Running Head: IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON COLLEGE SPORTS 1
THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON COLLEGE SPORTS 11
THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON COLLEGE SPORTS
Joseph Porchetta
Purdue University
Author Note
Joseph Porchetta is a graduate student at Brian Lamb School of Communication, Purdue University
Social Media is a new technology that has swept the world with its phenomenal growth, becoming main stream in the way people communicate. It has affected the communication and marketing efforts in all areas of the economy, including college sports. Since other industries have embraced its value for communication and marketing strategies, so have college sports realized the benefits (Wallace, Wilson & Miloch, 2011). It has provided new ways for athletic departments to engage with its stakeholders in conjunction with traditional media. This research investigates college athletics usage of social media as a tool in areas of public relations, sales, promotion, crisis management and its impact on internal or external stakeholders.
English: Jack Dorsey and Barack Obama at Twitter T...
English: The Aviation and Missile Command can now ...
English: A protester holding a placard in Tahrir S...The increase in popularity among fans and student-athletes is another factor for new media to be embraced by the coaching community. The direct access and interactions among users creates many opportunities, but can also have a negative implication, which will be discussed.
Tally (2011) explained, "10 years ago an athletic department might have been limited to phone calls or direct mailings to promote ticket sales, new coaches or random happenings within an athletic department. But now athletic departments are expected to engage fans as much as they can and that often means the use of twitter, Facebook, foursquare or any other new social media platform out there", (para 3).
Since the financial crisis, higher education has dealt with budget constraints and partially funded athletic programs (Calvio, 2011; Calvio & Walsh, 2013; Tally, 2011; Berkowitz, Upton & Brady, 2013). Social media provides an...