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Global Sport Management Education: Policy, Curriculum, and Implementation
E. Su Jara-Pazmino
Mentioned, Quoted, and Promoted: How Sports Journalists Constructed a Narrative of Athletes’ Value in the “Name, Image, and Likeness” Era
Shannon Scovel
Using theories of framing and agenda setting, this study explores how journalists covered women athletes during the first week of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s new “name, image, and likeness” (NIL) policy. Athlete representation during this first week was critical, as it established precedent for which athletes, according to media members, held value and were worthy of publicity. The findings from this study show that journalists focused their reporting of NIL on U.S. male athletes, although women athletes such as Olivia Dunne, Haley Cavinder, and Hanna Cavinder were also frequently mentioned in relation to their large social media following, lifestyle, or appearance. Overall, reporters generally promoted a male-dominated NIL agenda, one that undervalued women athletes and minimized their potential role as sporting celebrities in the college sports space.
Head Game: Mental Health in Sports Media
Mahdi Latififard
Governance and Policy in Sport Organizations, 5th ed.
Andrew Sellers
Gender (In)Equity in the Brazilian Paralympic Committee Coverage of the Paralympic Games
Ianamary M. Marcondes, Ruth E. Cidade, Josep Solves, and Doralice L. de Souza
This study investigated the following questions: Was there gender equity in the coverage by the Brazilian Paralympic Committee of the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games? If not, what were the main differences in the treatment of male and female athletes? We compiled all of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee’s publications during both Paralympic Games editions, computed their distribution by gender, and assessed whether the newsworthiness criteria and aspects of text composition were consistently applied across genders. We conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of all available publications on the committee’s website during both events. We found that women received less visibility, fewer speech quotations, and fewer protagonist roles. Additionally, we observed that the application of newsworthiness criteria favored men. Our findings reveal issues that can contribute to advancing gender equity in the coverage of national paralympic committees and other media outlets.
Volume 17 (2024): Issue 2 (Jun 2024)
Interview With Jane MacNeille, Senior Vice President of Player Communications at LIV Golf
Trajan Cunningham
What Determines the Number of Social Media Followers of Professional Cyclists: A Statistical Analysis
Jeroen Belien, Kevin De Clercq, and Michel Meulders
This paper examines which factors influence the change in the number of followers of professional cyclists on social media using a fixed-effects model on 33 days of panel data regarding the performance, activity, and content of Twitter messages of 795 cyclists. The analysis shows that a better race performance leads to more new followers. Posting social tweets has no effect, but posting social retweets does increase the number of new followers for riders with a low or medium number of followers. For parasocial tweets, the reverse is true: Parasocial retweets have no effect, while parasocial noninteractive tweets have a positive significant effect for riders with a low or high number of followers. Finally, for riders with a high number of followers, posting a general question to followers has a positive impact on the number of new followers. Cyclists and teams can use the results of this study to identify over- and underperformers in terms of social media success and to attract more followers with all the associated benefits.
Exploring the Influence of Match Fixing on Consumer Motivations to Watch Esports: Perspectives From Brand Producers
Michael L. Williamson, Kevin Filo, Jason Doyle, and Brooke Harris-Reeves
Existing challenges to the esports industry, such as match fixing, potentially affect consumer motivations to watch esports. Additionally, the esports literature examining consumer motivations to watch competitions relies on data gathered from consumers. An opportunity is presented to understand industry challenges alongside additional stakeholder perspectives on consumer motivations. The purpose is to explore the perceived influence of match fixing on consumer motivations to watch esports broadcasts, from the perspective of esports brand producers. Informed by uses and gratification theory, 30 semistructured interviews were conducted with brand producers in the Australian esports industry. Four themes were generated from thematic analysis: diminished integrity, decreased engagement, limited individual impact, and reduced drama. The findings provide insight for brand producers to craft strategic communications, which mitigate negative motivational influences and encourage consumers to watch esports. The current research extends the understanding of consumer motivations to watch esports by considering the perspective of brand producers.
“We Love You, Katie”: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Stanford University’s Response to the Passing of Katie Meyer
Natalie Bunch, Lauren Beasley, and Janie Copple
In 2022, Stanford University’s Katie Meyer and at least four other college athletes in the United States died by suicide. If used appropriately, social media is a potential platform to destigmatize mental health through initiating discussions and providing educational resources. The study explores how Stanford University’s athletic department utilized Twitter to address mental health in the year after Meyer’s passing. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis, this study examined 59 tweets posted across Stanford University’s athletic department and program platforms. The current study found that Stanford’s social media messaging reinforced mental health stigma and the sport ethic across the micro-, meso-, exo-, and macrosystem, which discourage sport consumers from changing their perceptions of mental health stigma in sport. Furthermore, the social media messaging does not demonstrate future institutional emphasis on mental health. We conclude with best practices for college sport administrators.
