In what ways do leagues, teams, and/or athletes have more control of branding and messaging thanks to social media? And who’s doing the best job managing their social media accounts? What does this mean for sports journalism? And what impact does social media have on sports fandom, both positive and negative? To support your answers, include specific examples. Limit: 13 responses
Danielle Price
ReplyDeleteDr. Burns
MSS420
4 March 2022
Weekly Blog
Social media has paved way for teams and athletes to advertise and brand themselves due to the popularity it receives, and its convenience. Athletes and teams have control over the way they brand themselves through social media simply because they are the ones interacting with the platform. For example, Jeff Garcia is a former quarterback and recently chose to brand himself in a negative way. He turned to Instagram and went after ESPN journalist, Mina Kimes. He did this because he felt that because she didn’t play football, she could not possibly understand the game the way he does (“Jeff Garcia Sure Hid). With the use of social media, athletes have control over the messages they put out there for the public to see. The posts Garcia put out there did not brand himself in a positive way, but he had control over this. Garcia easily went onto this platform and put his opinion out there. This did not need to go through anyone else first, it was simply him and his platform. The NFL has also branded themselves through social media on TikTok. The NFL and TikTok raised millions of dollars for the NFL draft in 2020 (“Tiktok Dives Deeper into). Moreover, “the league had generated more than $100 million in money dedicated to COVID-19 relief efforts” (“Tiktok Dives Deeper into). The NFL’s livestreams on TikTok brought in thousands of viewers which made the NFL’s account “one of the best- performing platforms in this category” (“Tiktok Dives Deeper into). As opposed to the way Jeff Garcia used his platform, the NFL had branded themselves exceptionally well with the use of social media and utilized their control to their advantage.
Leagues do a great job managing social media accounts, and the example stated prior with the relationship of the NFL and TikTok suggests this. They were even recognized as one of the best-performing platforms. The NFL also engaged with different features on the app to maintain fan engagement, such as livestreams. This league interacted with social media in a productive manner, and they experienced positive outcomes. With leagues, and even at times athletes connecting with fans directly due to the rise of digital and social media, sports journalism may be facing challenges they have never experienced before. For instance, with “this changing media landscape, where sports organisations can tell their stories directly to their fans through their own social or digital channels, it is making it more difficult for traditional news journalists to get access to athletes or coaches” (“The impact of social). With the rise of digital media, accessibility to the media continues to grow. Athletes, coaches, and even leagues have access to the media and can control what content they want to release. If media is so accessible to all of these people; athletes, coaches, leagues, and even fans, then little by little journalists will not be as much of a necessity as they were during traditional times (“The impact of social). In past generations, journalists were a necessity to the sports industry because if a fan missed a game, they would want to read about it in the newspaper. However, with an increase in media usage, online information will be flooding the media. On a more positive note, this could actually open the gates for journalists. If they keep their fans engaged and maintain a loyal fanbase then this may not be a huge issue for them. It will definitely make their jobs harder, but if they work up to their potential it may not be so bad.
Danielle Price Part 2
ReplyDeleteIt is important to know that social media has a direct impact on fandoms. The increase in social media has made everything instantaneous which is good and bad for sports fans. The bad thing about it is that it could ruin the element of surprise. One source stated that “it’s always a little disheartening when you find out through Twitter that a legendary player like Peyton Manning has announced his retirement from the NFL” (Dimengo). Something as big as this is not something most fans want to read on social media. They would rather hear an announcement from the athlete or team itself, or even listen to a report from a journalistic source. Another negative of this is the criticism and unnecessary drama it creates (Dimengo). People tend to be more confrontational when they are hidden behind a screen, and they tend to be much more opiniated. On the other hand, media could affect fans positively because they receive timely updates, and they can use their own voices to talk about their favorite teams or players (Sprout Social). For example, they can look at live tweets during games, press conferences, or drafts. Fans can join question & answer sessions on platforms such as Instagram or Facebook Live. (“How to Use Social). Lastly, athletes and teams are using their platforms to address social issues, which means fans can gather information on this now. This is a positive for fans because this is what they like to see at times, mainly because it presents a different side of the athlete (“How to Use Social). This allows them to connect with some of their favorite players or teams. Overall, social media has had a huge impact on the sports industry and will only continue to rise from here on out.
