Over the last decade, the social media landscape has changed dramatically. With the invention of social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, people now have the ability to connect with others like never before, often with just the click of a button. This use of media in a social way has brought the world closer together, breaking down geographic barriers that have historically divided individuals, cultures, and nations and allowing new online communities to emerge and grow. [1]
Twitter, created in 2006, is the newest of the three social networking sites and is extremely popular, with over 500 million users sending out over 500 million tweets per day worldwide. [2] Users log-on daily to check out the latest news, to tell the world a bit about themselves or to find out what their favorite celebrities are up to.
For many athletes, Twitter is used as a way to accumulate information, rather than disseminate it. [3] According to Browning and Sanderson, Twitter “serves as a medium for athletes to conveniently gauge the social discussion about themselves and their team, as well as staying abreast of happenings with their friends, teammates and family.” [4] With athletes being able to communicate directly with fans, Twitter increases fan-athlete interaction. [5]
Many athletes enjoy being able to freely speak their minds without getting prior approval by team representatives. Athletes enjoy the opportunity to connect with their fans, and fans get a chance to see the human normalness of their sports heroes and see how they live and interact on a daily basis. According to Pegoraro, “Twitter has brought fans closer to their sport heroes because it allows athletes to communicate as openly and honestly as they wish without any third-party mediation.” No longer is fan interaction restricted to emailing teams online, message boards, or tightly controlled events or signings planned by organizations which fans often deem unauthentic. [6]
Interestingly, athletes’ rise in culture can be tied to new social media. Their level of celebrity, popularity and fame grew exponentially when the American public could watch them compete in their living rooms on the television, rather than being restricted to watching them perform in person, and with the radio, where people could listen to the games involving their favorite athletes at home, in the car or on the job. With the invention of newer social media like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, athletes have become even more prominent and famous in society because the public now has unprecedented access into the lives of their sports heroes with the ability to interact with them directly.
[1] Ann Pegoraro, “Look Who’s Talking – Athletes on Twitter: A Case Study,” International Journal of Sport Communication 3 (2010): 502.
[2] “Twitter Could Become Profitable In 2015,” Forbes, posted October 8, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2013/10/08/twitter-could-become-profitable-in-2015/
[3] Blair Browning, Blair and Jimmy Sanderson, “The Positives and Negatives of Twitter: Exploring How Student-Athletes Use Twitter and Respond to Critical Tweets,” International Journal of Sport Communication 5 (2012): 517.
[4] Ibid., 515.
[5] Pegoraro, “Look Who’s Talking,” 501.
[6] Ibid., 503.
Power & Access: 