Paper written for my Social Theory of the Body class, taken as part of the Kinesiology Master's programme in Socio-Cultural Studies of Sport, Health and the Body at Queen's University in Fall 2010.

1. Running head: RINKSIDE TWEETING
Rinkside Tweeting: A Foucauldian Analysis of
Changing Power Relations in the National Hockey League
Naila Jinnah
Queen‟s University
KHS 869
Professor Rob Beamish
January 27, 2011

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Rinkside Tweeting: A Foucauldian Analysis of
Changing Power Relations in the National Hockey League
Foucauldian interpretations of power in the sporting context often tend to focus on
concepts of discipline and the technologies of self as they apply to the development of high-
performance athletes. While these are important aspects of Foucault‟s work on power, there is
more to athlete development than simply performance. In this paper, I will outline how power as
Foucault understood it is relevant to the off-ice life of National Hockey League (NHL) athletes.
More specifically, I will dissect the various powers at play when these professional hockey
players embrace social media tools like Twitter, and outline the potential motivations that each
power group (traditional media, the league and its teams, athletes, and the fans) may have in
embracing the technology.
Twitter is a relatively new interactive social media tool that allows users (tweeters) to
post 140-character status updates publicly or privately on the Twitter.com website. Each update,
or tweet, can contain a variety of content, from basic text to links. Several third-party tools also
facilitate the integration of photo and video content with tweets, which allows users who
subscribe to the tweeter‟s feed (followers) to more easily interact with the tweeter and his or her
content, whether by replying to it or forwarding it (retweeting) on their own feed to their own
followers. All tweets, including replies and retweets, are public and accessible online to users
who are not subscribed to Twitter, unless the tweeter elects to make his or her feed private and
accessible to authorised users only.
Evidently, this new form of open communication enables tweeters to share their personal
or professional content with anyone who cares to look it up, thereby eliminating the traditional
middleman screening process of print and broadcast news services (Horne, 2006). As a result,

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voices that had become marginalized in the industrialization process are once again being heard
thanks to the globalizing technology that is the Internet. Certain traditional power groups have
been slower than others to embrace new media, namely the mainstream media (Horne, 2006). In
2011, most newspapers, magazines, radio shows and television stations in major markets now
have some sort of social media presence, and many of their reporters do tweet. In the North
American professional sporting industry, the NHL has been at the forefront of social media
adoption. Indeed, the NHL boasts having the most technologically-savvy fan base (Leggio,
2010) and as a result, its athletes are increasingly using Twitter as their personal soapboxes.
Before examining the types of power exerted by the various influence groups involved
when athletes tweet, it is important to understand what Foucault meant by power. Foucault‟s
early work focused on repressive power, sovereign power, and the disciplinary society,
mechanisms that were characterised by practices of surveillance, punishment and resistance
(1977). Although these power concepts usually have negative connotations, Foucault viewed
them as positive opportunities and productive juridico-discursive models, since resisting power
provides an opportunity for the formation of identities, knowledge and truth (Widder, 2004).
Foucault‟s later work elaborated on these concepts while focusing on what he called the
technologies of self. These include the aesthetics of self, or the voluntary rules of conduct that
one imposes on him or her self, as well as ethics, or how the individual sees him or her self as a
moral subject (McHoul & Grace, 1997). Accordingly, Foucault‟s understanding of power
expanded to include the idea of the individual as a subject of the normalizing discourses
produced by dominant power groups and disciplinary power, and he believed that these power
structures are open for negotiation “in social realms where all voices do not have the same
opportunities to be heard” (Markula & Pringle, 2007, p. 33).

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It is important to note that Foucault saw power as relational, omnipresent, and mutable,
not as a possession that one individual, group or institution applies on another (Markula &
Pringle, 2007). In other words, one cannot hold power; that is simply the final shape in which it
is exerted. Additionally, Foucault (1982) believed that those who are subjected to power
necessarily possess some degree of freedom, or choice. This therefore allows for the possibility
of resistance, whether passive or active, to empowered entities. Since power relations are not
fixed but rather, are subject to change, this resistance can eventually create shifts at societal
levels which, in the long run, may cause the emergence of new voices and new dominant power
groups within existing relations (Markula & Pringle, 2007). This concept is essential to
Foucault‟s understanding of power and eliminates traditional power analysis inquiries focusing
on the intentions and objectives of power holders.
Accordingly, the question we must pose is not “Who holds the power?” but rather, we
must ask, “Why do various groups exert power on each other?” “How do they exert this power?”
and, “What kind of power is exerted?” Although innumerable power relations are stimulated
when NHL athletes tweet, the groups I will focus on are traditional media, official league and
team representatives, the athletes themselves, and, of course, their audience: the fans. I will also
touch briefly on the related groups of athlete managers, such as player agents and the NHL
Players‟ Association (NHLPA), and citizen media. In each case, I will give a brief overview of
the various forms of power Foucault could have perceived to be exerted by one group on
another. I will also outline each group‟s role in the traditional professional sports landscape and
demonstrate how social media has changed those power relations. Finally, in considering the
goals and motivations of each group in using Twitter, I will focus on how NHL athletes are

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affected by these new power structures, and show that while all groups exert some sort of power
on each other and on themselves, the fans are the most powerful influencers of tweeting athletes.
Long before the development of the Internet and, more specifically, social media
technologies, traditional media were the key to the survival of professional sports. From the rise
of professionalism in the early 1900s to the emergence of consumerism in sport 50 years later,
newspapers, radio, television and even magazines have ensured that pro sports leagues get
through to their target audience. The relationship between sport and media has always been a
symbiotic economic partnership: sports coverage sold newspapers and newspapers sold sports
coverage. As Horne (2006) explains:
Sport, on the one hand, is primarily interested in the media because of the need for exposure.
Exposure for a sport attracts new recruits. It attracts fans, consumers and spectators. In the
past forty years media exposure has also boosted the chances of gaining, if not guaranteeing,
sponsorship. The media, on the other hand, are interested in sport, first, because intrinsic
aspects of sport form the basis for an ideal news story. All sports offer a predictable
occurrence with an unpredictable outcome and the ideal news story is exactly that. (p.42)
Horne (2006) also adds that sport sparks tremendous public interest and attracts large audiences
who can then be converted into regular news consumers, thereby increasing the media‟s potential
advertising revenue (p. 42).
In addition to offering sports content, either by paying for print and broadcasting rights or
simply by covering sporting news and events, traditional or mainstream media acts as a
communication platform for the various power groups involved with the NHL (See Figure 1).
Indeed, though all groups exert some degree of power over one another, fans are mostly isolated

