Sports Communication 2019 Abstracts
Mobile media and fantasy sport: A quantitative analysis of media dependency on fantasy draft information • Travis Bell, University of South Florida; Brody J. Ruihley, Miami University • Fantasy sport is an interactive team management activity that places emphasis on access and technology. This research focuses on media dependency of fantasy sport information in high demand—in advance of a fantasy football draft. Through surveying 718 adult fantasy users, this quantitative study ranks web media, social media, and podcasts as most depended on. The findings highlight significant differences in consumption and spending based on type of media dependency and multiple screen usage.
Enveloped in the American Flag: Contrasting National Identity within Olympic and National Football League Media Consumption • Melvin Lewis, University of Alabama; Kenon Brown, University of Alabama; Andrew Billings, University of Alabama; Zachary Arth, University of Alabama • This study explored relationships in the context of the National Football League (NFL; American football), employing 732 respondents from a pair of nationally-representative samples to determine the degree of similarity or difference between feelings about the United States as it relates to American consumption of the 2018 Winter Olympics and the 2018 NFL season. Media consumption’s influence on one’s feelings of nationalism was stronger for Winter Olympic fans compared to NFL fans, yet no differences were detected on patriotism and internationalism factors. Academicians and sport marketers should regard these findings as a warrant for considering exploring cause-related sports marketing (CRSM) techniques. Differences in nationalism findings suggest that the comparisons between nations are exclusively an Olympics-based phenomena while the National Football League seems to be much more insular in that regard.
Media Coverage of the Pakistan Super League (Cricket) • Danielle Coombs; David Cassilo, Kent State University • The Pakistan Super League launched in 2016 with massive enthusiasm in its “cricket-mad” nation. Safety concerns stemming from a 2009 terrorist attack in Lahore meant all matches were played in United Arab Emirates. We examine PSL coverage from media in Pakistan, UAE, UK, and US. Findings are considered in the context of social identity theory. This study explores how Middle Eastern sport and national identity are framed in the media across multiple countries.
Legitimizing the journey: National Signing Day and the public relations pseudo-event as cultural moment • Betsy Emmons; Brendan O’Hallarn, Old Dominion University • This research studies the symbolic creation of societal meaning in the rite of passage of National Signing Day. Via case study, using technography from digital media as cultural creator and public relations as mediator, results demonstrated the ritualistic nature of National Signing Day regardless of high school. Results suggest that National Signing Day performs ritual and spectacle to become cultural moment for athletes, embedded into society as an essential mediated aspect of the athlete’s journey.
The Walk-Up: Applying Agenda-Setting Theory to MLB Batters and Television Air Time • Samuel Hakim, The University of Alabama; Zachary Arth, University of Alabama; Darrin Griffin, The University of Alabama; Scott Parrott, The University of Alabama • Informed by agenda-setting theory and scarcity, this manuscript examines factors that predict the amount of focused attention Major League Baseball players receive when at bat. Quantitative content analyses were conducted to examine player quality and eight additional co-variates which significantly predicted the on air time players received. Data suggested that home and away broadcasts differed in the attention they assigned batters, with opposing teams highlighting stronger players more than the players’ own home broadcasts.
#JoinTheAlliance: A Network Exploration into Hashtag Brand-Building by an Emerging Sports League • Jennifer Harker, West Virginia University • This research explores the hashtag use of an emerging spring football league, the Alliance of American Football (AAF). Daily data was collected via Twitter API to explore the emergence and persistence of hashtag use surrounding the AAF, the social construction of secondary hashtags, and the semantic network that emerged across the three time periods of this interactivity. These anchoring symbols of social communication, and the brand-building implications of a sports league’s use of hashtags in acquiring a fanbase, is discussed.
The Impact of a Throwback Jersey Promotion on Brand Equity • Nicholas Hirshon, William Paterson University; Klive (Soo Kwang) Oh • Sports teams wear throwback jerseys to drive attendance and increase merchandise sales, but reviving unpopular uniforms can damage a team’s brand equity. This study examines a risky, one-night promotion in which the NHL’s New York Islanders revived the much-maligned fisherman logo worn on their jerseys during two last-place seasons from 1995 to 1997. In an attempt to offer practical value to sports marketers weighing the revival of a controversial jersey, the paper measures the impact of the promotion by comparing a qualitative textual analysis of the Islanders’ radio and television broadcasts from the night the fisherman jerseys were worn against a quantitative content analysis of tweets about the promotion, posted by fans, reporters, bloggers, bots, and the team itself. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the attitudes of fans and reporters toward a sports promotion and creating content tailored to such opinions.
