This document provides a Foucauldian analysis of changing power relations in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the rise of social media, specifically Twitter. It discusses how Twitter has reduced the power of traditional media and increased the influence of marginalized groups like fans and players. While groups like fans and players now have more direct communication, the NHL still ultimately controls power through surveillance and normalizing discourses. The document concludes that resistance to dominant power groups is a long-term process and any interaction with the NHL, even resistance, increases its power over time through increased knowledge.

1. Rinkside Tweeting:
A Foucauldian Understanding of
Changing Power Relations in the National Hockey League
Presented by Naila Jinnah
Macintosh Conference
Queen’s University
January 22, 2011

2. Say what?
• How does Foucault’s understanding of power
apply to the off-ice life of NHL players?
• Foucault and sport usually about discipline or
technologies of self in development of high-
performance athletes
• What happens when different power groups
start using social media tools like Twitter?
– Potential motivations & goals

3. About Twitter
• 140-character public status updates (tweets)
• May include basic text and links or pics and vids using tools
• Users can subscribe to others’ feeds  followers
• Can interact by replying, forwarding (retweeting), etc
• Public feeds accessible online to non-Twitter users UNLESS
user makes feed private to authorised users only

4. About Foucault & Power
• Early work  mechanisms of surveillance, punishment
and resistance:
– repressive power
– sovereign power
– disciplinary society
• Power as positive and productive: resistance forms
identities, knowledge & truth
• Later work technologies of self:
– Aesthetics of self: Voluntary rules of conduct that
one imposes on self
– Ethics: How the individual sees self as a moral
subject
• Individuals subject to normalizing discourses produced
by dominant power groups and disciplinary power

5. More Foucault & Power
• Power is relational, omnipresent, mutable
• NOT possession: exerting power is manifestation
• Those subjected to power must possess some
degree of freedom or choice resistance
• Power structures are open to negotiation
• Resistance can eventually create shifts at societal
levels  may cause emergence of new voices and
new dominant power groups within existing
relations in the long run

6. Research Questions
• Why do groups exert power on each other?
– Traditional media
– Official league & team representatives
– Athletes
– Fans
– Related groups: player agents, NHLPA, citizen media
• How do they exert this power?
• What kind of power is exerted?

7. Power relations in the NHL pre-Twitter
The NHL
Traditional Media Fans
League
Team Players
Legend
Agents/ One-way power
NHLPA Minimal one-way power
Balanced two-way power
Imbalanced two-way power

8. Traditional media = intermediary
• Symbiotic relationship between media & sport
– Economics: sport sells, media creates fans
– Dissemination of normalising discourses
– Mutual power struggle: disciplinary power
• Players interact with fans through media only
• Media represents global fan reaction
• Fans’ voice limited: via media, by chance, or $
• Teams/league talks to fans through media only

9. Players and Power
• No athletes, no sport!
• Power exists in three qualities
– Origin
– Basic nature
– Manifestation
• NHL values continually perpetuated
– Sovereign, paternalistic power
– Disciplinary, normalising power
• Athletes: Docile Bodies and labourers
• Surveillance tactics:
– Hierarchical observation
– Timetables
– Systems of rank

10. Counter-Power / Resistance
• Athletes are not shaped to deal non-sport aspects:
– NHLPA: player’s union to deal with business/labour
– Agents: deal with financial & well-being of clients
• Rise & fall of World Hockey Association (1972-79)
also helped athletes resist to NHL power
• Lifespan of average successful NHL career: 5 years
• Resisting media, league not a smart choice
• Success through technologies of self: better self
and maximize post career opportunities
• No “true self” but reconstruction of identities by
challenging traditional normalising discourse

11. Athletes + Power = Illusion
• Power only present in perpetuation
of discourses that identify athletes
as heroes
• Only true power exerted on other
athletes:
– Veterans initiating rookies to NHL life
– Competition for same positions on
team
• Power struggles through resistance
– NHL + athletes work together towards
new “normal”