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from the rest of the NHL power players except through mainstream media. The media allows
fans to access information about the league and its teams (who, together, represent the NHL as
an entity), athletes, and, by extension, their agents and association (NHLPA). The only other
direct influence on the fans comes from the leagues/teams, and it is applicable only when fans
attend hockey games and are directly subjected to team and league marketing and branding
through in-game entertainment programming. The players do not directly exert power on the
fans, except through rare impromptu interactions outside the regulated structure of players‟ lives:
during chance encounters at the grocery store, at nightclubs or even after a team practice, for
example. In general, the only way fans can access sport information and content is through
traditional media services. This limitation sets the stage for empowering resistance as fans can
choose to take action against the dominant powers that construct and restrict them; in this case,
the NHL and mainstream media (Markula & Pringle, 2007).
The media, however, is also heavily influenced by the NHL. As Sage (1998) explains,
professional sports and traditional media interact on several levels. First, as business partners,
who together spread the league‟s ideology and values in order to maintain the dominant
discourse they have constructed together (p. 174). This is what Foucault would refer to as
juridico-discursive power: one that does not necessarily seek to normalise individuals but rather
to produce “manageable forms of difference” (Widder, 2004, p. 443). In marketing terms, it is
much more effective for the NHL and the media to have one more or less homogeneous
consumerist group to cater to in order to maximise its profits. In other words, the proper use of
normative power can lead to more opportunities to exert economic power. Secondly, due to their
symbiotic relationship, the media is only a weak critic of the NHL and its teams‟ actions,
especially when it comes to shifts caused by other groups exerting power (Sage, 1998, p. 167).

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Foucault‟s disciplinary power is at play here, since the league can, in theory, revoke the media‟s
rights and access to its teams and players at any time, though it cannot do that without
undermining its own product. Also, the media does occasionally exert disciplinary power on the
league by publishing pointed or sardonic criticism that threatens to destabilise the discursive
status quo. Therefore, the NHL and mainstream media are involved in a mutual power struggle
to gain the upper hand in the manufacturing of discourses related to professional hockey in North
America, ideals which can then be sold to audiences in order to convert them from simple
supporters of the sport to engaged fans, and, more importantly, consumers of the NHL brand
(Crawford, 2003).
Additionally, in traditional power relations, mainstream media is the primary bearer of
non-league-based power on the athlete (See Figure 1). Since the media is perceived to represent
the collective voices of the fans, and because media is actively involved in the social
construction of fans‟ opinions, athletes are influenced by what they think to be an accurate
representation of their primary audience‟s feedback on their performance on and off the ice. In
this traditional structure, fans do not have an effective way to engage in dialogues with athletes
other than by sending personal letters to the athletes through their teams, writing letters to the
editor, or calling-in to local radio shows. In the latter cases, traditional media continues to act as
an intermediary between groups, and in the first case, teams filter the communications between
both groups. Fans can only exert power via economics, by choosing whether or not to buy – and
buy-in to – league and team merchandise, memorabilia, and event tickets. This is the only
instance where fans‟ marginalised voices are not edited before their message is heard, though it
can still potentially be manipulated by advertising prior to purchase and by the manipulation of

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economic reports, like by publicising the number of tickets sold rather than game attendance
figures, for example.
Yet embedded in all human relations is this productive force Foucault refers to as
resistance which can empower the fans, in our situation, to engage in transformative interactions
(Markula & Pringle, 2007, p. 146). Indeed, Hindness (1996) proposes that Foucault‟s power can
be interpreted as a structure of actions: “Power, in this sense, is manifested in the instruments,
techniques and procedures that may be brought to bear on the actions of others” (p. 100). For
Foucault, where there is no possibility for resistance – or freedom – there can be no relations of
power (Hindness, 1996, p. 101). In other words, by harnessing the potential of globalising
technologies like the Internet, fans have the potential to upset the traditional balance of power.
Additionally, Foucault believes that resistance cannot be imposed by a force exterior to the
power relation in question but rather, it can only be manifested positively within a series of
interactions (Markula & Pringle, 2007, p. 214). Power relationships are therefore constantly
fluctuating due to the counter-powers that are provoked by these de-balancing struggles (McHoul
& Grace, 1997, p. 83).
One such counter-power provoked into action is that of the athletes. In the traditional
structure, the players‟ ability to influence other power groups is limited by the paternalistic
power of the league and its teams. According to Foucault (1982), power exists in three qualities:
its origin, its basic nature, and its manifestation (p. 785). In this case, the sovereign power
exercised by the NHL stems from its origins as essentially the only economically viable option
for those who wanted to play hockey for a living. The NHL was therefore the primary influencer
in the creation of the pro hockey player discourses we know today, with some assistance from its
media partners. The league manifested its power by governing its territory, the North American

