given that there are 38 games played which is
significantly higher than tournaments like the Champions League.
Users are free to discuss any number of things and there are even more serious
topics such as the political situation that Spain is experiencing with the Barcelona region
trying to secede from the country which as a result has impacted soccer in the country.
As serious as the subreddits get there is one thing that has to stay consistent and this is
respect within the threads, on many occasions comments may not meet the guidelines
of Reddit and therefore it is a common occurence to see a notice that reads”comment
removed by moderator”. The type of communication was not exactly uniform throughout
this discussion, what I mean by this is that I observed some users asking general
questions which other users collaborated with, while some of the comments were not so
much inquiries, but rather controversial or trying to formulate a discussion. In the third
subreddit thread there was a message trying to be delivered by the user that goes by
the name TimSanchez. Tim Sanchez makes an announcement on the soccer subreddit
after becoming aware of what the consequences were for the closely tied subreddit. He
makers it perfectly clear that no more will be tolerated by stating “Following on from the
admins banning a number of subreddits for linking to illegal streams, we have changed
our rules to make it explicitly clear that we do not allow requesting or posting illegal
streams on r/soccer. This includes asking for/posting links to other subreddits for
streaming, discords, etc.” Many of the users in the thread argued that Reddit was
selective on what they restricted given that there were so many other violations of
copyright easily accessible and it seemed the administrators turned a blind eye.One
user was particularly unhappy about this censorship he does not have a registered
name but stated”I wouldn't have to ask for them if the cost of watching football wasn't so
expensive. 😢”. The use of emojis is a common thing to see on Reddit it is a much more
simple way to emphasize the emotion being felt without having to use a large number of
words. Ultimately this post showcases a large amount of empathy from the users about
the thought of potentially losing their medium,however Reddit has become more strict
with what they allow on their platform and the users have to quickly adapt in order to
keep what they have alive.
m,however Reddit has become more strict with what they allow on their platform and
the users have to quickly adapt in order to keep what they have alive.
 Analysis

What I was able to examine through looking at the variety of Reddit threads was that
there was a general sense of involvement between the users. A lot of mediums
nowadays are a compilation of postspublication and individualseperate users can
comment on it but it is very infrequent and the comments do not have the same
substance in terms of literacy that replies on Reddit have demonstrated. One thing that I
was able to pick on as I conducted my research is that Reddit has a great number of
customary practices. One example is the discussions that occur every single 23 hours.
Another is threads that are created for changing the minds of other Redditers. These
customs within the community are inherently positive because what they go ahead and
do is promote users to have a place to discuss anything that they might come up with
even if it might seem small in terms of its significance. What I was able to analyze from
looking at the daily discussions is that the word choice is very informal and this parallels
the description of the thread which is very clear that the objective of the thread is to just
get any information out there to discuss and ask any kind of question. Given that there
is such a large influx of events happening in the soccer world it seems that the users of
Reddit need to stay on top of all this information.One aspect of Reddit that I saw a large
number of times was a message on threads that read”comment deleted by moderator”
this really goes ahead and gives a clear understanding that the moderators of the
Reddit community take pride in what they do and the narrative can be shifted in any
numerous amount of ways as long as it is respectful and does not violate the guidelines
of the community. In that sense Reddit is also very unique because they are the first to
give its users a role within the platform that actually creates a system of internal control
that up until now has worked perfectly. Similarly the thread that I analyzed about the
user who warned against posting illegal streams speaks about the tight circle of the
users of the soccer subreddit. The users of the subreddit are constantly looking out for
each other and for their community,the thread served as a public service announcement
and ultimately a warning for the rest of the users. The way I interpreted the message is
that users within the community feel an obligation to protect what they have and there is
friendly aspect between each other. Many have probably realized the magnitude of what
they have and understand that they have created something bigger than them and must
protect it at all costs. Another impact that this unity has is that it lessens the fear of
others to participate in the discourse. The soccer subreddit is not nearly as toxic as I
pictured prior to my research. Users on the website also show gratification towards each
other. The upvote system is a way of communication without necessarily using
language. Anything that may be considered funny,clever, and/or factual will receive an
upvote. On the other hand this is also a way to suppress those posts that are degrading
or incorrect. In an exchange between users who were discussing who the best player of
all time was, the user Martoxic claimed that Lionel Messi is the best player of all time.
Although he claimed this in an attempt to challenge the original poster his opinion
received many more upvotes. This ultimately demonstrates that more people were in
agreement with what he had to say. Therefore proving his opinion to be correct or at the
very least more popular. An important observation is that when Reddit users do debate
within these threads everything is done in a respectful manner and from all the threads I
was able to analyze the topic was strictly soccer, never was there an ulterior argument
such as making personal remarks. ”I wouldn't have to ask for them if the cost of
watching football wasn't so expensive. 😢”. (Moderator,2019). The use of emojis is a
common thing to see on Reddit it is a much more simple way to emphasize the emotion
being felt without having to use a large number of words. Ultimately this post showcases
a large amount of empathy from the users about the thought of potentially losing their
medium,however Reddit has become more strict with what they allow on their platform
and the users have to quickly adapt in order to keep what they have alive. Additionally it
seems that Reddit is a community where discourse is promoted between the users and
this has contributed to its popularity. The images I included in my results show a quick
spike in the popularity of the site. The first image demonstrates how quickly
submissions have grown since 2007. In 2013 submission were at 60 million and in just
one year this number quickly rose to 100 million. The number of submissions almost
doubled in one year. Reddit is a website with a plethora of information from just simply
scrolling through the homepage I noticed that there is an abundance of information that
not even the press will display. I think that the user collaboration and discussion to have
a marketplace of news is what allows for millions to gravitate towards the platform.