Works Cited
Dimengo, Nick. “10 Ways Social Media Ruined Sports.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 3 Oct. 2017, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2626562-10-times-social-media-ruined-sports.
“How to Use Social Media in Sports to Keep Fans Engaged.” Sprout Social, 6 July 2021, https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-in-sports/.
“Jeff Garcia Sure Hid Fast - Unlike Women in Media Who Endure His Brand of Toxicity.” Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo!, https://sports.yahoo.com/jeff-garcia-sure-hid-fast-unlike-women-in-media-who-endure-his-brand-of-toxicity-185716834.html.
“The Impact of Social and Digital Media on Sport.” Nest, 18 Mar. 2021, https://www.latrobe.edu.au/nest/the-impact-of-social-and-digital-media-on-sport/.
“Tiktok Dives Deeper into Long-Form Sports Content.” Front Office Sports, 7 Aug. 2020, https://frontofficesports.com/tiktok-long-form-content/.
Danielle Zerbo
ReplyDeleteLeagues, teams, and athletes have a lot more control of branding and messaging due to social media. That is mainly because there is no ‘middleman’ anymore necessary to get their content to the public. There is a multitude of platforms that athletes can now use to post content, and athletes are certainly taking advantage of them. There has been a 16% increase of people following social media influencers and brands in just the past year (The State of Social Media). A large portion of those brands are connected to sports. Thus, more athletes are continuing to join social media and take control of what is posted about them.
The athletes that are the best at social media are the ones that give fans the best insight into their personal lives- meaning the side of them that we don’t see at press conferences. They make their lives seem simple, just like everyone else. Giancarlo Ferrari-King of Bleacher Report believes that Alex Morgan is a leader in social media because, “she is really good at making people believe that her life is exactly like ours, except for the fact that she plays professional soccer for a living” (Ferrari-King). Morgan has one of the most followed Instagram accounts of any women athlete, supporting the fact that she succeeds at showing a side of her that we aren’t already familiar with.
As beneficial as social media is for fans and athletes, who might not want the ‘middleman’ to take their posts out of context, social media is obviously not as beneficial for the ‘middleman’. In most cases, the ‘middleman’ is a reporter or journalist, looking to sell quotes and stories from the athletes to various platforms. If athletes are share their content and opinions from their own social media platforms, they are often more reluctant to use reporters. Therefore, reporters are often forced to find work and content in their own niches of journalism. For example, some reporters have recently grown a following by tweeting short quotes by athletes, instead of long stories. Regardless of what their niche is, it is more important than ever for journalists to find a niche due to the declining need for their positions.
Social media has a huge impact on sports fandom, because it allows more exposure for the brand/athlete/team, etc. This exposure can be a positive opportunity for the athlete, giving them more fans and monetary compensation. For example, the NFL and TikTok collaborated in 2020 to form a fundraising campaign to aid COVID relief. TikTok aired a live stream with a specific hashtag guiding users to a donation website. Due to the amount of exposure and users TikTok has, and celebrity influencers the posted using the hashtag, TikTok and the NFL were able to make $6.6 million during the 2020 NFL Draft alone (Morgan). Although there are many positives that come out of sports media and social media collaborating, there can also be some potentially negative outcomes. Matthew Micheli, the co-founder and managing partner of Viral Nation Inc., believes that “TikTok’s young audience might bring more harm than good in the live streaming space” (Morgan). That is because 41% of TikTok users are between the ages of 16 and 24, which is obviously a very young and susceptible age. Micheli added that, “’all it takes is for some kids to be on a live stream, and then you see some derogatory remarks in the comments… you don’t want that to happen’” (Morgan). However, if the comments are managed and monitored, TikTok should continue to be a safe space where athletes and people alike can share content.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
Ferrari-King, Giancarlo. “Athletes Who Are Good at Instagram.” Bleacher Report, Turner, 29 Sept. 2017, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2137989-athletes-who-are-good-at-instagram.
Morgan , Eddie. “Tiktok Dives Deeper into Long-Form Sports Content.” Front Office Sports, 7 Aug. 2020, https://frontofficesports.com/tiktok-long-form-content/.