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market, which encompasses its primary investment: the players (Sage, 1998). Through the
distribution and structuring of labour (Foucault, 1982, p. 787), the NHL encouraged its working-
class athletes to focus on disciplining and dominating their bodies (Robidoux, 2001, p. 30) in
order to reach their now normalised mutual objective of earning a “win” at any cost (Sage, 1998,
p. 174). The NHL‟s power is therefore manifested any time anyone reflects on their personal
understanding of and expectations for NHL players, both as unique individuals off-ice and as
undifferentiated performers and labourers on-ice. In other words, NHL players are socially
constructed en masse to fit a specific mould that restricts the individual labourer‟s ability to
threaten the league‟s economic goals (Robidoux, 2001). Sport, after all, is first and foremost a
business, and the “productive labour force of professional sport is the athletes. Without the
athletes, there would be no sport event – no product” (Sage, 1998, p. 212).
Indeed, one of the NHL‟s greatest achievements is in constructing a discourse that runs
so deep in our collective minds that it positively influences young boys‟ dreams to become NHL
players, at which point they themselves can continue to perpetuate the same ideological
discourses on future generations of players and their fans (Robidoux, 2001). In fact, the NHL
singles-out certain carefully crafted bodies based on their extraordinary on-ice performance and
apparent morally irreproachable off-ice performance to represent their mass of labourers to the
general public (Boyle, 2000). The mainstream media then helps to make household names of the
likes of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, who, caught up in the demanding day-to-day labour
routines imposed by the league, continue to spread the “love-of-the-game” mentality they grew
up with (Robidoux, 2001, p. 47). Without a doubt, Foucault would interpret these superstars as
docile bodies, as they are produced by the disciplinary power of the league and its teams
(Markula & Pringle, 2007) and were selected only for their capacity to best perform the on-ice

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and off-ice skills associated with this role (Shogan, 1999, p. 35). Of course, players are also
heavily disciplined by their teams and the league, both in terms of the strict regulations and
rigorous training schedules imposed on athletes in order to maintain elite performances, and in
terms of the self-mastery of the body required to stay competitive on the ice (Shogan, 1999).
This is where Foucault‟s theories and sport studies usually intersect: in disciplinary power, with
its focus on the control of bodies that is exercised fundamentally by means of surveillance
techniques such as hierarchical observation (by coaches, scouts, managers and fellow players),
timetables (structured daily routines) and “systems of rank” (earning a guaranteed spot on the
roster rather than facing the threats of being benched, scratched, or even sent to the minor
leagues) (Markula & Pringle, 2007, p. 39).
As a result of these potential points of resistance, athletes chose to integrate externals
power groups into their relationships with the league, namely player agents and the NHLPA, to
deal with the business aspects that they were not experienced with (Boyle, 2000, p. 105). Both
come into being to help athletes resist the NHL‟s sovereign power, which, as Foucault stressed,
has nothing to do with people but rather, is concerned with managing a territory and all it
encompasses (the players and their talent, in this case) within the boundaries of laws and
established order for the “common good” of all (1991, p. 95). Without these techniques of
resistance, athletes would likely be just as marginalized as the fans in the traditional power
structure. However, with agents looking out for their financial needs and the NHLPA looking out
for their workforce needs, athletes are now better equipped to “govern [their] destiny and
careers” (Boyle, 2000, p. 100), which is an essential skill especially since the average lifespan of
a professional athlete is only 5 years (Sage, 1998, p. 214).

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Additionally, though players can resist media pressures by refusing to cooperate in
interviews, these disciplinary measures exerted by the athlete are likely to endanger his chances
of a post-playing career in related industries like broadcasting or sports management, since the
athlete may come to be perceived as unaccommodating and hard to work with (Sage, 1998, p.
216). Similarly, though the act of playing is sometimes explained as being an act of resistance
(Robidoux, 2001), in playing poorly, the athlete is threatening his chances of remaining a valued
contributor to the team. Instead, NHL athletes are more likely to be successful by improving
their abilities and in the general bettering of themselves to maximise life opportunities, or in
other words, by using technologies of self, whether their goal is to secure a primary position on
the team roster or a post-retirement broadcasting offer (Kelly & Hickey, 2010). Though Foucault
does not believe in the Marxist idea of a “true self” that one can aspire to liberate by exerting
power, he does argue that people can “build a certain type of identity within the relations of
power by using one‟s own power ethically” (Markula & Pringle, 2007, p. 143). This is precisely
what athletes are trying to do by resisting the traditional discourses and problematising their
identity within them. As Markula & Pringle (2007) write, “instead of conforming to a fixed
identity, we can critically reconstruct the way our identities have been formed,” though athletes
can only do so within the existing moral codes of their sport (p. 144).
In reality, most of the power athletes are said to exert is illusionary; it is present only in
the perpetuation of discourses that put them up on a pedestal and identify them as celebrities or
heroes (Robidoux, 2001, p. 179). However, players do exert power over one group: themselves.
Veterans initiating rookies to the ways of life in the NHL or one player rising above the others
while competing for the same position are some examples of this (Robidoux, 2001). Of course,
no one can be sure what other kinds of resistance take place behind the closed doors of NHL

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buildings, so some players may be quietly sparking struggles in traditional power relations
outside the public eye, either by refusing to conform to the professional hockey player norm or
by continually challenging these norms through their actions or lack thereof.
It would be remiss to leave out certain other developments in North American
professional hockey that impacted the player market, namely the formation of the World Hockey
Association (WHA) in an attempt to challenge the NHL‟s domination. One major difference
between the WHA and the NHL was the former‟s refusal to implement a “reserve clause” that
automatically renewed players‟ contracts without the possibility for salary negotiation at the end
of the term, therefore empowering the athletes in that specific power relationship (“World
Hockey Association,” n.d. ). This short but intense struggle between the leagues (1972-1979)
ended the NHL‟s monopoly on talent, and players now had the ability to negotiate higher salaries
and better working/playing conditions, especially since the talent pool had expanded due to the
larger number of professional ice hockey teams in North America. In other words, professional
hockey production had increased dramatically and, when the WHA folded, this excess of
production needed to reintegrate the now smaller marketplace, causing a fierce competition
between athletes to earn roster spots, even if four of the defunct WHA‟s teams had joined the
NHL (“World Hockey Association,” n.d.).
All of these factors caused a shift in the balance of power between the league and its
athletes, forcing the NHL to move from sovereign power tactics to those of Foucault‟s art of
government. Rather than governing a territory, the league‟s primary concern now became its
athletes and, by extension, its fans. Instead of promoting obedience to the unwritten rules of the
NHL marketplace, the league had to develop new strategies and tactics, including rules, to
“ensure that the greatest possible quantity of wealth is produced” (Foucault, 1991, p. 95). In

