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2016 Online Information Review
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony with the goal of making a nuanced contribution to the discussion of online participation and engagement afforded by social media.Design/methodology/approachThis paper applies a qualitative approach of sequential video analysis to the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony interpretive segment.FindingsDespite the Olympics being a “networked media sport” where countries compete against each another in various sporting events, the paper argues that the overarching narrative of the London 2012 opening ceremony is one that breaks down traditional barriers, while simultaneously situating the individual at the centre of “networked spectatorship”.Originality/valueBeyond merely watching media events, the paper proposes the term, “networked spectators” to identify how people participate in the content creation, social media moderation, and conversation using social media. Networked spectatorship moves away from the binary of active and passive participation, and rather reflects on the multiple ways people can engage in media events, which specifically includes social media monitoring/moderation as a form of participation.
2016 Online Information Review
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of a dual medium/content context – the one offered by the online Twitter communication (medium-context) of reporting on elite sports (content-context) – on traditional conceptualizations of genderlect.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative content analysis, coding for a variety of traditional gendered language markers – was conducted on the tweets of male and female reporters who covered the men’s and women’s NCAA final four basketball tournaments.FindingsConsistent with tenets of social role theory, the duel medium/content context of Twitter and sports produces several language patterns that frustrate attempts to categorize language markers according to traditional conceptualizations of genderlect and thus provides support for a redefinition of genderlect.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper’s findings suggest that people adapt their communication patterns to match the context in which they communicate. Whether adaptation takes place with conscious effort or as a natural byproduct of moving from one context to another remains to be discovered. Advice to female sports journalists on being vigilant against unwittingly undermining their credibility and perceived expertise is offered. This inquiry allows researchers to study sociology through sport.Practical implicationsThis paper demonstrates that online environments can allow for traditional gender roles and expectations to be challenged and broken down, but some genderlect features appear tenacious and could undermine attempts to break down gender barriers.Social implicationsIf sport mirrors society, then the same communication adaptations that appear in the online environmental context of reporters’ tweets about sport should appear in other societal contexts.Originality/valueFew studies have investigated differences in reporting by gender, and fewer have investigated differences in sports reporting by gender. Fewer, if any, have investigated differences in sports reporting by gender through Twitter.
Hayat, Tsahi; Samuel-Azran, Tal; Galily, Yair
2016 Online Information Review
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to analyses of the sport-politics nexus by identifying whether the demographics of Twitter followers of Al-Jazeera Sport in the USA (rebranded in 2014 as beIN USA) can be associated with a specific political orientation.Design/methodology/approachBased on selective exposure theory, which posits that people follow news sources that reinforce their existing views, the authors identify the news outlets followed by beIN Twitter followers. To put the findings in perspective, the authors compared the results to the news outlets followed by the Twitter followers of Al-Jazeera America, Al-Jazeera’s second US outlet. Next, to understand the nature of the beIN and Al-Jazeera America communities, the authors used social network analysis to analyze the distribution of retweets within these communities.FindingsThe analysis shows that whereas Al-Jazeera America Twitter followers follow significantly more liberal than conservative news outlets, beIN’s followers were not identified with a specific political orientation. Analysis of beIN’s followers’ retweets shows a greater degree of connectivity among beIN’s followers than among the followers of Al-Jazeera America, indicating a more connected social network.Research limitations/implicationsFindings indicate that beIN’s Twitter following is characterized by more diverse and more strongly connected audience than Al-Jazeera America on Twitter, highlighting sports as a non-politicized realm on Twitter.Practical implicationsFor practitioners, the study illustrates that controversial non-western media networks such as Al-Jazeera can gain access to diverse populations in the West by operating in the sport realm rather than the news realm.Originality/valueThis study offers a pioneering indication of the extent of a sport-ethnocentrism nexus on Twitter.
Frederick, Evan; Pegoraro, Ann; Burch, Lauren
2016 Online Information Review
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to perform a comparative analysis of how traditional media and social media framed the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers examined newspaper articles pertaining to the Sochi Olympics and Tweets containing #SochiProblems to determine if differences or overlap existed in terms of themes and frames. A thematic analysis was conducted with the qualitative software Leximancer.FindingsAn analysis of 2,856 newspaper articles and 497,743 Tweets revealed three frames across the two media platforms including: the setting, the politics, and the games. There was both a divergence and convergence of content. While there was an echo chamber in terms of discussions regarding political controversies, organic content related to conditions and accommodations existed primarily on Twitter.Originality/valueThis study sought to investigate whether organic content on Twitter could withstand the transference of sentiments that emerge in traditional media. This study adds to the current body of the literature by examining whether there is a convergence or divergence of content across media platforms pertaining to an international sporting event.
Bagić Babac, Marina; Podobnik, Vedran
2016 Online Information Review
PurposeDue to an immense rise of social media in recent years, the purpose of this paper is to investigate who, how and why participates in creating content at football websites. Specifically, it provides a sentiment analysis of user comments from gender perspective, i.e. how differently men and women write about football. The analysis is based on user comments published on Facebook pages of the top five 2015-2016 Premier League football clubs during the 1st and the 19th week of the season.Design/methodology/approachThis analysis uses a data collection via social media website and a sentiment analysis of the collected data.FindingsResults show certain unexpected similarities in social media activities between male and female football fans. A comparison of the user comments from Facebook pages of the top five 2015-2016 Premier League football clubs revealed that men and women similarly express hard emotions such as anger or fear, while there is a significant difference in expressing soft emotions such as joy or sadness.Originality/valueThis paper provides an original insight into qualitative content analysis of male and female comments published at social media websites of the top five Premier League football clubs during the 1st and the 19th week of the 2015-2016 season.
Yang, Yiyi; Wang, Yuan; Billings, Andrew C.
2016 Online Information Review
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore online discussions about the 2014 World Cup on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo. Because China did not qualify for the World Cup, the study focusses on the role of online discussions surrounding a worldwide international event from an outsider perspective. Doing so will uncover not only the depth of dialogue surrounding issues of nation and sport, but – perhaps more importantly – also aid in uncovering the utility of online platforms in creating online communities even among presumed outsiders.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis of the discussions on Sina Weibo is used to identify differences between fanship comments and non-fanship comments in terms of the focus of the content and the degree of valence.FindingsOverall, fans were more likely than non-fans to use positive valence in their comments to enhance the value of the World Cup. Moreover, fans were also more likely to discuss topics closely related to the event itself, such as teams, athletes, and factual information/news about the World Cup, establishing identification with in-group participants. Moreover, the findings also imply important insight regarding electronic commerce opportunities.Originality/valueThis paper is among the first to investigate the online discussions about World Cup in China. Theoretically, this paper provides a comprehensive framework to examine the online discussions of mega-sporting events in China based on theories of social identity theory and nationalism. Practically, it provides baseline data for the sports industry and public relation practitioners to promote a sports event when the direct nationalistic interests are absent. Moreover, it also aids in uncovering the substantial changes in sports-related communication, experiences, and mediated participation.
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