Shared space: How North American Olympic broadcasters framed gender on Instagram • Rich Johnson, Creighton University; Miles Romney, Brigham Young University; Kevin Hull, University of South Carolina; Ann Pegoraro • The Olympic Games offer scholars the opportunity to better understand how broadcasters visually frame male and female athletes to their large audiences. Traditionally, scholars have focused their efforts on the televised Olympic broadcasts and photojournalism coverage in newspaper and magazines. Scholarship has found that female athletes are often underrepresented in event coverage and framed along gender stereotypes; but in more recent Olympic Games broadcasters and traditional news media have provided more equitable coverage between the genders. However, digital and social media platforms (SMPs) now play a significantly larger role in how Olympic broadcasters share content and engage with audiences. Utilizing media framing theory, this study examines how gender is framed on the Olympic Instagram accounts of the two official North American rights holders: National Broadcast Corporation (NBC) and the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC). Researchers collected a cross sectional sample from the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Results indicate that NBC and the CBC were generally equitable in SMP coverage of men and women’s athletic achievements.
Do Women Get Wings? Representation of Female Action Sports Athletes in Red Bull Media Coverage • Charli Kerns; Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee • This study examines the gender representation of action sports athletes in Red Bull Media House’s YouTube videos. Coding and analysis of a total of 108 videos from 2008 to 2018 revealed that female athletes in Red Bull Media receive more coverage than what is often documented in mainstream, sports broadcasting coverage. However, their representation was primarily limited to feature stories and only specific action sports such as surfing. The results from this study showed that Red Bull does represent a potential break in hegemonic ideology by which male athletes are normalized as authentic athletes through the process of inclusion. However, that visibility was tightly constrained within a normative matrix for imagining female athletes, a process that limits Red Bull Media’s counter-hegemonic potential.
Serena Williams: From Catsuit to Controversy • Jessica Love, University of Southern Mississippi; Lindsey Maxwell, University of Southern Mississippi • Serena Williams was involved in two major news stories in the summer of 2018; she wore a black catsuit at the French Open and was involved in an on-court controversy at the U.S. Open. Newspaper articles from this time frame were analyzed for the sex and race of the author, athletic descriptors (composure, emotionality, strength-based athletic skill) of Williams, and framing of her maternity. Results indicated that Williams was framed differently by various groups of journalists, and framed based on her public behavior.
Dueling Tones of the NBA GOAT Debate • Doug Mendenhall, Abilene Christian University • A debate over who is the GOAT, or “Greatest Of All Time” professional basketball player, saturated social media in 2018. This intense discussion about Michael Jordan versus Lebron James provides data for a quantitative measurement of differences in the tone of language used to evaluate these idols of two different generations of sports fans. Jordan played in the National Basketball Association from 1984 to 2003, the year James, 22 years younger, entered the league. Thus, a generational divide can be expected between fans of the two athletes based on principles of social identity theory, which suggests that the divide may extend to differences in the tone of their discourse in this heated debate. To understand the intersection of these fault lines, the present study gathered more than 8,000 comments appended to 34 YouTube videos related to the Jordan-James debate and sorted them by valence as pro-Jordan, pro-James, or neutral. Analysis was then made using Diction 7.0 software, which provides quantitative measurement of written messages along dozens of tonal variables. Scaled variables created by the author also allowed measurement of levels of incivility and of profanity. Consistent with main hypotheses, comments supporting James, the younger player, were significantly higher in profanity, while comments supporting Jordan were significantly higher in incivility. More than a dozen other differences were found in the tone of comments supporting James or Jordan.