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order to escape the grips of sovereign power structures and move past these crises, the league
and its players launched into a mutual pledge to work together in creating the new structures of
governmental power. As a result, a new „normal‟ was established, whereby, as Foucault (1991)
explains:
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. (p. 99).
Therefore, though the athletes had successfully challenged the league, they were still subjected to
its overarching influence. It should also be said that although the main power structure had
changed, sovereign power and disciplinary power had not been eliminated. In fact, if anything,
the NHL‟s ability to govern the athlete had increased as it now had new motivations and new
tactics to do so (Foucault, 1991, p. 102). Additionally the NHL‟s triumph over the WHA proved
once and for all that it could not be rivalled (“World Hockey Association,” n.d.).
Now, not only did the NHL have a monopoly on professional hockey in North America,
it was also acting as a cartel. According to Sage (1998), “In professional team sports, the purpose
of cartel organizations is that of restricting competition for athletes (the labor force) and dividing
markets among franchises in the industry” (p. 196). The NHL is therefore a network of power which
comprises a number of teams, or institutions, whose actions it regulates so that they may behave in
the interests of the league (Sage, 1998, p. 196). Similarly, Foucault sees the institutions of the
government as arms through which the state‟s power may be extended in order to properly regulate
the everyday life of its citizens (Foucault, Fabion & Hurley, 2000, p. 171). Though each team has
its own set of regulations, it can only exert power on the athletes at the micro-level, through
private day-to-day disciplinary tactics (Widder, 2004, p. 445). The league, on the other hand,

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exerts its macro-power very publicly through its overarching influence on the teams who need its
established structure to survive, but also through the professional hockey discourses that fix the
athletes‟ identities according to the truths and meanings the league wishes to perpetuate (Widder,
2004, p. 433).
Both the league and its teams use public relations and communications industry tools like
press releases to relate these truths to the public, through the intermediary of the mainstream
media. In general, the team controls messages relating to its power level: day-to-day team
activities like practice schedules, game-day information, and promotional events. Conversely, the
league controls communications pertaining to macro-level activities like creating and releasing
the master NHL schedule, and essentially takes over the whole organizational structure of the
local teams hosting league-wide events like the annual All-Star Game, Entry Draft and Stanley
Cup Playoffs, events with massive marketing, branding and discourse perpetuation potential.
The advent of the Internet and its subsequent integration in most urban households across
the developed world has undeniably changed the flow of information to mass audiences, going
from a top-down approach to a system with more of a bottoms-up potential. As fans began to
have more instant access to team and league communications, through team websites, for
example, the influence of the mainstream media declined, causing a significant shift in the power
relations structure (See Figure 2). Indeed, not only did the NHL no longer need traditional media
to disseminate information on its behalf, the power groups that were previously slighted now had
the opportunity to speak out on branded or partisan-free, frontier-less, unfiltered spaces like
websites, message boards, and chat rooms, and later on, on blogs, in the comments sections of
certain websites, and on social networks, to name but a few (Boyle, 2000). These chaotic
changes (oversimplified here) brought on by the rapid rise of new media technologies set the

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stage for the development of new intermediaries and interactive tools like Twitter, which provide
the opportunity for more direct communication between power groups. In essence, the Internet
offered an alternative to mainstream media, and fans practiced resistance by choosing this new
information source (Horne, 2006).
It is important to note, however, that the old power relations present in the traditional
structure (See Figure 1) are still just as valid and accessible; they have simply become stronger
or weaker since the introduction of new intermediaries (See Figure 2). The mainstream media‟s
influence was especially weakened by its slow adaptation to new technologies. In its absence,
other powers flourished, mainly those exerted by the fans and athletes. Additionally, a new
power group emerged: citizen media. This brand of journalism is produced by private citizens
who are not professionally trained but participate in the development and distribution of content,
primarily by publishing it on the Internet through various tools (“Citizen Media”, n.d.). Citizen
media tends to be perceived by audiences as more authentic, accountable and direct, and in some
cases, the publishing process is quicker because of the lack of editorial structures typically
present in traditional media newsrooms. Though news-based citizen journalism tends to focus on
the reporting of issues of public interest that traditional media neglects due to its political, social
and corporate affiliations (“Citizen Media”, n.d.), sports-related citizen media seems to gravitate
more towards offering partisan, over-the-top coverage of a specific sports team, league, or trend,
most of it published on personal blogs or fan-run online sports networks, as well as on social
media networks like Facebook and Twitter. Indeed, new media provides a range of platforms for
people to express themselves, and with limited barriers to entry: all you need is a computer with
Internet access and an idea (Stever, 2009). Twitter takes it one step further: all you need is an
opinion and any Internet-accessing device to share your thoughts with the world.

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However, Foucault (2000) would caution against an understanding of Twitter as a tool
that, by its very nature, is functionally liberating:
Liberty is a practice. So there may, in fact, always be a certain number of projects [Twitter]
whose aim is to modify some constraints, to loosen, or even to break them, but none of these
projects can, simply by its nature, assure that people will have liberty automatically, that it
will be established by the project itself [Twitter]. (p. 354)
Instead, Twitter can be understood as a railroad of sorts, connecting people by reducing the space
between them, and allowing them to communicate faster than ever before (Foucault, 2000, p.
352). Likewise, it is the knowledge produced by resistance that modifies power relations, not the
act of resistance itself. In fact, when examining power relations, it is the way in which
knowledge circulates and functions that is truly being examined, as well as its relation to power
(Widder, 2004, p. 434). It is in discourse that power and knowledge become linked and consequently,
“it is the daily and ceaseless relations that occur between all people in all locations that ultimately
produce subjectivities, economic systems, laws and, more generally, social realities and transformations”
(Markula & Pringle, 2007, pp. 37-38). Therefore, power and knowledge cannot exist without each
other, and as a result, knowledge is also produced by normalising, disciplinary methods
(Foucault, 1977).
Nevertheless, athletes who use Twitter are able to contribute to the discourses involving
them by producing their own knowledge and dispersing it through an open, non-discriminatory
publishing platform. For the first time, NHL players have the potential to truly and completely
control their communications with other power groups. Of course, they are still subjected to
disciplinary measures like surveillance by their agent, their team, the league, mainstream media
reporters (especially those who engage on Twitter on behalf of the corporations for which they

