What Determines User-Generated Content Creation of College Football? A Big-Data Analysis of Structural Influences

in International Journal of Sport Communication
Grace Yan * , 1 , Dustin Steller * , 2 , Nicholas M. Watanabe * , 1 and Nels Popp * , 3
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  • 1 University of South Carolina, USA
  • 2 University of Missouri
  • 3 University of North Carolina, USA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsc.2017-0113
Keywords:
content generation; social media; users
In Print:
Volume 11: Issue 2
Pages:
219–240
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The question of how and why users engage in sport digital communication endures. In this study, structuration theory is employed to examine how social-media users exercise preferences in the creation of content as they respond to a variety of macrolevel factors pertaining to college football—the type of game, team strength, conference membership, market characteristics, etc. Through hierarchical regression analysis, the results indicate that the presence and timing of college football games, as well as team strength and game outcome, are significant determinants for the patterns of online content generation. As such, the study advances the theoretical, methodological, and managerial inquiry of user-generated content on sport social-media platforms through a Big Data analytics approach.

Yan and Watanabe are with Dept. of Sport and Entertainment Management, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. Steller is a graduate of the University of Missouri, Columbia, MO. Popp is with the Dept. of Exercise and Sport Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.

Yan (chengyan@mailbox.sc.edu) is corresponding author.

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