Anthony Rotolo, an adjunct faculty member and social media strategist at the Syracuse School of Information Studies (iSchool), was quoted in The Times-Picayune, a New Orleans-based newspaper, about football fans who used Twitter to tweet during last night’s Super Bowl game.
The article talks about how Twitter is blurring the line between professional sports announcers and average fans. Thanks to Twitter, fans now have the ability to share their thoughts about each play in real-time from the comfort of their living rooms. Tweeting about games also strengthens the feeling of community among sports fans.
Rotolo told The Times-Picayune that the greatest impact has been felt from the lasting interest among both casual and dyed-in-the-wool sports fans.
“It’s people coming together around something they enjoy, even if it is a rivalry,” he said. Rotolo added that the Twitter trend represents “just an extension of who we already are as people.”
Rotolo teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on enterprise social media at the Syracuse iSchool. He was appointed the iSchool’s first-ever social media strategist this past fall. In this position, Rotolo is working to expand the iSchool’s leadership in social media as an area of study and as a way to enhance traditional instruction. In May 2009, he received the iSchool Adjunct Faculty of the Year Award. In December, he was named a recipient of the 2009 Excellence in Online Education Award by the Web-based Information Science Education (WISE) Consortium.