17. RINKSIDE TWEETING 17
work), and the fans. Additionally, since you do not need to be a Twitter user in order to see a
public stream of tweets, Foucault‟s Panopticon metaphor is applicable here. NHL representatives
in particular could potentially be using Twitter as a paternalistic surveillance tool to protect the
discourses they have worked so hard to build over the years (Kelly & Hickey, 2010, p. 41). As
Foucault explains, the panoptic gaze is defined by the potential observation it implies, as well as
the invisibility of the examination that would result from it (1977). In other words, since Twitter
is by nature a public platform, the illusion of surveillance should encourage athletes to practice
self-discipline and filter their own content.
The Panopticon model doesn‟t always work as it should, though, as proven by the case of
Phoenix Coyotes support player Paul Bissonnette, who is known for his colourful tweets,
especially under his first account, @paulbiznasty (no longer available on Twitter but archived on
http://topsy.com/twitter/paulbiznasty). Bissonnette‟s deliberately controversial trash talking was
met with much criticism when he called Russian free-agent Ilya Kovalchuk a “communist” in
commenting on the star‟s contract woes (Az Vibe, 2010). Some of Bissonnette‟s followers and
NHL fans on Twitter in general, though used to his antics, felt that this comment went too far. In
order to protect of his athlete, his agent recommended that the account be deleted (removing the
tweets in the process). Interestingly, Bissonnette‟s comment would have been very much
acceptable in the privacy of an on-ice taunt and likely would not have been disciplined. But once
transported to the public sphere, outside the microcosm of professional hockey, it was no longer
appropriate (Az Vibe, 2010). Bissonnette has since then rejoined Twitter under the handle
@BizNasty2point0 (http://www.Twitter.com/BizNasty2point0) and now claims to be “filtered,”
though it is unclear how this surveillance is executed, especially since his tweets still border on
inappropriate at times (Johnston, 2010).

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The assumption is that the NHL, though it has yet to develop an official social media
guide (Johnston, 2010), has educated its players on the dos and don‟ts of Twitter communication,
once again playing its paternal role. Still, in order to fully benefit from the liberty Twitter offers
them, players need to practice self-discipline and use the technologies of self, not only in trying
to build a personal brand to ensure post-playing career opportunities (aesthetics of self) but also
in determining what kind of content to share with the general public (ethics), both on the
personal and professional levels. Athletes, therefore, are still limited in the quantity and quality
of information that they can reveal by the unspoken rules of life as an NHL player, or in other
words, the power exerted by normalising discourses, as well as by the physical restrictions of
Twitter‟s 140-character limit per tweet, though one can use several tweets to express an opinion.
However, because players can decide to reveal certain personal information about their
lives and lifestyles without threatening their relationship with the NHL, several athletes have
developed celebrity statuses that are unrelated to their on-ice performance, as was traditionally
the case. In other words, players like Bissonnette become famous for being famous (Boyle,
2000). Additionally, players who do qualify as stars because of their hockey skills can potentially
rise to superstardom through the use of social media tools like Twitter. Surprisingly, today‟s big
names in the NHL, Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin, have yet to embrace the technology,
though Ovechkin did create a Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/ovi8) which he used
intensively for two weeks around the 2009 NHL All-Star Game in which he was participating,
even interacting with a few fans before abandoning the account once All-Star weekend was over.
As per Foucault, their silence(s) and apparent lack of resistance are productions of knowledge in
themselves and can indeed be interpreted as a contribution to normalising discourses (1978).

19. RINKSIDE TWEETING 19
Perhaps the stakes are higher for the sport celebrity, especially when one considers that
the athletes are commodities that, like stocks on the market, can see their value increase and
decrease arbitrarily, and can be traded or sold by their teams (Sage, 1998, p. 212). Hockey
players have long been viewed as role models and heroes in their local communities, but the
commodification of sport has enhanced the view of athletes as products, and essential parts of the
machine of professional sport: docile bodies that have been shaped by their occupation of choice
(Sage, 1998). Still, these docile bodies are productive, as they use their carefully crafted image to
earn sponsorships and other related revenue on a personal level, and enhance the ability of their
teams, the league, and the mainstream media to earn advertising and other related revenue as
well (Kelly & Hickey, 2010). The use of social media is only one of the new demands,
responsibilities and expectations that are constantly emerging, one more aspect of the identity of
a “professional athlete,” which is constantly in flux (Kelly & Hickey, 2010). These constant
pressures, coupled with the constant observation of the athlete by the NHL and its fans, create a
normalising pressure that encourages NHL players to not only conform to the dominant
discourses but also, to be like one another (Shogan, 1999). Because the new information society
is characterised by instantaneous gratification, sports stars have come to be treated like other
North American celebrities in that their lives too have become a product to be consumed by fans
and the general public alike (Horne, 2006). The fan, in order to build a complete image of his or
her sports hero, craves lifestyle information pertaining to the NHL player, and “the star (off
stage, screen, music or sport) becomes known not for what they did (performing extraordinary
deeds) but who they were, and what they were „like‟” (Horne, 2006, p. 79).
Additionally, the sports celebrity has cross-promotional potential since NHL players are
no longer just athletes but also entertainers, and the fans can read whatever they want into