“The State of Social Media.” Shareablee, Comscore, 2021, https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet02-xythos.content.blackboardcdn.com/5df1cdd432f98/9936707?X-Blackboard-Expiration=1646514000000&X-Blackboard-Signature=Yon4Bo1lYay5xeV98nXIcYLVXRnCRvdw%2BBT05lTSKy0%3D&X-Blackboard-Client-Id=100359&response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27State-Of-Social-Media_FEB2022.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEBEaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJHMEUCICrg7hQAeh6ZGOVC5HGHZzaLW7i0qTk7HDRxeQNGGVdaAiEAiXhP%2FfRtlIw1OKs6EtrWIiKYRDGbStLaaUS41dxM6UUq%2BgMIehACGgw2MzU1Njc5MjQxODMiDLAJrP0SvozDvmDhfyrXA5vi3OLyEF9tDYhFk1Gpfbz7XwYGs2XfAmdpVFfQ2HqEZKj9cKmdrppMCLX8ZdgJI1O7SaktuQMfBN%2FeepFRQdy1wUrCsWrMKL6qocXrWTCIzLSxqViYgMF0ikOfKmgJ%2BnlYtW6jEBdWlepVpWjT71LW1Z%2B2J44txRT9YjTRvND4d5t2emOSL4MU0gPZ4XY2SPPWeXSLfiCJH62SMpxgSQ68gUDsv2j22Q3TpcI9pX7tkQMWOTiKR1enAtDGJSuuIC19CEs8hIUcm2vg7ST1%2FPcA3zsYaCGIg0zeDOfYD0MSq7G%2B5%2FPOFr9MplGUwuKsEdPOtC7IjIKggVURpOKA8JRffqjA%2BpQ97aYQxqUy36df7bxtyTLnnEowDrLqchNayxlg6UTISBkxGfj2HM8DeIGN0gnW9k%2FL31ZZ%2BMY0vM3fnEVeSd3F5M8xXsc0%2Fih2P1ZoF2T05tVYqH6JUTdFfMM4lQ60oiChX6FSLqxTaqajTxthvkmBj%2Fv6SXejfGnALU2oiLTfzXviLdlTtbRGd8K5fSPwb4D2bSmGFKIUypldYoqfGi0BjJlzOZhUj8chxaqmZXfdDXTer7PyHdiKUS0KPY9ha2adU8JZxQ0wsuKUyn21N9sTMDC4rY6RBjqlAUeDrWou0Dldi12al7tyf8n08BfThD8yEgAtChYAmr9Y%2BK5%2F9ENgW15n2Nhr%2FIeuikgwI%2BaZqZaYgA3Y4aR8TyqUHuIb6Nl3lKOskrm%2FawQHzaQan7bqqNk4rSksqfJ%2B3Y92KvSzH1Mtds%2Bc9M95hHHli8t8Xo3l35Tl3tnBbpvVwlOO5X1kPpjXZTm%2BBNvLneQIMtPjjwxCal0N7bLrboqra9JZJA%3D%3D&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20220305T150000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=21600&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAZH6WM4PLYD5WL5ZE%2F20220305%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=276c9b0d97a62de300ecfce5d7251e01e10b875be2196096423f3cc4ba278e47.
Brianna Gonsalves
ReplyDeleteSocial media has become the most easy and accessible form of sending out and receiving news, updates, and photos. Sports has become heavily immersed into the world of social media and are able to take control of how their teams are depicted by the outside viewer. Teams, athletes, and franchises now have a lot of say as to what is posted about them because it is coming straight from the source and not from a middle man like a journalist. Social media allows for teams and players to post their own content. In a PowerPoint titled The State of Social Media, it lists out the top 100 social brands of 2021. The second to the fifth rankings are all sports networks including NBA, BleacherReport, House of Highlights, and the NFL & ESPN. This ranking is based on the amount of reactions, comments, shares, retweets, and likes that each brand has amongst all social media platforms. Sports is obviously doing very well with being able to market for themselves on social media.
Social media serves as an outlet for athletes to make money farther than competition prizes. Athletes serve as influencers and get offers from brands to post about their company. This allows for athletes to talk about products and services that they are familiar with and get other people to consume these products. In an article titled Social Media Has Become Essential for Athletes. It Can Also Be Miserable written by Georgia Wells and Louise Radnofsky from the The Wall Street Journal, it explains how athletes are just as important in the media climate that we have entered in the recent years but that the need to post on social media can be very damaging to the mental health of players, “It’s a mix that has underscored the complicated relationship that professional sports now has with social media. It’s an essential part of athletes’ lives, and ability to make money. It can also take a direct toll on their health, and with it, their ability to compete at all—and some athletes are starting to wonder if they should turn away from it,” (Wells and Radnofsky). Social media offers benefits and disadvantages to athletes but it is a huge part of their career.
