Remember tuning into SportsCenter for breaking news and highlights? Now social media forums such as Twitter and Instagram allow an athlete to share his or her story first by tweeting or “graming” thereby bypassing the traditional route of news sharing. This is sometimes to the chagrin of a team or athlete’s public relations representative who may have to perform some damage control.
While balancing the right of freedom of speech under the First Amendment, some athletes have to be careful with the content they post. For example, take Ray Rice. The former running back for the Ravens once tweeted “Just got pulled over for my tints Smh but gave the officer a autograph for his son and he let me go.” While his actions were not against the law per se, he publicly admitted to having essentially bribed a police officer. As a result the police officer likely received some repercussions or a nice scolding from his superiors. Some of the public was also disgusted over an athlete feeling entitled and using his stardom to get out of a ticket. Another example, Davone Bess, former NFL player, once posted a photo on Twitter of marijuana in his house. Poor judgment for sure. As an aside, under the new NFL CBA which took effect in January 2020, players will no longer be suspended if they fail a drug test for smoking marijuana. But this is not exactly a green light to flaunt it all.
More in line with what is going on currently in the world, NFL Bronco players Davontae Harris and Shelby Harris engaged in a little Twitter snafu recently about differing opinions on mask requirements amid the coronavirus. D. Harris twittered,
“If I see another parent walking around with a mask on and their toddler doesn’t I’m slapping them”
In response S. Harris twittered,
“Strong statement from someone who doesn’t have kids” and the back and forth continued. While entertaining for fans, athletes might tick off their organization, coaches and agents and also alienate some fans for posting their political and social views.
The traditional route for news sharing usually involved a sports organization sharing selective news about a particular athlete or event with a specific news outlet such as ESPN. The sports organization could select what pieces of information to share and what information to withhold. The news outlet in turn would craft and tailor the story to present it to their own fan base and audience.
Now news outlets such as ESPN, Bleacher Report, Fox Sports and SI rely heavily on athletes’ trending tweets. A good example is when an athlete announces their retirement on Twitter. Athletes can also send very strong messages on Twitter and some get disciplined for same. LeBron James sent out a strong message the time he unfollowed his own team the Cavs on Twitter and Instagram leaving fans and media outlets alike up in arms.
Hearing news first from the athlete himself or herself creates a bond between athlete and fan and allows fans to engage one-on-one directly with the athlete by commenting on a particular post, sharing a particular post and feeling like part of the athlete’s life. This especially rings true when the athlete engages their fan and audience by responding directly to a fan comment.
Twitter and other social media forums can serve as an avenue for an athlete to share unfiltered news about their life and humanizes an athlete. Fans may feel they can relate to a particular athlete. This is opposed to the selective style utilized by news outlets that pick and choose which parts of a story to tell and on occasion over-sensationalizing a story and sometime downplaying a story.
Bottom line is social media has provided athletes a venue to share their story directly to their fans without a middle-man. However First Amendment freedoms must be balanced with the message a particular athlete is trying to send to their fan base.
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