A Phenomenological Investigation Into How Twitter Has Changed … · A Phenomenological...

ORIGINAL RESEARCHInternational journal of Sport Communication, 2013, 6, 394-408©2013 Human Kinetics, Inc.

A Phenomenological InvestigationInto How Twitter Has Changed

the Nature of Sport Media Relations

Chris Gibbs Richard HaynesRyerson University, Canada Stirling University, Scotland

This article uses the phenomenological method to explain how Twitter has changedthe nature of sport media relations. The research was based on semistructuredinterviews with 18 Canadian and U.S. sport media professionals having anaverage 16 yr of experience. This exploratory study uses the lived experience ofsport media professionals to identify 3 clusters that help explain how Twitter haschanged the nature of sport media relations: media landscape, "mechanical" jobfunctions, and sport media relations. The results of this research are significantbecause they help explain how the practices and norms related to the role of sportmedia relations are changing as a result of Twitter. This research presents a newargument: that Twitter has flattened the sport hierarchy and could be consideredthe most influential social-media platform in sport today.

Keywords: social media, sport communications, phenomenology, new media

Before the Internet and digital-media cultures, the distribution of sport contentwas traditionally controlled and managed by broadcasters, journalists, and othermembers of traditional media (Hutchins & Rowe, 2012). After the launch of theWorld Wide Web and team-based Web sites, by the late 1990s teams had startedto distribute content directly to fans rather than through traditional media (Boyle& Haynes, 2004). A further shift in the team distribution of sport content occurredwith the introduction of social-media applications such as YouTube, Twitter, andFacebook. In sport, the microblogging format of Twitter has opened up a new chan-nel of communication for athletes, teams, coaches, fans, and sport media membersto distribute their own content (Sanderson, 2012). One corollary of Twitter has beenthe instant bypassing of journalism and sport officials in the circulation of sportcommunications, which has tbe potential to undermine their gatekeeping functionin the sport media nexus (Hutchins, 2011).

Twitter has created new jobs and responsibilities for those who work in sportmedia relations. However, it has also created uncertainty and change (Boyle &Haynes, 2011 ; Sanderson, 2012). Researchers have explored how Twitter is affecting

Gibbs is with the Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada. Haynesis with the Stirling Media Research Institute, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland.

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Sport Media Relations and Twitter 395

sport journalism (Schultz & Sheffer, 2010) and how social-media platforms such asTwitter are having an impact on the practice of public relations (Wright & Hinson,2010). To date, a limited amount of research has explored how Twitter is affectingsport media relations (Boyle, 2012; Boyle & Haynes, 2013), specifically the inter-relationships between sport gatekeepers and sport journalists. This study providesnew insight on contemporary sport media relations, with a specific focus on thechanging nature of sport communication management and the use of Twitter. Ourcontention is that Twitter has usurped the hierarchy of sport media in profound ways.Following Friedman (2006), we suggest that media sport relations have becomeflatter because of convergent, interactive digital-media environments such as Twitter.

Literature Review

Role of Sport Media Relations

According to Stoldt, Dittmore, and Pedersen (2011), the goals of sport mediarelations are to manage relationships with the mass media to generate positivepublicity for the sport product or organization. Core features of this role includebuilding relationships, maintaining communication, creating public relations plans,making pitches, managing the story, creating talking points, and managing crises(Mullin, Hardy, & Sutton, 2007). Media-relations responsibilities include "culti-vating publicity, managing statistical services, managing the media at games andcompetitions, and managing Web sites" (Stoldt, Dittmore, & Branvold, 2012, p.12). Other responsibilities of media relations include writing news releases, plan-ning news conferences, arranging interviews with players, preparing media kits,and managing the press box—professional practices in keeping with the natureof the press-agentry-publicity model of public relations set out by Grunig andGrunig(1992).

To achieve positive feedback from fans, sport officials, and sport journalists,teams provide assistance and services to the mainstream media to facilitate researchand the writing of stories. Most professional sport organizations now employ spe-cialist communications personnel for this specific purpose. Sport media relationsare therefore viewed as a key strategic management function, mainly because ofthe intense media focus on teams, stars, coaches, and owners. Although the emer-gence of social media has not necessarily altered these core communications, ithas arguably transformed both the tools and the processes of communication formany sport organizations.

Twitter and the Changing Sport Media Environment

Since its introduction in 2006, Twitter has become an integral part of sport media.It has been reported that Twitter has over 200 million active users (Golijan, 2013).As of June 15, 2013, there were over 7,400 athletes with verified user accounts. Itis reported that global superstar athletes Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James have21.4 and 9.8 million followers, respectively. Twitter is the predominant social mediaused by athletes, teams, and leagues for directly engaging with their wider publics.

The Web site www.sportsfangraph.com reports that, as of June 15, 2013,almost all professional teams use Twitter, and combined they have over 107

396 Gíbbs and Haynes

million followers. From a management perspective, the surging popularity and useof Twitter in sport raises new challenges for sport organizations, many of whichhave introduced social-media policies to manage the flow and nature of messagesfrom the locker room. For example, in response to a halftime tweet by NBA playerCharles Villanueva, the NBA introduced a policy on serial media that embargoedplayer tweets 45 minutes either side of a game and mitigated against any messagesdeemed to be inappropriate by the league (Stein, 2009).