Social media gives sports a new set of fans and expands their demographics. TikTok is one of the biggest social media platforms at the moment and expands through all ages. TikTok has gotten very involved with sports and has brought a lot of attention to them. In an article titled TikTok Dives Deeper Into Long-Form Sports Content written by Eddie Moran from Front Office Sports, it explains how TikTok has boosted so many sports events and generated views and buzz circulating those events, “The NFL and TikTok helped raise $6.6 million during the 2020 NFL Draft, with the league generating more than $100 million in money dedicated to COVID-19 relief efforts. Overall, the NFL’s TikTok live-streams drew as many as 80,000 concurrent viewers to its profile, making its account one of the best-performing platforms in this category,” (Moran). Typically, sports relied heavily on the use of articles to generate buzz but now with the help of social media it is much easier and successful.
Sports journalists and sports fandoms are both affected by this switch into the media climate. Sports journalists have always been the middle men for information on athletes. With athletes having more power to represent themselves through social media, the question arises of whether or not sports journalists are still really all that necessary. In the Power Of Sports written by Michael Serazio it explains how sports journalists feel that they are not needed anymore, “Boston Globe media columnist Chad Finn connects the dots: ‘The savvier athletes and, I guess, franchises, teams as well, can sort of cut out the middle man and don’t need the reporters to get their message out, to get their image out to help them build their personal brand,’” (Serazio, 94). Athletes are able to do what sports journalists have done for them in the past for themselves so the need for sports journalism is not as demanding. As for sports fandoms, positively, fandoms love to have personal connections with the players and teams. Having athletes be in charge of their own social media lets fans feel closer and this is something this generation really likes.
DeleteWorks Cited
Serazio, Michael. The Power of Sports: Media and Spectacle in American Culture. New York University Press, 2019.
“Tiktok Dives Deeper into Long-Form Sports Content.” Front Office Sports, 7 Aug. 2020, https://frontofficesports.com/tiktok-long-form-content/.
Wells, Georgia, and Louise Radnofsky. “Social Media Has Become Essential for Athletes. It Can Also Be Miserable.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 27 Feb. 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/instagram-mikaela-shiffrin-simone-biles-geoff-kabush-11645979596.
Social media is now one of the most popular and straightforward ways athletes and teams can brand themselves and have complete control because there is no mediator. Athletes get to connect with their fans and supporters directly. We see this on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok. Because athletes are using these apps, we see a different side of them other than sports. They can post just about anything now, ranging from brand deals, family, social justice movements, etc. These athletes dictate both good and bad PR that is posted. Because this has taken off, it will change the way we view sports journalism and reporting. Now that the athletes and leagues can do their job, how are they going to stay relevant?
ReplyDeleteSports and social media are both things that get a lot of attention and have a considerable following. Both positive and negative outcomes will come with this new wave of sports advertising. Because sports fandoms are so powerful and dedicated, chances are they are going to listen to their favorite team or athlete no matter what is said. One athlete that stood out in the media was Jeff Garcia. He used his own platforms to speak out about ESPN’s Mina Kimes comments on NFL Live. Garcia did not appreciate what Kimes said about him, so he took it upon himself to write a nasty comment back because he felt her knowledge of the sport was less than his. His actions caused his name to be relevant again. In the article by Yahoo Sports Columnist Shalize Manza Young, he writes, “Well, anyone who watched except Garcia, who no one had really thought about since the last time he spouted off some untethered rant,” (Young). Although this is not the best article to have written about you, he is still being talked about.
Professional sports leagues have also started using social media platforms as one of their main ways to connect and generate money. The NFL was one of the first to collaborate with TikTok during the 2020 NFL Draft. They used a live stream called “Draft-A-Thon-Live” with the #GoingPro hashtag connecting users to the latter’s donation website. The article by Eddie Moran titled TikTok Dives Deeper Into Long-Form Sports Content states, “Overall, the NFL’s TikTok live-streams drew as many as 80,000 concurrent viewers to its profile, making its account one of the best-performing platforms in this category” (Moran). Sports fandoms now get to interact with the teams in a different way and spend money on a different cause rather than tickets.
