Kevin Hull

How fans are engaging with baseball teams demonstrating multiple objectives on Instagram

Purpose Using uses and gratifications theory as a guide, the purpose of this paper is to examine how fans are engaging with Major League Baseball (MLB) teams that are utilizing Instagram postings to demonstrate sporting, business, and social objectives. Design/methodology/approach An analysis of 1,500 photos (50 from each team) was conducted. A content analysis analyzed the content of the photo, and a textual analysis was implemented to examine the use of hashtags by the teams on their Instagram photos. Findings Posts that overly demonstrated the business and social objectives had some of the lowest numbers of likes and comments, indicating that fan engagement is not often achieved through these methods. Originality/value Results of this research demonstrate that while MLB teams are able to address their multiple objectives on Instagram, fans are not necessarily interested in all three of these efforts. Posts about on-field action, consumer buying opportunities, and charitable efforts were all created by the majority of teams, but the sporting objective posts had, by far, the highest average number of both likes and comments when compared to the charitable and promotional objectives of the teams. Therefore, the results provide some best practices for teams looking to use the photo and video sharing network.

An Examination of Women’s Sports Coverage on the Twitter Accounts of Local Television Sports Broadcasters

This study examines the amount of coverage given to women’s sports by local television sports broadcasters on Twitter. A total of 19,649 tweets from 201 local sports broadcasters throughout the United States were examined using content analytic methods during a constructed 2-week period. Results demonstrated that while a majority of the local sports broadcasters did tweet about women’s sports, these tweets represented only about 5% of the overall number of messages. Further examination demonstrates that female sports broadcasters tweeted about women’s sports less frequently than male sports broadcasters did. Additionally, broadcasters in smaller cities were more likely to report about women’s sports than those in larger cities. While results are consistent with previous research on gender representation on nationally televised highlight shows, these findings are significant because they demonstrate that there is a relationship between gender of broadcaster and market size in relation to the number of tweets about women’s sports. Additionally, data are from Twitter, in which there are no time constraints that would seemingly limit the amount of women’s sports that could be mentioned by a sportscaster.

Form or Function? An Examination of ESPN Magazine's “Body Issue”

This study compared coverage differences in gender of athletes in the photographs over the five years of publication of ESPN The Magazines annual “Body Issue.” Grounded in the theoretical basis of framing, gender, photograph motion and context, and amount of clothing worn in photographs were examined for incidence of gender bias. Though males and females were represented and framed in relatively equal amounts, the manner in which the athletes were framed was troubling. Overall passive in nature in their framing, the photographs of the athletes seem to do anything but highlight the athleticism in the vast majority of the photographs. The findings suggest that gender bias is still present in mainstream sports media.

Undisclosed Information—Serial Is My Favorite Murder: Examining Motivations in the True Crime Podcast Audience

This study explores the true crime podcast audience within the uses and gratifications theoretical frame. Using an online survey (n = 308), this study found that the true crime podcast audience is predominantly female (73%), and 3 motivations were prominent for users: entertainment, convenience, and boredom. Additionally, three motivating factors were found to be significantly more salient for females than for males: social interaction, escape, and voyeurism. Practical and theoretical implications for genre-specific media are discussed.

Really Social Disaster: An Examination of Photo Sharing on Twitter During the #SCFlood

In the open marketplace of visuals where the most valued photographs “rise to the top” via tweets, likes, and retweets rather than being dictated by professionals, the study of what makes an image go really social is merited. One occurrence during which professional photojournalism and nonprofessional photography truly coexist, intermingle, and blur is that of a natural disaster. A body of research exists that has examined the visual framing of disasters, but none has addressed how these differently framed photos go social online or by whom. In this study, 1,078 Twitter photos shared by professional media outlets and nonprofessional tweeters were examined to see what portrayals of photos are elevated in the network. Established frames and new frames were examined: depictions of people, emotional hierarchy, novelty, victims, ordinary people, uniforms, emergency professionals, valence, pragmatic, human interest, and political. The results add empirical evidence to the different ways that professional members of media and other visual sharers understand, visually communicate, and react to disaster and add to the visual framing literature an element of really social visual framing.

Blazing a Trail…or Blazing Saddles: A Case Study of Players’ Social Media Response to the Decision to Drop UAB Blazer Football

In 2014, the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) elected to eliminate its football team, citing rising costs. This case study examines how the players on that team used Twitter as a tool for crisis communication, specifically the #FreeUAB hashtag, in order to demonstrate their opposition to that decision. An analysis of over 1300 tweets from 44 players revealed that while players primarily used the hashtag when discussing the team, they also utilized it in a variety of other tweet topics. Additionally, the majority of the tweets posted to the players’ accounts were retweets from other accounts, demonstrating that the players preferred to show the support from others instead of voicing their own opinions. Implications regarding stakeholder social media communication during a crisis are discussed.

Fotos de Béisbol: An Examination of the Spanish-language Instagram Accounts of Major League Baseball Teams

ABSTRACT Although every Major League Baseball team has an official English-language Instagram account, only 2 have a Spanish-language account. The purpose of this study is to examine how those accounts attempt to reach Hispanic fans. An examination of all the posts from the 2 Spanish-language accounts from the entire 2016 season demonstrate that the accounts do actively showcase more Hispanic players and cultural events. Further analysis demonstrates that posts with a Hispanic element register more user engagement than posts that do not. Theoretical implications regarding social identity theory and practical implications for professional sports teams are discussed.

Unfolding the Twitter scene of the 2017 UEFA Champions League Final: social media networks and power dynamics

ABSTRACT Research question: This study investigated the Twitter networks of the Champions League hashtag (#UCL) across the 2017 UEFA Champions League Final. Through an examination of network parameters and shifting structures, the analyses disclosed patterns of attention and power distributed among various sport stakeholders and fans. It advanced the inquiry of sport social media ecologies by engaging in theoretical discussions of media gatekeeping and power dynamics. Research methods: The study employed a social network analysis. A data scraping software was utilized to collect all conversations attached to #UCL during the pre-match, halftime, and post-match. Overall, the data included 19,869 posts for pre-match, 3276 posts for halftime, and 5691 for post-match. Results and findings: The #UCL network emerged with relatively low density and heterogeneous communication interest during the pre-match, and then moved towards higher density. Meanwhile, emergent game dynamics played a meaningful role in structuring the networked relationships. Large sport entities and star players, including the Champions League and Cristiano Ronaldo, had relatively stable and privileged positions in organizing the networks. Implications: The results indicated that the Twitter network structures allowed the prominence of large sport entities to be further recognized and legitimated, whereas individual citizens had constrained capacity to generate influence. This finding holds implications for sport teams and their stakeholders as it underscores the relational and dynamic nature of digital networks and the importance of strategically managing social media as a critical communication resource.

Examining local sports broadcasters’ use of Twitter to cross-promote on-air and online content

ABSTRACT Local television stations in the United States are showing a decline in revenue from previous years and are searching for new ways to promote their product in an effort to increase their audience. While previous research has examined traditional promotional methods through commercials, this study addresses how television station employees are using Twitter to promote content on traditional media outlets. An analysis of 19,649 tweets from 201 local television sports broadcasters throughout the United States found that less than 9% of their Twitter use was devoted to promoting either their television sportscast or the website. A survey of those same sportscasters revealed that station management does not encourage them to use Twitter to promote content, even during periods when ratings are collected.