Take me out to the ball game : influence of social media on social capital and baseball stadium visiting

This study examines the correlation between social media use and offline participations in order to investigate how use of social network sites (SNS) contributed to the increase of Korean baseball spectators in recent years. Formation and maintenance of online bonding and bridging social capital among users of baseball related online communities were measured to determine if involvement in online activities have led them to visit baseball games. Regression analyses conducted on results from a survey of baseball online communities (N=364) suggest a positive association between use of social network sites and their visits to stadium.