ABSTRACT
This essay catalogues the variety of printed material that circulates among fans. In addition to the traditional newspapers available at newsstands, free papers are given away at the stadium. The images of football players are an essential part of the fan experience as they are posted on the walls of fan clubs. Mass distributed print media is social media; it educates fans, it fuels conversations between strangers and it is used by fans to decorate their clubhouse walls. Smaller scale, fan-produced media is used to proclaim and solidify group identity and to recruit new members. Though print media may seem outdated, it is still an essential social media, as evidenced by the uses and reuses of print by football fans.
