Social Media On Sports Research Paper

Sports are something that everyone in the world, regardless of age, sex, or nationality, can enjoy. Whether it's a child playing in his first t-ball game or a professional athlete swimming in the Olympics and everyone in between, sports can connect almost everyone. Fan support and overall devotion for athletic competition has raised professional athletes to superstars and national icons; Super Bowl Sunday is a national holiday to some, and sports are one of the largest moneymakers in the economy.

ESPN @espn on twitter is the world’s leading premier website for the latest news, timed videos and in-depth sports reporting. It is one of the most widely-viewed sports content on the web. ESPN @espn uses Twitter to drive both the distribution of and conversations about the articles and videos it produces.

In today’s society, there are many ways race shapes perceptions. There is a social significance attached to skin color and race, and among this, they vary greatly. Furthermore, individuals nowadays do not shape their perceptions of athletes by athletic merit alone; instead, fans perception is often racially coded. The Atlantic article by Adam Felder and Seth Amitin presented the hidden bias of broadcaster. In this study, they focused on announcers for televised baseball games in order to detect the terminology used to describe players. They discovered that “while there is no difference between race or nationality when it comes to performance-based descriptions, effort-based and character-based descriptions make a big difference”(1) This instance demonstrates the existence of a subconscious racial bias among individuals. The race of the athlete shapes the viewer’s perception by guaranteeing the success of performance in the eye of the fan. Additionally, white athletes are credited for their training, work ethic, and dedication, whereas blacks are simply credited for their genes and skin color. This study shows how eliminating racial prejudice in sports consumption is difficult, since it is an underlying idea many have. Instead of simply focusing on their race, fans and viewers should instead take into account the effort and talent of the athlete. Media portrayals of races affect how viewers react to them, and therefore it also needs to start with the reporting of black

Another way social media has affected the sports world is by bringing fans closer to the game. As a sports fan, I can agree that fans always want to feel closer to the game. That is why people still pay ridiculous ticket prices to attend ball games instead of watching them on TV in the comfort of their living room. Fans have an urge for that connection and closeness. They want to feel apart of the game. Social media sites provide teams and players the unique ability to directly connect with their fans. It used to be the closest you got to a favorite player was a post-game radio interview. Now, you can follow them on Twitter and have rare insight into their everyday world. Players use sites like Facebook and Twitter to give fan’s a behind the scenes look at what happens at home, in the locker room, and on the sidelines. Social media gives pro athletes the chance to interact and share data with fans in a way that was not possible in the past. Fans used to only know about a player from what they read in the paper or saw on TV (Van Schaik) . Now, fans can find out what their favorite player ate for breakfast or what music they are listening to. Fans have yearned for this kind of accessibility for years and now it is becoming a reality. I actually have friend’s that make it a daily ritual

Sports are extremely popular around the world and only get more popular as time goes on. Sports is on television (TV), in the news, in the newspaper, and online. It only makes sense that this is the case. A sporting event is the ultimate drama. The variability of a game is what gets people so into it. Sports can tell a story, and teach great life lessons as well as inspire people. If sports are that important to the people around the world who watch it, just think about how important sports are to the ones who actually play it and coach it. It is their passion, their persona, their life. With the media’s harsh expectations of teams today, unless a team wins a championship, they are deemed unsuccessful. Since expectations are so high,

I believe this form of communication is good for athletes, but in some cases can be bad. I think social media is a great way for athletes to communicate with their fans, but it is also a wonderful way for them to be involved in social causes all over the world. Before social media, it was hard for them to let others know about their foundations and charities, they are a part of or have started or fundraisers they are involved in for different causes. Now it is easy for them to notify the world of the great things they are doing. There have been many instances recently with athletes from collegiate to professionals using social media to raise awareness of social injustice, gun control, etc. or raise money for natural disasters, education for

Sports are played and viewed on the television by individuals from every social class, however, the general population is mostly accountable for the tremendous popularity of sports. People from all over the world watch popular social events, such as the