20. RINKSIDE TWEETING 20
branded stars like Sidney Crosby, for example, thereby enhancing the construction of the Crosby
phenomenon (Horne, 2006, p. 82). Consequently, NHL superstars appear in advertising that is
beyond the sporting domain and gives a wider visibility to professional hockey in the public eye,
increasing the value of the sport, especially in ailing markets (Boyle, 2000). NHL players using
Twitter are therefore feeding the consumerist monster by providing their followers with inside
information in an engaging fashion and filling the gaps left by mainstream media as the fans
attempt to build their personal understanding of the athlete‟s personality and lifestyle (Horne,
2006; Boyle, 2000). However, though the athletes are elevated to iconic status and lauded as role
models, the stereotypical roles prescribed to them rarely live up to expectations (Boyle, 2000).
Fame, therefore, does come as a price, as athletes learn when the media, both traditional and
new/social, are quick to jump on their flaws and turn them from heroes to fallen angels and
sometimes, villains of sorts, symbols of all that is wrong in the sporting industry (Boyle, 2000).
For that reason, though NHL players seem to be the primary influencer of the power relationship
between them and their fans, their newfound power is still illusionary, as the fans can take back
any power they had shifted the players‟ way when they decide the hero they had constructed is
no longer worthy of their admiration.
Moreover, sports fans often try to live through the athlete‟s experience, both on the ice
and off the ice (Rein, Kotler, & Shields, 2006), and a player‟s personal failure is akin to a
betrayal for the fans and therefore a way he unwittingly exerts power over them. When the team
loses, the fan feels the crushing agony of defeat; when the team wins, the fan feels the same
elation as the athlete (Quinn, 2009). This is especially true when NHL players tweet about their
emotional reactions to the game, particularly since this kind of information tends to get edited
out of traditional media sport production due to time and space constraints. The player is

21. RINKSIDE TWEETING 21
therefore inviting his fans into his heart and mind, and this access, while leaving him vulnerable
to critiques, also strengthens his influence over the fans. As Boyle (2000) remarks, “the
globalization process that has transformed the organization of sport is also affecting the traditional
ways in which media sport can be produced, delivered and consumed” (p. 220) and both athletes and
fans are taking advantage of the gaps left by this change.
Fans and athletes connect on various levels, depending on the former‟s level of commitment
to the sport, the league and the team. Before the rise of consumer sports, fans and athletes used to be
more closely associated. Professional play was one of the many forms of employment the athlete
participated in, and most needed to work in other industries year-round in order to make ends meet.
NHL players and their fans were therefore closer on an economic level as well as on a personal level
(Quinn, 2009): Players were like “us” not an “other.” As player salaries increased, so did the
separation between the two groups. Though there is a general acceptance of the large sums of money
professional hockey players now earn due to fans‟ greater understanding of market pressures and
issues, the personal and personalised relationship between them has eroded (Quinn, 2009). In
embracing social media, the NHL is attempting to bridge the gap between its product and its
consumers by reaching out to them on a personal level, implementing fan feedback mechanisms, and
in a sense consulting the fans at certain levels of the decision-making process, even if it‟s simply by
more openly involving them in the market research stage (Leggio, 2010; Quinn, 2009, p. 196). So
while the fans greatly benefit from the speed and access provided by social media, the NHL still
controls the power relationship due to its superior economic and information management power.
According to Rein et al. (2006), fans tend to connect with their sport of choice mainly
through sports stars and geographic places, and on demographic and lifestyle levels (p.53). A sports
star need not be a superstar player, but rather “someone or something that has the name and attraction
potential to connect fans” (Rein et al., 2006, p. 53). Of course, this most of the time refers to

22. RINKSIDE TWEETING 22
hometown heroes that have been developed, promoted and “placed in proximity” to the fan (Rein et
al., 2006, p. 53) through advertising that aims to represent the player as equal to his audience in terms
of demographics and lifestyle, for example. But “stars” can also be athletic therapists, coaches, or the
team as a whole. Twitter allows any of these individuals to have a more accessible voice – in the
team‟s case, through a public relations staff member – and to develop and share their own
personalities, engaging the fans in the process. This personalisation of the experience is what turns
sport supporters into fans and consumers (Quinn, 2009), and each converted fan strengthens the
NHL‟s position of power. Twitter also eliminates the geographic restrictions in connecting through
communities since it not only expands the scope and reach of local communities but creates new
communities that are connected through the Internet regardless of the physical location of its
constituents. Long-distance fans are therefore instantly closer to their favourite teams, and are
subsequently more likely to increase their consumption of information and goods relating to the
team, even though they are still unlikely to attend one of their home games. However, through the
establishment of new communities, long-distance fans may be tempted to travel to a home game if
other members of their online fan community will be making the trip as well (Leggio, 2010). In other
words, the globalisation of information has allowed for the creation of fan allegiances outside of the
traditional community understanding of hometown affiliation (Rein et al., 2006). In this sense,
though the fans are empowered by the breaking down of barriers of association, the NHL once again
sees its power increase due to the economic repercussions of the fan‟s empowerment.
Indisputably, the Internet offers the fans unparalleled access to sports performers (Boyle,
2000) but the converse is also true. Even though “active and interactive fans appear to be at the
forefront of breaking down the distinction between production and consumption” by creating an
alternative sports communication system through the use of Twitter (Horne, 2006, p. 65), athletes are
also very interested in interacting with and getting to know their fans (Stever, 2009). This new

23. RINKSIDE TWEETING 23
dynamic causes a dramatic power shift as the fans can now openly and directly exert the power of
their opinions on the players and, more importantly, know that the message has been received,
sometimes even get a response (See Figure 2). Their formerly marginalised voices are therefore
harder to ignore. However, “fans live in fear of being perceived as a stalker” (Stever, 2009, p. 10)
and though Twitter is by nature an open intermediary, this sense of suspicion is reflected in the
cautious interactions between fans and athletes and the slow embracing of the interactive nature of
the technology by the athlete. Interestingly, the NHL and its athletes do not interact on Twitter,
except for a team‟s occasional reference to their player by username rather than full name in a tweet.
Perhaps it is a lack of understanding of the technology or a strategy by both the team and its players
to distance themselves from each other despite the obvious cross-promotional advantages of
interacting. For the team, this could be seen as an assertion of authority: the team wants to prove that
it still controls the conversations about it and surrounding it. For the athletes, it may be a symbol of
the lack of loyalty that athletes and teams now face in a commodified context or an attempt to
distance themselves from their professional lives in order to express themselves as individuals in
their personal lives. It is therefore not surprising to see NHL players tweet amongst themselves,
whether with former teammates or acquaintances on other teams or their current teammates. In fact,
some teammates routinely engage in playful banter that occasionally causes their followers to worry
about the seriousness of the taunts. Others simply refer to their teammates by username when
discussing dinner plans. Unless it is in a clearly light-hearted spirit, NHL players don‟t seem to tweet
about their professional lives in relation to other players. However, some players do use Twitter as a
public written record that contributes to the constitution of new knowledge and discourses, much like
the confessional power first implemented by Christianity and further enacted by the development of
administrative records by sovereign authorities (Foucault et al., 2000, p. 166).