Conclusion

The soccer subreddit is such a simplistic community at first glance, howeverglance

however, the more I actually was able to understand it, the more I realized that the
community is very tightly knit together. Part of my approach when studying the scope of
the community was understanding how it was set up to promote discourse amongst its
users. I can now confidently say that I have noticed the elements of the platform. The
platform is so complex in the sense that a lot of its life comes from the users through
what they have created. Another chunk of the platforms life is through the formal
practices of moderators managing what is said and in app mechanics. Within the soccer
subreddit I noticed that this is a community that has a lot of customs. There is repetitive
patterns that are only observed with sufficient analysis. However these trends that at
many times happen even daily such as the daily discussions are what keeps the
community alive. One of the biggest takeaways was the sense of pride users have
towards their subreddits, I was able to observe this through the work moderators do and
the importance users place on making each other feel welcomed. Reddit is so much
different from any other social media platform ive ever used. The lexicon of the users is
so unique and the skill cap to understand how to even post something is something so
interesting. As I have mentioned this community was nothing like what I expected to
see due to the modern day internet being so inherently toxic. I did not have the
opportunity to look so much into what makes users so ethical and the communities so
organized from one another. Something I would like to get a better understanding is on
what the penalties are for users who violate the terms and conditions and how
information is sorted that doesn't belong. I even advise others to study what makes this
online medium function as its own little utopia for specialized communities. some that
have been created by the users through customary practices and others that were
already there due to the design of the app. aditionallyHowever Aditionally it is still
impressive that a website such as Reddit can be so informal in its language yet be the
birthplace of so much discourse from millions of users around the world. There is still
much more to be learned about Reddit as a community but the evidence of its literacy
and discourse show good signs

Refrences
Moderator,A(2019, November 13) Change My View [Online Forum] Retrieved from
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/dvrymy/change_my_view/

Moderator,A (2019, October,16) Daily Discussion [2019-10-16][Online Forum].

Retrieved from
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/diwnv9/daily_discussion_20191016/

Tim-sanchez(2019,Febraury) Please don't ask for or post illegal streams on

/r/soccer[Online Forum] Retrieved From
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/apwg1e/please_dont_ask_for_or_post_illega
l_streams_on/

Widman, J. (2019, November 5). What is Reddit? A Beginner's Guide to the Front Page
of the Internet. Retrieved November 21, 2019, from
https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/what-is-reddit/.

What does Reddit CEO's editing 'joke' mean for free speech on the site? (2016,
November 27). Retrieved from
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2016/1127/What-does-Reddit-CEO-s-editing-
joke-mean-for-free-speech-on-the-site.

Images/iStockphoto), (I. G., & PA), (I. (2019, January 21). Why it has just become a lot
harder for fans to live stream Premier League games. Retrieved from
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/reddit-soccer-streams-closed-premier-
13886096.

Canadian ref's World Cup handshake snub goes viral | CBC Sports. (2014, June 19).
Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/worldcup/world-cup-ref-joe-fletcher-
s-missed-handshake-goes-viral-1.2680273.