Date of Award

Spring 3-2022

Degree Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

School

Communication

Committee Chair

Lindsey Maxwell

Committee Chair School

Communication

Committee Member 2

David Davies

Committee Member 2 School

Communication

Committee Member 3

Laura Stengrim

Committee Member 3 School

Communication

Abstract

This study sought to investigate fan reactions to the NCAA communication around the elimination of NC State from the 2021 Baseball College World Series. NC State was eliminated due to Covid-19 protocols. A content analysis was conducted by looking at posts from various NCAA related accounts on Instagram and Twitter: @ncaabaseball, @ncaa, @ncstatebaseball, @vandyboys, @hailstatebb, and @texasbaseball. Content was analyzed using frames such as Health/Covid-19, Fans, Team Spotlight, Game Update, Elimination, Hype, Merch, and Sympathy. The study concluded that the while NCAA accounts ignored the incident and Health/Covid-19 frames altogether, the posts about Health/Covid-19 from team accounts actually gained a lot of attention from fans. Also, Instagram seemed to have a strong influence, which is something that the social media managers of these accounts should not ignore.

ORCID ID

0000-0002-7971-6639

Download

  Contact Author

Share

COinS