12. NHL’s new strategies & tactics
• NHL monopoly on pro hockey market in NA
– Talent, teams, media interest, discourse
• From sovereign power to art of government
– BEFORE: Manage territory + constituents (athletes)
– NOW:
“the population [or athlete] is the subject of needs, of aspirations, but it
is also the object in the hands of the government [league], aware, vis-a-
vis the government [league], of what it wants, but ignorant of what is
being done to it.”
-Foucault in Governmentality (p. 99)
In The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality, with two lectures by
and an interview with Michel Foucault. (1991)
• Still sovereign & disciplinary power + new strategies &
tactics mean NHL has more ways of governing athletes

13. NHL as cartel
LEAGUE (STATE) TEAMS (INSTITUTION)
• Regulates teams so they act in • Extension of league’s power
the league’s interest • Team regulations based on
• Restricts access for athletes league-wide guidance
• Divides power across markets • micro power:
• MACRO power: – Day-to-day operations
– Master schedule – Local PR/communications
– League-wide PR/communications
– Local promotion & events only
– Discipline to control athlete
– Game day information
actions that don’t fit in discourse
– Takes control of local league-wide
– Everyday discipline of athletes
events with major marketing
potential: ASG, Draft, Playoffs

14. Power relations in the NHL post-Twitter
The NHL
League Traditional Media Fans
Team Players Citizen Media
Agents/
NHLPA Legend
One-way power
Minimal one-way power
Balanced two-way power
Imbalanced two-way power

15. Twitter = new intermediary
• NHL no longer needs traditional media to
disseminate info on its behalf with Internet
• Slighted power groups now have a voice
• More direct communication between groups
• Twitter as tool is NOT automatically liberating
– Reduces space & increases speed of
communications between different groups
• Resistance doesn’t modify power relations but
knowledge produced by resistance

16. Knowledge leads to power
• Power relations: ways in which knowledge circulates
and functions + its relation to power
• Power & knowledge linked in discourse
– Daily relations between people produce society
– Power & knowledge can’t exist without each other
– Knowledge produced by normalising, disciplinary methods
• Athletes contribute to discourse by producing and
dispersing their own knowledge
• Open, non-discriminatory platform: athletes can
completely control their own communications
• Still discipline & surveillance by:
– agent, team, league, mainstream media reporters, fans

17. PANOPTIC surveillance
• Panopticon based on Bentham’s
prison design
– groups cells around watch tower
• Surveillance by:
– Agents (paternalistic, disciplinary)
– Team & League (pat & disc)
– Mainstream media reporters
– Fans
• Panoptic gaze:
– Potential observation
– Invisibility of examination
• Twitter is public so illusion of
surveillance should encourage Bentham’s Panopticon
self-discipline + filtering from prisoner’s POV

18. The case of @PaulBizNasty
• @PaulBizNasty known for colourful
trash talking on and off the ice
• Tweets: Kovalchuk is “communist”
– In private context: no discipline
– Not acceptable outside hockey microcosm
• Account deleted (at agent’s suggestion)
• New @BizNasty2point0 is “filtered”
– No explanation for surveillance procedure Paul Bissonnette
(Phoenix Coyotes)
• Players practice technologies of the self
NHL has no official
– Personal branding for post-playing career social media policy or
– Limited counter-discursive content guide … YET!

19. The rise of the sports celebrity
• Increased personal life & lifestyle info
– From role models to commodities
– Famous for being famous (on-ice vs. off-ice)
– Lifestyle information to be consumed
• Superstars not on Twitter: docile bodies
• Docile bodies increase global revenue
– Cross-promotional potential
• Professional athlete identity in flux
– New demands, responsibilities &
expectations because of social media:
constant pressure (instant gratification)
– Constant observation by fans (info society)
– Construction of star brand by fans

20. The fall of the sports celebrity
• Athletes elevated to iconic status but rarely live
up to expectations: illusion of power
– Fame comes at a price
– From heroes to zeroes via media (old, new, social)
– Fans can easily take back players’ power
• Fans live vicariously through athletes (+ power)
– Players’ personal failure is betrayal for fans
– Player invites fans into his heart and mind
– Fan-athlete connection depends on fandom levels