24. RINKSIDE TWEETING 24
In personalising their communications with the public, athletes are using the technologies of
self to strengthen their personal brands, but they are also making themselves vulnerable to the effects
of power. Indeed, other groups can use the knowledge revealed by the players to shift the balance of
power (Markula & Pringle, 2007, p. 41). Through surveillance and disciplinary measures, tweeting
NHL players are being held accountable for their tweets by other players (unintentionally revealing
personal information a teammate may not want shared), by the league (unintentionally disclosing
behind-the-scenes information that may shatter the illusions perpetuated by dominant discourses), by
the team (accidentally revealing information that is traditionally shared through press releases or
press conferences before said information is released), and by themselves (self-censoring and
attempting to stay true to their personality while filtering their content). The more control the athlete
has on his message, the more responsible he becomes of its content and its impact.
Additionally, fans are empowered by the athletes‟ Twitter revelations and are no longer
afraid to exert their influence directly on their role models because this type of celebrity/follower
interaction has become normalised (Stever, 2009). As Crawford (2003) explains, life is a constant
performance for both athletes and fans:
First, people spend a lot of time in the consumption of media, both privately and publicly.
Second, the mass media and everyday life have become so closely interwoven that they are
increasingly inseparable. Third, we are increasingly living in a narcissistic „performative
society‟ where everyday mundane events become increasingly performative. Fourth, so
ingrained are performances in everyday life that they become almost invisible and the
distance between performer and audience becomes almost entirely removed. (p. 220)
In other words, fans constantly crave information and the more NHL players share, the more
information the fans require to remain satisfied (Boyle, 2000, p. 220). As a result, the audience

25. RINKSIDE TWEETING 25
becomes increasingly involved in the consumption of messages, either by producing their own
messages or resisting to the messages related to them by traditional media (Crawford, 2003, 220).
Indeed, the fans‟ constant craving for behind-the-scenes information from athletes creates
points of resistance for power groups who are trying to reintegrate the communications structure
(traditional media), maintain their influence over the fans (the NHL) or interact directly with fans for
the first time (player agents and citizen media). For traditional media, having individual reporters
tweet on behalf of the media corporation adds a personal voice to the reporting process and allows
for a power shift back towards traditional media in its relationship with sports fans (See Figure 2).
Since citizen media is new to the professional sports landscape, it capitalises on any opportunity to
increase its influence on other power groups and willingly fills the information gap left by athletes.
Similarly, fans welcome direct interaction with player agents as they provide an additional layer of
information in their attempt to construct the players‟ identity in relation to their own (Horne, 2006).
Furthermore, agents welcome any opportunity to enhance their clients‟ personal brands by tweeting
about them and, by extension, are tools in athletes‟ practice of the technologies of self. Indeed, in
participating in the athletes‟ use of social media, whether by guiding them or through panoptic
surveillance of their Twitter production, agents are exerting liberal power, as per Foucault‟s
understanding of liberalism as aiming to secure the conditions under which the naturally occurring
processes of professional sports (like the economy, for example) continue to the best effect (for
players) despite state (or league) intervention (Hindness, 1996, p. 125). In other words, agents
attempt to regulate their clients‟ production through indirect means like education and eventually,
normalisation, because athletes “cannot always be expected to have developed the thought and
behaviour habits of „free‟ and „independent‟ persons” (Hindness, 1996, p. 130) that are required in
Foucault‟s view of power relations. In this sense, agents and the NHLPA truly are mediators in the
power relationship between the NHL and its athletes but now also have more influence on relevant

26. RINKSIDE TWEETING 26
power groups outside this direct relationship, like the fans, who can then apply pressure to either side
and potentially integrate that power relationship as well (See Figure 2).
For the fans, more sources of information enhances their feeling of empowerment and the
illusion of resistance to traditional sovereign power sources like old media and, occasionally, the
NHL. Indeed, NHL fans also benefit from Twitter‟s confessional ability, as their previously
marginalised voices can reach more ears than ever and therefore are more powerful than ever (See
Figure 2). By directly interacting with NHL players on their terms rather than waiting for an
impromptu situation to present itself, fans can, to a certain extent, force athletes to act in certain
ways. To say that fans use power against another group would go against Foucault‟s primary
teaching of power as relational rather than a possession, yet this is effectively the result of certain
aspects of the fan-athlete relationship (Markula & Pringle, 2007, p. 34). However, from a
Foucauldian perspective, each form of human behaviour is subject to governance, and by using
Twitter, fans sometimes attempt to govern the actions of NHL athletes (Horne, 2006, p. 103). The
case of Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Dan Ellis illustrates this point brilliantly. Ellis, whose
Twitter style was usually similar to Bissonnette‟s though less controversial, deleted his account
(http://www.twitter.com/33dellis) after backlash from fans following a tweet about the 18% escrow
fee that NHL players see deducted from their paychecks as precautionary payment into the union-
managed pension plan (Myers, 2010). Specifically, Ellis‟ remark, “I can honestly say that I am more
stressed about money now than when I was in college” (Myers, 2010) caused his followers and NHL
fans in general to reply by tweet with personal attacks and start a sarcastic meme that spread virally
through Twitter under the tag “#DanEllisProblems,” implying that Ellis should not complain about
his elite status (Myers, 2010). Once again, a perfectly valid comment within the confines of the
professional hockey microcosm was deemed deplorable when shared with the general public, and
this time, it was the fans who used their power advantage in resisting to the “hero” discourse that