Nike, Colin Kaepernick, and the Politicization of Sports: Examining Perceived Organizational Motives and Consumer Responses • Joon Kyoung Kim, University of South Carolina; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina; Nandini Bhalla; Jo-Yun Li, University of Miami • This study applies arguments from attribution theory to examine the role of perceived motives (values-driven, egoistic-driven, strategic-driven, and stakeholder-driven motives) in developing individuals’ attitudes, positive word-of-mouth (PWOM), and negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) intentions in response to Nike’s 30th Anniversary ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick. This study also examines how perceptions of the appropriateness of the politicization of sports moderate these relationships, as well as individual factors that predict people’s assessments of sports as a politicized event. A survey (N = 373) was conducted to examine how much people’s perceptions of Nike’s motives for engaging in Corporate Social Advocacy (CSA) guided their responses and the degree to which they were likely to engage in actions. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
From protest to movement: A longitudinal content analysis of the Colin Kaepernick protest • Vincent Peña, Member • This paper conducts a content analysis of ESPN coverage related to Colin Kaepernick’s protest during the national anthem and related events since. The analysis looks at ESPN.com articles (N=305) during three time periods in the timeline of the Kaepernick protest saga, ranging from his initial protest in August 2016 until Nike released an ad campaign featuring Kaepernick in September 2018. His protest, and the ones that he inspired, have received an immense amount of national news coverage, especially by outlets like ESPN. The analysis looked at frames of his protest over time and tried to answer questions about the different types of frames used as well as the extent to which the overall coverage adhered to the protest paradigm. A two-way ANOVA test was run on the variables for framing and the protest paradigm. The content analysis showed how an outlet like ESPN covers social protests and the extent to which its coverage adheres to the paradigm. Results showed framing of protests did not change over time, but that the adherence to the protest paradigm varied depending on story topic.
A Shaky Bet: Legalized Sports Gambling in the U.S. • Brian Petrotta, University of Oklahoma • When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on sports betting in May 2018, it had the potential to dramatically change how Americans consume and consider sporting events. Prior to the ruling, fantasy sports filled a gap for those desiring a legal alternative to illicit sports gambling. This study utilizes social cognitive theory to analyze how fantasy sports participants’ attitudes, behaviors and environments inform their intention to adopt legal sports betting practices.
Rick Pitino and Image Restoration as Brand Management • Michael Strawser; Stacie Shain, Bellarmine University; Lauren Coffey; Grace Lee • This study focuses on recent scandals surrounding the University of Louisville men’s basketball team. Specifically, the analysis centers on former head basketball coach, Rick Pitino, and his public perception and reputation. Through an image restoration theoretical lens, the authors diagnose Pitino’s public relations challenges and provide advice for future action to rebuild his brand.
Remember My Name: Basketball Writers’ Attitudes Towards Branding and Promotion Via Social Media • Jason Stamm, The University of Tennessee – Knoxville; Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee • Using a survey disseminated to members of the United States Basketball Association (USBWA), this study shows basketball writers favor branding via social media, and the added workload of branding does not affect level of job satisfaction. Parasocial interaction (PSI) is incorporated as a theoretical framework to observe how branding techniques used via social media and attitudes toward those practices among sports media professionals may enact para-social relationships that could be beneficial for their careers.
Is eSports a Sport? Predictors of eSports Playing and Viewing • Tang Tang, Kent State University; Jake Kucek, Kent State University; Steven Toepfer, Kent State University • This study represents one of the first empirical efforts to systematically examine how and why people play and watch eSports. Findings suggest that eSports consumers are both participants and audiences. Individual factors (i.e., demographics, personality, motivations, fandom, preference) and structures (i.e., availability, access to technologies, cost, media use routine, and uses of in-game structures) significantly predicted eSports playing and viewing. Implications of the study are discussed and future directions are proposed.
Voices of the Gatekeepers: Examining the Olympic Channel Production Through a Gendered Lens • Qingru Xu, The University of Alabama; Andrew Billings, University of Alabama • “This study has conducted 11 interviews with Olympic Channel professionals to explore content production through a lens of gender. The findings suggest that (a) sports media professionals claimed considerate agency and autonomy, with individual personality and perspectives heavily influencing their journalism practice; (b) regarding content selection criteria, the Olympic Channel has been trying to strike a balance between the Olympic values and commercial pursuits, which explained the mixed media coverage revealed in the content analysis; and (c) the considerable proportion of female employees played an important role in facilitating a female-friendly workplace at the Olympic Channel, which—at least to some extent—contributed to a more sex-balanced media coverage at the Channel. The current study appears as one of the first studies exploring content production at the Olympic Channel, contributing to the literature by illustrating how employees at an IOC’s official sports media platform viewed gender equality in their journalism practices.
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