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Author ORCID Identifier

Aman Misra: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9073-9615
Adam Love: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5864-945X

 

Abstract

This study examines how Indian Premier League (IPL) teams employed narrative storytelling on Instagram during the 2020 edition of the tournament, which was held in the United Arab Emirates rather than in India. Throughout the season, IPL teams used social media, especiallyInstagram, to foster online relationships and construct visual narratives reflecting transnational identity and other forms of cultural symbolism. Using Fisher’s (1985) narrative paradigm and Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) framework for visual narrative analysis, we investigate how Instagram posts from IPL team accounts articulated political and cultural identities. In doing so, the current study provides a novel contribution to the literature by building on existing Global North fan-athlete interaction frameworks, applied to a Global South context. Through a purposeful, qualitative content analysis of eight Instagram posts (i.e., one per IPL team), we highlight how social media imagery invoked themes such as diasporic heroism and cultural hybridity. By interrogating the narratives employed in these digital messages, our study highlights the role of social media (i.e., Instagram) as a site of visual storytelling in Global South sport and society. We contribute to sport media studies by foregrounding the ways in which IPL teams, operating in a hyper-commodified and transnational sport system, mediate belonging and fandom through curated visual storytelling.

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