27. RINKSIDE TWEETING 27
constructs professional hockey players like Ellis. The fans also used panoptic surveillance strategies
to detect the tweet in question, confessional power to alert the mainstream media (and the league,
though its reaction remains unclear) to the controversy, and disciplinary tactics to punish Ellis for his
own use of resistance, confessional power, and, to a certain extent, the technologies of self that he
had increased his branding opportunities up until that point.
The fans‟ freedom to respond and cause a reaction in this case, thereby shifting the balance of
power, is empowering in itself. However, just like the athletes who through knowledge production
increase the potential for other power groups to govern them, the fans production and consumption of
knowledge through resistance increases the opportunity for traditionally powerful groups to
strengthen their influence. In fact, NHL teams and especially the league willingly allow the fans‟
power to grow because the fans unwittingly provide them with more information by “sounding off
directly” to the NHL (Leggio, 2010). As a result, the league is presented with additional openings to
perpetuate its normalising discourse and reinforce the belief that its voice is authentic by
communicating with the fans through interactive tools like Twitter rather than at the fans through
traditional fan-relations intermediaries (Leggio, 2010). Indeed, now that traditional media plays a
more or less static role in the new power relations landscape of professional hockey in North
America, NHL teams stand to lose the most influence if they do not adapt to the interactive
nature of new technologies like Twitter and accept that their role in the new media structure is
constantly changing, especially when it comes to their relationship with fans. However, it would
not be entirely accurate to understand the fans‟ and players‟ rise in power as completely
illusionary. These groups really do see their influence strengthen in various power relations but
this increase in potential is not yet enough to truly challenge the NHL‟s prevailing power.

28. RINKSIDE TWEETING 28
In conclusion, it is important to remember that Twitter is a new intermediary, not a new
participant in the power relations landscape and is not influential in itself. Just as traditional
media helped power groups connect in the professional sports landscape before the development
of more direct communication routes through the Internet, Twitter simply enables the
manifestation of power in different forms. Since Foucauldian interpretations of power see it as
constantly in flux rather than a possession to be acquired by dominant power groups and applied
on others (Markula & Pringle, 2007) it is only by problematising the self and resisting to their
role in the traditional power structure that groups can shift the balance of power in their favour.
Thus, by examining the reasons various groups exert power on each other in the
traditional NHL context, the strategies and tactics they use to exert this power, and the kinds of
power that are exerted by groups seeking to govern the actions of others, I was able to generate a
launching pad from which to analyse the new power relations in the NHL once athletes and other
traditional significant groups start using interactive social networking tools like Twitter. The
primary effect of this direct and instant access to other power groups is the decline of the
influence of traditionally dominant groups and the rise of typically marginalised voices in
consumer societies, and not just in terms of economic power. Little by little, fans and athletes
embrace the new technologies and find points of resistance through which they can empower
themselves and begin to counter the dominant discourses produced and perpetuated by the NHL
and its teams as well as the mainstream media.
However, as the analysis progresses, it becomes clear that the power that the fans and
NHL players appear to have harnessed is deceptive in its representation as potent. In the fans‟
case, the positive power shift essentially increases the NHL‟s opportunities to accumulate
knowledge about its audience which it can then use to develop new strategies for perpetuating

29. RINKSIDE TWEETING 29
the normalising discourses that both fans and players embrace and that, sooner or later, turn
simple supporters of the sport into fully committed fanatics who engage in participatory sport
consumption through the production and further perpetuation of the dominant discourses of
professional hockey in North America. In other words, though the fans try to resist the power of
the NHL, any interaction with the sport simply continues to empower the NHL because the
league monopolises the professional hockey market.
Similarly, though professional athletes are essential to the existence of the NHL, they are
in essence no more than labourers whose skills can be traded or sold as commodities on the NHL
marketplace as their values rise and fall. Without players, there would be no sporting event and
no product since it is athletes‟ performances that attract audiences and media, or, in other words,
the financial stability needed to operate the teams and league. But, as Sage (1998) explains,
“professional athletes do not own or control the means of producing their athletic labor because
they have no access to professional sports leagues” except through the mechanisms of power
created by the league (p. 212). Indeed, the NHL is an active cartel similar in function to
Foucault‟s conception of the state and its use of institutions, or teams as extensions of itself.
Truthfully, though teams govern their own day-to-day operations, they do not exert much
influence on the league as a whole unless individual owners resist to the normalising discourses,
and are only marginally influential on local communities, especially now that professional sports
have become a globalised marketplace.
Additionally, the rise of celebrity culture may have created distance between athletes and
their fans as the former were socially constructed as heroes and role models, but interactive
technologies like Twitter have once again narrowed the gap between the two groups, at times
shattering the illusion of NHL players as remarkable. In fact, despite the development of

30. RINKSIDE TWEETING 30
strategies to resist the dominant power of the league like the creation of player agents and the
NHLPA, in actuality, players are not more powerful than they used to be in the traditional power
structure, at least in their relationship with the league.
Still, the introduction of new media tools has created greater access to intermediaries like
Twitter that are not as regulated as their predecessors, allowing traditionally marginalised power
groups to interact directly and spread the messages they produce in an attempt to better
manipulate their impact. However, the reality is that the influence of normalising discourses is
generational and resisting to dominant power groups is a long-term process, the effects of which
will not be seen at a societal level for quite some time. Nevertheless, this Foucauldian
interpretation of power relations in the new, social media landscape of professional hockey in
North America may be useful in further detailing how fans and athletes can steadily increase
their influence over the NHL through the use of instant interactive tools like Twitter and
hopefully, the implications of this shift in the balance of power can be further developed from
the perspective of disciplines like sports management, sports psychology, cultural studies and the
sociology of sport in the future.

31. RINKSIDE TWEETING 31
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Figure Captions
Figure 1. Traditional power relations in the NHL (pre-social media)
Figure 2. New power relations in the NHL (when athletes use Twitter)

35. RINKSIDE TWEETING 35
The NHL
Traditional Media Fans
League
Team Players
Agents/ NHLPA Legend
One-way power
Minimal one-way power
Balanced two-way power
Imbalanced two-way power
Figure 1. Traditional power relations in the NHL (pre-social media)

36. RINKSIDE TWEETING 36
The NHL
Traditional Media Fans
League
Team Players Citizen Media
Agents/ NHLPA
Legend
One-way power
Minimal one-way power
Balanced two-way power
Imbalanced two-way power
Figure 2. New power relations in the NHL (when athletes use Twitter)