ReplyDeleteNow that majority of athletes and teams are involved with social media. Journalists have to adjust and try and stay relevant. Because these apps have given us the chance to connect with them other than sports, providing fans with new information is going to be more challenging. The actual job of the journalist is going to need to change. Shira Springer from Nieman Reports, in the article, As the World Changes, Sports Journalism Need to Keep Meeting the Moment, explains that “Sports reporters, by necessity had to become politics, health, and culture reporters. That was what the moment demanded” (Springer).
“Jeff Garcia Sure Hid Fast - Unlike Women in Media Who Endure His Brand of Toxicity.” Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo!, https://sports.yahoo.com/jeff-garcia-sure-hid-fast-unlike-women-in-media-who-endure-his-brand-of-toxicity-185716834.html.
Springer @ShiraSpringer, Shira, and Shira Springer. “As the World Changes, Sports Journalism Needs to Keep Meeting the Moment.” Nieman Reports, 8 Sept. 2021, https://niemanreports.org/articles/as-the-world-changes-sports-journalism-needs-to-keep-meeting-the-moment/.
“Tiktok Dives Deeper into Long-Form Sports Content.” Front Office Sports, 7 Aug. 2020, https://frontofficesports.com/tiktok-long-form-content/.
Social media has become the best platform for leagues, teams, and athletes to gain control of their branding and messages. The platform is so personal it is almost hard to make it seem more business-like without professional social media assistance. Leagues and teams have hired teams of people to run these accounts in the most successful ways possible. The people who run these accounts are knowledgeable in marketing and advertising the personal brand of the team or league. As for the players, most of them may decide to not have a person or team of people to run their social media posts by. This leads to lack of control in branding an athlete in a strategic manner. Social media accounts that are branding their team or athlete are typically fine-tuned, cohesive messaging but unlike Jeff Garcia he did not choose this route when discussing his thoughts on women talking about football. Social media is a place where people share their thoughts without thinking about the repercussions of it being posted for anyone to see, comment about and rebuttal. For ‘a man who spent the week demeaning women, going on any platform that would have him criticize her, turning tail and hiding when he got pushback for being sexist and loud and wrong” (Manza-Young), social media is the place where if someone wants to say something stupid, others are going to voice their opinion on the stupidity.
ReplyDeleteTeam and leagues social media accounts are doing a great job at creating that brand and messaging to their target audiences. The NFL and TikTok worked together for ‘Draft-a-thon’ in 2020 to help COVID-19 relief efforts. A huge brand like the NFL working with a very popular platform like TikTok which “made its name by appealing mainly to Generations Zers with its short, binge-worthy videos” (Moran) is smart to capture those fans that are not interested in the long form, live NFL productions. TikTok allows users to live stream their content and it sporadically will show up in users algorithms. The NFL learned that “more than four million TikTok followers would engage in all different forms of content on the platform” so expanding into this social media platform is beneficial to the league and teams.
For sports journalism, social media can give them the platform of posting their content and expand their audience. Adding journalism to the side of social media can appear difficult as a written article has to appear visually and audibly to the audience. Social media changes how journalism is consumed and how it will be given out if short attention spans continue and shorten in the next generations.
Social Media gives sports fandoms the opportunity to consume content on their favorite teams, leagues, players and more. Sports fandoms typically were for a team and watching the live game was enough to satisfy the fans but not anymore. Sports fans are also admirers of individual athletes based on personal branding factors and the access to sports is constant on any social media platform. I could go on to TikTok and search for Tom Brady and profiles, videos, and a bunch of content that I can consume immediately. A negative to that is the messaging and content must be produced constantly to keep up with the needs and wants of the sports fandoms on social media.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteManza Young, Shalise. “Jeff Garcia Sure Hid Fast - Unlike Women in Media Who Endure His Brand of Toxicity.” Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo!, https://sports.yahoo.com/jeff-garcia-sure-hid-fast-unlike-women-in-media-who-endure-his-brand-of-toxicity-185716834.html?guce_referrer=ahr0chm6ly9xdwlubmlwawfjlmjsywnrym9hcmquy29tlw&guce_referrer_sig=aqaaag-0gsuhbs7fqvpqv-k9qcirycuevzzuxsl_9mvvjsbn__s2_jijbjr9yanglcydkjiq3jzdtyznbplbddiydzafhef92acozmt6hnzq8zl7upwpch_pyiws0gu77ezncnpeshxasx8im192jh7fj7wjpimvj5klsodvqm7xnoct.
