Kaley Sargent
Social media has created an impact on athletes and their behaviors. Athletes are using social media as an outlet to express their personal brands, but complications can and are arising for them. For example, Johnny Manziel a quarterback for Texas A&M, was faced with criticism from sports fans on Twitter in 2013. Fans all over the United States were starting to criticize Johnny and his performance from football season through tweets. They began tweeting posts like... “Just win, Johnny? You finished third in the SEC West, and were fifth or sixth best team in SEC overall” and another stated “You may have had a lucky year, but you aren’t going to do shit next year.” (Brady, 1). When faced with this criticism he decided to fire back with what he had to say instead of ignoring the posts. His demand to fire back sparked the sports world as he became headline news through sports media for his actions. As the attention for Johnny Manziel shifted towards his negative behavior on social media instead of his accomplishments, the reputation he upholds as an athlete began to be affected. With growing concern, as to how athletes navigate this world of social media, taking a closer look on the regulations enforced, how they are promoting themselves, and how they are reacting to the constant criticism placed upon them by the media will help to understand the impact social media has made.
Social Media's Impact on Athletes
Athletes are arguably the one sport stakeholder group who have been most significantly affected by social media (Smith, 343). With athletes being a sport stakeholder, pressure may be placed upon them to engage in social media. Athletes participate in social media to be able to communicate and share aspects of themselves with the world. It is very rare to see an athlete that does not have a social media account active in today’s culture. One social media database that is used very frequently for sports is Twitter. For instance, an athlete will tweet to share the time and place of an upcoming game, share their feelings about a game, or to interact with fans. Problems with athletes and their social media accounts tend to arise when they start to use their accounts in ways that do not represent themselves in a positive light. This gives fans access to criticize or form opinions of an athlete. So, the question to keep in mind is how is social media making an impact on athlete’s behavior?
The purpose of researching how social media affects athlete’s behaviors is important because many athletes are restricted as to what they can share. With this, sports organizations are taking away athlete’s voices. Forcing the athletes to conform to what the media requests puts them under a microscope, while the media looks for any slip-ups. Many sports organizations provide athletes with strict guidelines as to how they are to use their social media accounts. It is essential for high schools, colleges, and professional sport organizations to develop clear, comprehensive, and specific policies regarding athletes use of social networking web sites in order to avoid the dangers of social media (Han, 11). As regulations are implemented for social media use, athletes can develop a better understanding of what is and is not allowed for the media.
Whether they abide by these regulations is completely up to them. Allowing social media use can enhance the organization’s visibility and cultivate responsibility but can also create controversy publicly and within the team (Rundio, 341). For example, due to the recent embarrassing issues involving social media misuse by student athletes, the NCAA has a substantial incentive to limit social media use by student athletes-possibly by banning its use altogether (Hernandez, 53). Without rules and regulations set, athletes could get away with anything they desire to share through the media. NCAA holds high standards to their athletes and expects them to follow the rules implemented, but there have been some cases where athletes have disobeyed the regulations. For instance, the University of North Carolina suffered major consequences when some of their athletes were caught misusing social media in 2012. North Carolina received a ban from post-season bowl games and a reduction in scholarships after several football players were found to be involved with professional agents (Hernandez, 54). After this incident, the NCAA went on to enforce that athletes’ social media accounts be monitored by their coaches. Anything shared online is there to stay, so athletes must be aware that what they share is appropriate and will not affect them in any way negatively.
Although social media puts athletes under constant supervision with their posts, there is a way to inspire others through their accounts by promoting a positive brand. The accessibility social media has given users is instantaneous, giving fans an immediate notification when their favorite athlete has shared something. This allows many athletes to shape an image for themselves and gain popularity. In the article For Athletes, social media not all fun and games, Sean Doolittle states “Twitter gives me the ability to show my personality…I like to use it as an outlet for fans to see a different side of me.” Athletes tend to use social media databases as their outlets to showcase their personalities and to demonstrate that there is more to them. By using these social media platforms, athletes take a more active part in their public presentation and share more aspects of their identity than what is typically portrayed in mainstream media coverage (Sanderson, 343). Sports fans enjoy following up on their favorite players on social media. Social media enhances perceptions that athletes and sports figures are ‘closer’ to fans as they gain digital and physical access (Pieper, 261). Fans feel special when they interact with athletes through social media and become closer to them.
Sports fans expect athletes to set an image for the world to see. According to an article from the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, "Athletes rely a great deal on their public image" (Smith, 344). Displaying an enjoyable public image is important for the athlete’s career. How the public perceives an athlete can play a significant role in his/her ability to obtain endorsements and in leveraging sports teams when seeking to re-negotiate contracts (Smith, 344). If athletes can avoid the negative exposure that can come along with social media, then their public images can easily stay enjoyable.
Athletes experience criticism from sports fans all throughout their careers. Whether the criticism is positive or negative, it is up to the athlete to act as a role model and accept whatever is said about them. Reputations can be damaged if an athlete decides to get involved with the negativity thrown at them day in and day out through social media. There have been cases where athletes have decided to get involved in criticism through the media. For example, Johnny Manziel created an uproar on Twitter as he got himself involved with negativity from sports fans. Johnny Manziel doesn't ignore Twitter posts- he fires back (Brady, 1). He portrayed his self-image in a negative light when using Twitter. Johnny Manziel’s tweets brought upon a great deal of criticism and many sports fans started forming opinions because of his behavior. Athletes are human and mistakes can happen, but they still have reputations to uphold.