21. But what about the fans?
• As player salaries increased, personal fan connections decreased
• Social media attempts to bridge the gap
– Include fans in decision-making process at NHL level
– Fans benefit from Twitter’s speed and access
– NHL still controls power relationship: knowledge
• How fans connect to sport:
– Sports stars (not just players, but teams as a whole)
– Geographic places (but hometown heroes constructed)
– Demographic & lifestyle levels
• Social media creates communities outside of geography
– Long-distance fans make be tempted to travel to a home game
– Fan-allegiances outside traditional hometown affiliations
• Fans likely to increase consumption due to closer connection
– Fan empowerment leads to NHL’s empowerment: economics

22. How are fans empowered?
• More information sources increase fan empowerment
– Citizen media fill gap left by traditional media constraints
– Agents fill gap left in creation of player identities
• Accessories to athlete’s use of technologies of self
• Agents exert liberal power over athletes
• Illusion of empowerment through “resistance” to
sovereign power of traditional media and NHL by
accessing information through other sources
• Twitter as confessional tool for fans & athletes
– Direct player interaction/pressure
– Governance of athlete behaviour

23. #DanEllisProblems
• @33dellis less controversial than BizNasty
• Complained about precautionary 18% escrow
paycheck deduction
– “I can honestly say that I am more stressed about money
now than when I was in college”
– Valid in pro hockey microcosm but not public setting
– Deleted account after personal and professional fan backlash
• Fans exercised power to resist “hero”
discourse:
– Panoptic surveillance to detect tweet
– Confessional power to alert media/league
Dan Ellis
– Disciplinary tactics to punish Ellis’ resistance,
(Tampa Bay Lightning)
confessional power, and technologies of self
• Fan’s freedom to respond was empowering Fans always crave
• Fan’s knowledge production increased more behind the
traditional power’s influence scenes information

24. Overall Twitter effect
• NHL teams and league allow fans’ illusion of power
– Fans sound off directly to NHL through Twitter
– Reinforces NHL’s voice as authentic
– Additional openings to perpetuate normalising discourses
• NHL teams need to adapt or lose influence
• Fans want to know athletes & athletes want to know fans
• Twitter limits fans’ fear of being perceived as stalkers
• NHL and athletes don’t interact on Twitter: authority
– Team wants to prove it still controls conversations involving it
– Players want to distance themselves from professional life
– Commodification and lack of player loyalty as factors
• Players tweet amongst themselves: personal, casual & playful
• NHL players accountable for their tweets
– Surveillance and disciplinary measures by:
• Players, League, Team, Themselves

25. Shifts in balance of power: en bref
• Fans no longer afraid to exert direct influence on
their role models: normalised celebrity interaction
• Twitter is new intermediary not new power group:
– Replaces traditional media in pro sports landscape
– Reduces traditional power’s influence and increases
marginalized voices’ influence in consumer societies
– Allows for different manifestations of power
• Problematisation of self through resistance of role
in traditional structure shifts balance of power:
– Fans and athletes embrace Twitter and empower
themselves to start countering traditional discourses
created by NHL & media

26. In conclusion…
• Power acquired by NHL fans & players illusionary:
– Any interaction with pro hockey increases NHL’s power, even
resistance
– Twitter increases NHL’s knowledge of audience & development of
new strategies for perpetuating normalising discourses
– Professional athletes need league to survive and league needs
labourers
– Rise of celebrity culture via Twitter empowers athletes but illusion of
players as powerful can shatter quickly
• Teams are only marginally influential and only locally
• Influence of normalising discourses is generational so resisting
dominant power groups is a long-term process
• Foucauldian understanding of power relations in NHL details
how fans & athletes can steadily increase influence over NHL
by using interactive tools like Twitter
– Interesting perspective for power relationship analyses in
sports management, sports psychology and sociology of sport

27. Thanks for your
attention throughout
my presentation! 
QUESTIONS?
Email me: njinnah@gmail.com
Tweet me: @NailaJ