Moran, Eddie. “Tiktok Dives Deeper into Long-Form Sports Content.” Front Office Sports, 7 Aug. 2020, https://frontofficesports.com/tiktok-long-form-content/.
“Sports Fans Display Strong Social Engagement.” Marketing Charts, 3 June 2021, https://www.marketingcharts.com/industries/sports-industries-117340.
Thanks to social media, leagues, teams, and athletes have an immense amount of control of branding and messaging. Let’s look at Michael Jordan for example. In the article TikTok Dives Deeper Into Long Form Sports Content by Eddie Morgan, TikTok has been looking to expand its long form content through live streaming with the latest example arising during ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary series that focused on Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls era. TikTok collaborated with the Jordan Brand on “The Encore” after show which helped the Jordan Brand with exposure (Morgan). “Before “The Encore,” the Jordan Brand hadn’t ever posted on TikTok, said Robbie Levin, TikTok manager of media and brand partnerships. Since its debut, the Jordan Brand account has added more than 77,000 followers. On May 4 – the day of “The Encore’s” first live steam, the #jumpman handle had 70 million views; as of June 8, it has more than 2.6 billion. I think that really speaks to the power of their brand and the incredible way that they’ve utilized the platform” (Morgan). Another good thing that comes out of athletes, leagues, and teams having more control of branding and messaging thanks to social media is that they are the ones directly using their social media accounts, not a journalist, not a public relations professional, not a social media manager just the athlete. Although athletes using their social media is usually a good thing, sometimes it can be pretty bad too. Let’s take Jeff Garcia the American football player as an example. Garcia targeted Mina Kimes of ESPN for telling the truth of the 49ers winning their first two playoff games with Jimmy Garoppolo and not because of Garcia. Garcia got mad and went after Kimes because she did not play football and couldn’t possibly understand the game. This hasn’t been the first time Garcia used his platform to target somebody as Cam Newton has been at the center of his attacks. According to the article Jeff Garcia sure hid fast- unlike women in media who endure his toxicity “after being questioned about his sexism and misogyny Garcia refused to apologize having a full-on meltdown. Garcia turned his Instagram account to private and deleted his Twitter account” (Young). Garcia is an example of a bad way an athlete uses their social media to control messaging.
ReplyDeleteIn a lot of ways, athletes controlling and managing their social media accounts are doing the best job. Athletes are the ones who literally have lived through the moments to make the reporting happen. Athletes know better than any journalist the feelings and emotions they felt and feel. This is essentially why Derek Jeter created The Players Tribune, a website that allows the athletes themselves to edit and tell their stories. This is especially important due to the Hot Take shows that tend to take away athletes’ credibility. When athletes take control of their social media that ultimately starts to become a problem for journalists as the athletes are essentially doing their work for them. This ultimately raises concern for journalists and their jobs. According to an article by La Trobe University “this changing media landscape, where sports organizations can tell their stories directly to their fans through their own social or digital channels, is making it more difficult for traditional news journalists to get access to athletes or coaches. The organization’s media department often holds the power to decide which player appears, where and when, and it’s becoming more common that their own channels win” (La Trobe University). Now a days fans would rather receive news and updates straight from the source rather than a middle man journalist.
