Summary of research

A Qualitative Study Analyzing High Profile Student Athletes and Student Athletes on a High Profile Team's Twitter Use Nichols, Robert J. . University of Kansas, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2015. 10008844.

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ABSTRACT Given how “context, audience, and identity intersect is one of the central challenges people face in learning how to

navigate social media” (boyd, 2014, p. 30), the purpose of this study was to understand how six freshmen student

athletes on a high profile team (men’s basketball) from a major Midwestern university used Twitter to interact with

their team members, university students, and fans of their respective sport. As these six student athletes on a high

profile team made the transition from high school and underwent their freshmen year they took on new roles and

identifies, such as a representative of a university, beyond that of their non-athlete peers. At the beginning of the

study, only one participant entered the university as a high profile student athlete, two others became high profile

during the course of their freshman year, and the remaining three remained student athletes on a high profile team.

Because of the high number of student athletes who used Twitter during this time of transition, it is important for

universities to pay heed, due to the amount of attention these student athletes garner. The study followed the six

student athletes’ use of Twitter, which was the student’s social media of choice, from the time they became a

university student (i.e. their arrival on campus) through the fall of their freshmen semester and until the end of the

spring semester. The subjects were interviewed about their Twitter use to try to understand their expressed

reasons for how they used Twitter, whom they interacted with, how they viewed themselves on Twitter, and how

they perceived their audience. The final component of the study was an analysis of their tweets to try to identify

themes. The study attempted to understand the Twitter experience for high profile student athletes, using

qualitative methods. This study looked at what their use of Twitter suggested about how they negotiated their

various roles with their followers on Twitter. DETAILS

Subject: Sports Management; Educational technology; Curriculum development

Classification: 0430: Sports Management; 0710: Educational technology; 0727: Curriculum

development

Identifier / keyword: Social sciences Education Athletics High profile Social media Student athletes

Twitter

Number of pages: 106

Publication year: 2015

Degree date: 2015

School code: 0099

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Source: DAI-A 77/07(E), Dissertation Abstracts International

Place of publication: Ann Arbor

Country of publication: United States

ISBN: 9781339455488

Advisor: O'Brien, Joseph

Committee member: Frey, Bruce; McKnight, Philip; Ward, Scott; White, Steven

University/institution: University of Kansas

Department: Curriculum and Teaching

University location: United States -- Kansas

Degree: Ph.D.

Source type: Dissertations &Theses

Language: English

Document type: Dissertation/Thesis

Dissertation/thesis number: 10008844

ProQuest document ID: 1765388256

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