Fans and spectators at sporting events are welcomed to arenas, stadiums, and fields with themed events, promotional opportunities on social media like geo tags or social media shout out for fans, promoting player digital question and answer session, and email marketing material with coupons or event dates before and after games. Even though these events and materials are great ways to promote the organization, its players, and partnerships, these events are not an individual task to execute successfully for enjoying events. What the fans and spectators do not witness is the hard work and dedication that goes on to put on these events. Furthermore, planning and executing marketing and promotional campaigns is not a singular task. In actuality,

As more time passes, sports become more influential in our communities. It has come to the point where everyone tunes in or hears about the mishaps of our athletic role model and their public apologies. It seems like every week there is another tragedy in sports, in the sense that another star athlete has potentially ruined his career. Every month there are athletes pissing their opportunities away. And people are always drooling to see what they have to say about it, if they are sorry or that they denial.

Along with the game, or match, as a whole being a factor in the social media changes, social media sites also help connect the athletes themselves with their fans. Social networking has become a large part in recruiting athletes at the collegiate level, along with their behavioral decisions while being a student athlete on campus. At the University of North Carolina, the scandal of a couple of football players posting inappropriate photos on Twitter became public due to UNC failing to monitor social media posts by their student athletes (Bowles np). Similarly, social media resulted in trouble for the University of Alabama after their decision to accept friend requests of potential recruits prior to the allowed date of contact (Bowles

As much as social media has managed to ruin our society, it plays a positive role for the public as well. Social media allowed people to use their networks as a form of reaching out to old friends and family across the world. With America being known as the melting pot of the world, our society has several people with family on the other side of the Earth. With social media in effect, this permits people to stay in touch with long lost loved ones and keep ties tight. Not only has it sanctioned friends and family to keep in touches but has granted people to relocate birth parents and unknown family members as well. Yes, social media has failed our society greatly but there is always a rainbow somewhere after a rainy day. Social media can play a positive role by bringing people back together.

From the three network affiliates they studied, they found that 96.3 percent of the coverage was for men’s sports and women only received 1.6 percent (Messner and Cooky 4). When analyzing the coverage of Sports Center, which is arguably the most popular sports show on television, they found that women still only received just 1.4 percent of their coverage (4). This study also found that 100 percent of the Sports Center programs had a lead story that was about men’s sports (4). Even the most renowned and credible sports show, which only shows sports all year long, does not even provide women’s sports with equal attention. Even more shocking than this was that the study also revealed that reporters devoted more coverage to men’s sports that were out of season than they did women’s sports that were actually in season (4). This can be extremely disrespectful to female athletes when their sport is pushed aside and ignored so that a men’s sport that is not even being played can be covered by the media. These women put all their effort into performing their sport at the highest level, but their media attention gets replaced by men who are in their off-season.

Sports of old were merely competitive activities rooted in heroism and romanticism. Sports activities today, however, have no such innocence or simplicity. Currently in America, the activities that make up our sports culture is not only the competitive events themselves but the processes and issues that underlie and surround them. Entwined in our sports culture is the giant business of mass broadcasting. Indeed, sports and the media go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly, like Mickey and Minnie, Darth Vader and Luke. They are intertwined and depend on each other to continue to grow. Sports media includes television, radio, magazines, newspapers, books, films, and, now, most importantly, social media devices provided by the

Social media has both positive and negative effects. However, I feel as though the positive outweigh the negative. So many people benefit from social media including businesses, students, and distant friends. Although, when not used intelligently social media can be a destructive thing. Social media users should know the risks of social media and educate themselves. Overall social media is a positive thing that has made

"If industry is to be successful in dealing with public opinion . . . it must learn the language of the people, it must consider the study of public opinion as important as any phase of its operations. It must recognize that public opinion can be measured, and utilize the increasingly scientific methods developing today for gauging it"(Ross)