Not only does social media have an impact on journalists but on fans too. As a sports fan you like things quick and easy and right from the source like real time game updates and scores. Having access to your favorite teams and athletes’ social medias makes a fan feel that much closer to them. According to the article The Impact of Social Media on the Sports Industry by Jessica Swarm “it is common for athletes to have their own social media sites independent from their team’s accounts. Fans are able to follow their favorite athletes and interact with them in ways like never before. This can also help humanize athletes, who are sometimes glorified as perfect beings, and make them more relatable to the common man” (Swarm). This personal interaction whether it be sending a player a quick dm or commenting under their photo is what the fans love. Although they may not respond to them it makes the fan feel like they are a part of their lives. As for how social media negatively effects fandoms there are quite a few. The article 10 Ways Social Media Ruined Sports by Nick Dimengo,highlights the 10 ways that social media has literally ruined sports. Things like athlete beefs or athlete and fan beefs, ruining the element of surprise, athletes being disciplined for their use of social media, unwarranted criticism/drama it creates, when things leak early, and when the DVR or TV becomes absolutely irrelevant. Speaking from personal experience social media has definitely ruined sports for me. I have Twitter notifications turned on for the New York Rangers and I’ve had so many game results spoiled for me that I literally have to throw my phone across the room because Twitter is ahead of the TV. Even with ESPN, ESPN tends to announce major things in sports before teams even get a chance to announce them themselves. I have a feeling it will only become faster in the future.
ReplyDeleteMorgan, Eddie. “Tiktok Dives Deeper into Long-Form Sports Content.” Front Office Sports, 7 Aug. 2020, https://frontofficesports.com/tiktok-long-form-content/.
Young, Shalise Manza. “Jeff Garcia Sure Hid Fast - Unlike Women in Media Who Endure His Brand of Toxicity.” Yahoo!, Yahoo!, https://www.yahoo.com/sports/jeff-garcia-sure-hid-fast-unlike-women-in-media-who-endure-his-brand-of-toxicity-185716834.html.
“The Impact of Social and Digital Media on Sport.” Nest, 18 Mar. 2021, https://www.latrobe.edu.au/nest/the-impact-of-social-and-digital-media-on-sport/.
Swarm, Jessica. “The Impact of Social Media on the Sports Industry.” PRLab StudentStaffed Public Relations Agency The Impact of Social Media on the Sports Industry Comments, 1 Jan. 1967, https://www.bu.edu/prlab/2018/10/29/the-impact-of-social-media-on-the-sports-industry/.
Dimengo, Nick. “10 Ways Social Media Ruined Sports.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 3 Oct. 2017, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2626562-10-times-social-media-ruined-sports.
Robert Fritz
ReplyDeleteIn this new age of social media never has it been easier for league and athletes to connect to their fans in an easy and assessable manner. Social media has allowed a level of interaction that we hadn’t had before. These teams, players, and leagues now all have this outlet to grow and be in touch with the fans. The ones who do it best are the leagues as they encompass all teams rather than just the one singular team account and, in most instances, the one singular player. In one of the readings by comscore the top social brands of 2021 had the NBA, NFL & ESPN, WWE, and MLB all in the top 10. The ones doing the best at managing their accounts are the ones that can have high interactions on all social media platforms and with that the WWE shocking does the best of that. The WWE ranks 8th on the top Facebook brands, 9th on the top Twitter brands, 10th on Instagram and 1st on YouTube. Now we see the great impact that social media can have on leagues, athletes, and teams but what about sports journalism? Well one of the things that comes with this level of interaction is people being held more accountable for what they do or say and the same goes for the athletes, teams, and leagues. This level of accountability can go a number of way whether it is making a claim that ends up on Freezing cold takes on Twitter or being Jeff Garcia. IF you hadn’t heard by now former NFL quarterback Jeff Garcia doesn’t think woman can comprehend football because they’re woman and to the surprise of no one that statement received immense pushback. That pushback was something Garcia couldn’t handle apparently “On a sports radio show on Friday, questioned about his sexism and misogyny, Garcia refused to apologize and had a full-on meltdown before hanging up on the hosts” (Young). Sports journalists were one time the middleman between fans and the teams and players but now it really isn’t that way. When a sports journalist or anyone for that matter says something, you can bet that it was saved and shared. We now longer live in an age where people can just say anything they want to and because of that everyone including sports journalists need to be careful on what they say. Social media has had positive and negative impacts on sports fandom on one hand fans can interact with their favorite players and teams and on the other hand we have the Russell Westbrook situation. Russell Westbrook is an NBA player for the Los Angeles Lakers and though he had his fair share of critics before joining LA this season it is a bit different now "'Westbrick,' for example, to me, is now shaming," he said, referring to a condescending nickname that makes the rounds online seemingly whenever he has a poor performance. "It's shaming my name, my legacy for my kids. It's a name that means, not just to me, but to my wife, to my mom, my dad, the ones that kind of paved the way for me." Westbrook also shared the fact that he received death threats as well. Social media has allowed for all kinds of fan behavior most of which are unwarranted.
