"Policing the social media craze"

From ESPN.com

Review by Jennifer Luck in SRM 334

140 characters. That is the amount of characters the 140 million Twitter users have to
express themselves. College athletes have joined the social media craze. For most,
they’re casual outlets that rarely cause problems. But when the outlets become online
soap boxes for emotional young adults, issues can arise.

In recent years, college coaches and athletic directors have dealt with a variety of
social media challenges. At the Catholic University of America the whole lacrosse
team was suspended because of hazing photographs of new athletes posted on their
“personal” Facebook accounts. Kansas basketball coach Bill Self had to break up a
Twitter fight between former player Tyshawn Taylor and critical fans.

Firms such as Varsity Monitor, UDiligence, and CentrixSocial have capitalized on
the growth of social media and try to help schools control negative Internet behavior.
These firms offer schools a computer application that allows them to filter and identity
problematic social media behavior. Universities are reaching out to these firms
because they want to protect their brands and players.

However, there are times where athletes possess the technology to instantly broadcast
messages and photos before any type of authority can intercept them. For example,
the University of North Carolina. The NCAA cited North Carolina for failing to
monitor their players tweets which led to an investigation and violations. Because of
one tweet posted by former football player Marvin Austin, fifteen scholarships were
revoked and a one year bowl ban was placed.

In the past, student athletes were prepped for only interviews. Now, they must be
reminded that social media is an open forum. Young men and women may think
because they have specific “privacy” settings it won’t reach a media outlet, but most
of the time it does. Student athletes and social media have become big issues on
college campuses over the last few years, but universities are taking steps to prevent
negative images of their programs from being posted and tweeted. Education towards
athletes on what to say on social networking sites has become the leading way to
keep a positive face. How universities face the social media era and their athletes will
be left up to their own discretion until the NCAA develops restrictions.

Social media is here to stay and as future employees in the sports industry we must
learn to embrace it for the way it can connect a fan base and promote a team or player
rather than shun it because of its potential embarrassing and distracting tendencies. If
we do, we will have a leg up in the arms race of college athletics.

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Review by Caroline Snedegar in SRM 334

In the article, “Policing the Social Media Craze” it talks about the recent impact the social media has had on the world of sports, specifically concerning college athletes, coaches, and athletic directors and how they deal with the challenges that the social media brings. With the constant use of social media people now can access it basically 24/7, which means athletes and coaches have to monitor what they say even more closely since the media and audiences have access to this information the second it is published online. Where some coaches see the benefits and actually promote the use of social media like twitter; it can also hurt a program if certain players aren’t careful about what they put out on the web. While most programs rely “on individual teams to inspect social media accounts (Medcalf, 2012),” however, with the immense amount of athletes there is no possible way that everything that gets put out on a social media source can be fully monitored. The majority of athletes have “instruments that allow them to broadcast messages and photos to people around the world before any authority can intercept them (Medcalf, 2012),” which has caused either citations with the NCAA or backlash from the media and fans in general.

This article exemplifies the constant evolution of the Sport’s Media Industry, with the rapid growth of social media it has impacted how people in this field have to deal and adjust by adding another media outlet for delivering information. Guest Speaker for our class, Niki DeSantis, Assistant Commissioner for Creative Services for the CAA, even thought that the increase use of the social media and online media sources has definitely increased her work load and adds another element that has to be constantly updated for the public and is on constant display.