Remembering the big game: social identity and memory for media events

Two studies examined how memories are formed around championship sporting events, which we classify as media events. The first study employed a test-retest methodology to assess how fans of a sport recall a championship sporting event. The second study examined how fans of specific sports teams recalled two championship sporting events in which their team either won or lost. Of particular interest was the emergence of a collective memory within fan communities. We assessed memory for the event itself (event memory), with an emphasis on the emergence of a collective memory, and memory for the context in which one experienced the event (personal circumstance memory). In contrast to fans of a sport more generally, fans of a particular team recalled events involving their team with detail, converged on collective memories, and provided personal circumstance memories that met the criteria for flashbulb memories. We discuss these results in the context of social identities and the elements involved in narratives of media events. Different types of fandom, our measure of social identity, uniquely influenced the collective memories formed for essential and ancillary elements of narratives surrounding championship sporting events.