Busick, Madison. “The State of Social Media.” Comscore, Inc., https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations-and-Whitepapers/2022/The-State-of-Social-Media.
Manza Young, Shalise. “Jeff Garcia Sure Hid Fast - Unlike Women in Media Who Endure His Brand of Toxicity.” Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo!, https://sports.yahoo.com/jeff-garcia-sure-hid-fast-unlike-women-in-media-who-endure-his-brand-of-toxicity-185716834.html.
McMenamin, Dave. “Lakers' Russell Westbrook Speaks out about Harassment Family Has Been Subject to, Vows to Push Back on 'Westbrick' Taunts.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 8 Mar. 2022, https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33451151/lakers-russell-westbrook-speaks-harassment-family-subject-vows-push-back-westbrick-taunts.
Clever Streich (part 1)
ReplyDeleteSocial media has provided a platform for sports entities to speak directly to fans, display branding, and promote sponsored materials to a wide and global audience. The passion of sports fans carries over to the digital world, as accounts for leagues, individual athletes, teams, and brands have a direct link to communicate with its amassed online followers through proper management of social media accounts. In a report published by Comscore titled The State of Social Media, some of the top sports branded accounts had cross-platform actions numbering in the billions during 2021, with the NBA as the top-performing, amassing 1.9 billion actions online (The State of Social Media). This illustrates the power of effective social media usage by sports entities, who can harness audiences online to buy into their product and engage in content, leaving lasting impacts on sports fandom and media.
According to an article published by Jessica Swarm for Boston University, sports is forever being changed by social media, as a platform such as Twitter allows for visual content to be shared to mass audiences, as well as immediate access to sports news to be streamlined on social media platforms (Swarm). This allows for sports journalists to cover sports stories live through tweeting on personal or organizational accounts, allowing for sports journalism to be delivered faster and more efficiently than ever before. For example, Bleacher Report has been a fast-growing outlet for sports news and content, having amassed almost seven million followers on Twitter and just over 100K tweets (Swarm). Through its massive platform, fans have direct access to Bleacher Report content that covers a wide variety of sports and subjects. This can be considered both a positive and negative trend on sports fandom, as content on social media is faster and more accessible for the fan, but harder to locate and decide on with a higher level of market oversaturation and multiple options for content outlets. In addition to facing competition, another issue that sports journalists must face through social media is multiple disseminators of information related to a team, such as league accounts, team accounts, and player accounts, who also have a direct line of communication directly to the public (Swarm). While audiences can utilize multiple sources of information to develop their narrative, it is the task of the sports journalist to maintain relevance and attention when sharing news or interacting with sports personalities.
Social media accounts also give players the chance to engage directly with fans, which can help humanize athletes and show a different side to their personalities. But with this connection, fans also have a direct line to criticize and complain online about sports teams’ performances. Molly Yanity demonstrates examples of the negative aspects of sports fandom online in her article When Sports Fans Assume They Are In Charge...Anger Rules by showing tweets from fans who utilize social media to suggest coaches be fired or act in an enraged manner towards the performance of sports teams after (Gerstner and Yanity). One tweet shown states that Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin should be fired from his position despite having a winning record that places him fourth-best among active coaches in the NFL (Gerstner and Yanity). Social media provides a chance for the fans to voice opinions and make themselves heard, but it reveals the toxicity and hate that can be behind fandom and sports culture. When used properly, social media can be an incredible tool to tell stories, but it must be used responsibly by both fans and official accounts alike or else it can spread hate and negativity to larger audiences.
Clever Streich (part 2)
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
Gerstner, Joanne, and Molly Yanity. “When Sports Fans Assume They Are in Charge...anger Rules.” Open Court, 22 Nov. 2021, https://opencourt.bulletin.com/500707027682616/.
Serazio, Michael. The Power of Sports: Media and Spectacle in American Culture. New York University Press, 2019.
Swarm, Julia. “The Impact of Social Media on the Sports Industry.” BU College of Communication: PR Lab, 29 Oct. 2018, https://www.bu.edu/prlab/2018/10/29/the-impact-of-social-media-on-the-sports-industry/.
“The State of Social Media.” Shareablee, Comscore, 2021,
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