When criticism and negative remarks are thrown on social media, athletes must make the decision whether to respond or to just accept what is being said about them and move on. Athletes sometimes will save themselves the trouble in the long run and just quit using Twitter altogether (Brady, 1). The negativity being said by sports fans places pressure on athletes, because they are human and mistakes can happen. Acting out when faced with criticism can result in a damaged reputation. This happened to Johnny Manziel when he fired back to make a stand for himself and ended up getting more hate and criticism placed upon him. His reputation for using social media in positive way changed after these occurrences.
Staying on the right path and keeping a respectable reputation is important for athletes to understand. Social media is powerful within our culture and in many cases the flaws and mistakes of athletes never go unnoticed. The behaviors of athletes become headline news stories to give the public something to talk about. The only way for athletes to avoid these complications is if they are properly aware of the negative exposure social media can produce. Athletes and sports organizations use many social media databases to promote themselves. Twitter, as an important tool of social media, has rapidly become a popular online means of communication in the sport industry for sharing news in both professional and collegiate sports (Yoon, 26). The use of Twitter has improved profoundly within the sports world in today’s culture. In this sense, Twitter has been an effective marketing tool to attract more fans and consumers, expanding the audiences, and allowing sport organizations to build and manage brands (Yoon, 26).
Athletes all over the world are very active on this social media database. There are many ups and downs to usage on Twitter by athletes and in most cases the negatives outweighs the positives. For instance, many college football organizations did away with the use of Twitter because of controversies evolving. Boise States football coach Chris Petersen banned his players from using Twitter during the season, coach Tumer Gill did the same for Kansas' football players, and coach John Calipari suspended athlete Josh Harrellson from using his account he criticized the head coach (Bradley, 20). The coaches saw that Twitter was inferring with the team and decided it was something that they could do away with. Blair Browning stated in the article To Tweet or Not to Tweet? that “Twitter can be a really constructive, positive tool but we need to train and educate our student-athletes instead of putting all this money toward being watchdogs” (Bradley, 20). This statement is in regards to sports organizations paying to have their players monitored. Instead of coaches and sports organizations monitoring the athletes’ usage on social media, what should be
expected from them and what will not be tolerated should be made clear up front. Monitoring athletes’ usage on social media can be a difficult and a lot of work for sports organizations so in some cases coaches are trying to find ways to just ban their use altogether. Coaches need to sit their athletes down and teach them the rights and wrongs of social media (Penrose, 31). By doing this athlete’s behavioral issues through the media could possibly be minimized.
Social media has made an impact on athletes. In some cases, it can have a negative impact as you can see with the athlete Johnny Manziel. An inability to stay positive in the face of criticism causes a player to damage their reputation. For a positive impact to be made an athlete must make this decision. Athletes are challenged with staying positive throughout the media, so considering what they post is righteous in helping them do so.
Works Cited
Bradley, Ken. “To Tweet or Not to Tweet?” Sporting News 235.21 (2011): 20. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.
Brady, Erick et al. "For athletes, social media not all fun and games." USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Feb. 2017.
Han, Peter and Mark A. Dodds. “Can A Sport Organization Monitor Its Employees’ and Athletes’ Use Of Social Media?” JOPERD: The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance 84.3 (2013): 9-12. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Feb. 2017.
Hernandez, Aaron. "All Quiet on The Digital Front: The NCAA's Wide Discretion in Regulating Social Media." Texas Review of Entertainment & Sports Law 15.1 (2013): 53-66. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Feb. 2017.
Pegoraro, Ann. “Look Who’s Talking- Athletes on Twitter: A Case Study.” International Journal of Sport Communication 3.4 (2010): 501-514. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. 18 Feb. 2017.
Penrose, Meg. “Tinkering with Success: College Athletes, Social Media and The First Amendment.” Pace Law Review 35.1 (2014): 30-72. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Feb. 2017.
Pieper, Lindsey Parks. “It’s a Whole New Ball-Game: How Social Media Is Changing Sports.” Journal of Sport Management 27.3 (2013): 261-262. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Feb. 2017.
Rundio, Amy. “Developing Successful Social Media Plans in Sport Organizations.” Journal of Sport Management 30.3 (2016): 341-342. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Feb. 2017.
Smith, Lauren Reichart, and Jimmy Sanderson. “I’m Going to Instagram It! An Analysis of Athlete Self-Presentation on Instagram.” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 59.2 (2015): 342-358. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Feb. 2017.
Yoon, Juha, et al. “Gender Effects on Sport Twitter Consumption: Differences in Motivations and Constraints.” Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (1947-2900) 6.3 (2014): 25-37. Academic Search Complete. Web 18 Feb. 2017.
Reflection
For this project, I chose to research how social media is impacting athletes in today's culture. My whole life I have always been involved in sports and I have realized over the year’s social media has really made an impact on athletes. I wanted to do more research on the matter so I decided to explore and find an answer for my research question. The hardest part about this project was creating an outline to discuss each argument that I was making for my research. Once I was able to figure out put my information in a certain order. I finally developed my research paper. Discussing in class how to create outlines for my research was very helpful in the making of this project also. I was able to find very reliable sources on athletes and their social media use so that I could research paper together. I definitely got my big break after meeting with my professor and talking about what I could do to make my paper stronger. This project also involved interviewing a relevant source on my subject of social medias impact on athletes. I interviewed a former collegiate athlete, and now coach to see what her thoughts were on the subject matter. After the interview, I was able to gain an understanding on the matter from the point of view of an actual athlete. Social media has become a problem for some athletes but it is up to the athletes themselves to decide how they will manage their accounts. This project became fun to write about once I was able to bring all my thoughts together and finalize a paper on the subject matter.
Research Proposal
Annotated Bibliography
Interview
Draft 1
Draft 2