To understand how Twitter has changed sport journalism, Schultz and Sheffer(2010) surveyed 146 sport journalists in September 2009 and observed that littlehad changed in the daily news routines of many sport journalists. However, there isevidence that journalists have begun to use Twitter as a promotional tool for pointingreaders to their work, and broadcast journalists also value the interactive nature ofsocial media for communicating directly with fans. Schultz and Sheffer's surveypredated much of the immersion of sport journalists into the use of Twitter, whichis now increasingly central to setting the sport news agenda (Boyle, 2012; Boyle& Haynes, 2013). The increased adoption of Twitter by journalists is a reflectionof a broader amplification of Twitter's influence on the traditional media's use oftweets as a significant source for news (Meikle & Young, 2012).

Qualitative research by Kian and Zimmerman (2012) also provides insights intothe use of new online media platforms in sport communications. By interviewingeight prominent sport journalists who transitioned from newsprint to the Internet,that study revealed the need for journalists to develop new skills to adapt to newtechnology and succeed in their everyday practice. Although the research did notfocus specifically on Twitter, it nevertheless demonstrated the value of phenomeno-logical research for understanding the impacts of technology on media practitioners.

Previous research has examined the changing landscape of sport journalismas a result of technology, yet no research has to date looked at the change in thenature of sport media relations as a result of Twitter or other forms of technology.In the this study we provide the first detailed insight into the transformation ofsport media relations in response to social-media and digital-media culture throughinterviews with 18 sport media professionals: nine team media-relations employees,five sport-public-relations/digital experts, and four sport journalists

Twitter has been the subject of empirical studies related to athlete tweets(Browning & Sanderson, 2012; Clavio, Burch, & Frederick, 2012; Clavio & Kian,2010; Frederick, Lim, Clavio, & Walsh, 2012; Hambrick, Simmons, Greenhalgh,& Greenwell, 2010; Lebel & Danylchuk, 2012; Pegoraro, 2010; Shockley, 2011 ),athlete-fan interaction (Kassing & Sanderson, 2010), sport journalism (Schultz &Sheffer, 2010; Sheffer & Schultz, 2010), and team use of Twitter (Clavio et al.,2012; Gibbs & O'Reilly, 2013), but less is known about Twitter's overall role inpresent-day sport media relations. This phenomenological study will draw on thelived experiences of sport media professionals.

MethodologyThis study focused on understanding how Twitter has changed the nature of sportmedia relations. A qualitative research approach was used to develop the theoreticalframework (Corbin & Strauss, 2008; Miles & Huberman, 1984). The study usedsemistructured long interview questions and a phenomenological research design.


Due to the limited previous research available about the topic, an inductive approachwas deemed appropriate for this study. The use of phenomenology was selectedbecause insights are extracted from the lived experiences ofthe people involved inthe phenomenon that is being researched (Goulding, 2005). Phenomenology hasbeen used to understand participation in extreme sports (Willig, 2008), Internetsport bloggers (Kian, Burden, & Shaw, 2011), the transition of sport journalistsfrom newspaper to the Internet (Kian & Zimmerman, 2012), and the culture ofsport communication in college athletics (Battenfield, 2013). Due to the emergentnature of Twitter in sport, the lived experiences of people who work in differentroles in sport media appear to offer the best source for identifying and demonstrat-ing the impact of the technology. The research started unhindered by hypothesesor preconceptions about the work of sport media professionals and was thereforeparticularly effective at bringing relevant experiences to the forefront that wereused to create new conceptions of sport media practice.

Each respondent was asked a range of questions in a semistructured interviewthat probed the extent to which Twitter had had an impact on their work and sportmedia relations more generally. Respondents were asked to provide exampleswherever possible from their lived experience. In this respect, questioning focusedon the following: what practitioners believed to be the most disruptive social-mediaplatform for sport media relations; how Twitter changed the daily activities of theirjob; the ways in which Twitter enhanced, amplified, or intensified their work; whatis made obsolete or replaced by the use of Twitter; their views on how Twitter haschanged media relations in their particular sport; and, in connection with this,respondents were asked to provide their best example to describe how Twitter haschanged media relations.

Sampling Selection

At the start of this project, the subjects of the interviews were primarily media-relations managers. However, after several interviews at the start of the researchprocess, three problems with this process were identified, (a) The fact that a personworks in a media-relations role does not guarantee that he or she had any priorknowledge about sport media relations before Twitter. A person who has workedin media relations for 2-3 years only knows the post-Twitter media role and lacksthe historical perspective needed to explain the change that Twitter caused, (b)Interviewing only team media-relations staff narrows the expertise and knowledgeavailable, (c) Collecting data from different types of informants such as sport jour-nalists, who are the traditional gatekeepers of sport news, would allow for a form ofdata triangulation that incorporates input from different perspectives (Groenewald,2004). Thus, the interviews conducted with journalists were an important resourcethat broadened the understanding of how Twitter has changed the overall natureand job responsibilities in sport media relations.

From these considerations, two sets of criteria were established for informants.First, they had to have worked in sport media before 2008. As usage of Twitter insport became popular around 2009, this stipulation would ensure they had experi-ence before Twitter and could comment on the change. Second, they had to haveworked in sport media in a team, league, broadcast, news-publication, or athletecapacity.

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Eighteen informants were recruited through a mix of personal contacts and thesnowball technique (one interviewee nominates others). At the end of each inter-view with a primary informant or personal contact of the researchers, additionalinformants were recommended, which helped identify an informal professionalnetwork of sport media practitioners in U.S. and Canadian sport organizations. Theuse of the snowball technique enabled us to recruit an additional eight interviewparticipants, which gave the study a more diverse set of informants who werehighly relevant to the study and extended beyond our geographic and professionalboundaries.

The informants were contacted via e-mail and asked to schedule 1 hour of timefor the interview. A total of 18 people who work in sport media were interviewed,with the average length of sport media work experience being 16 years (Table 1 ).Consequently, most ofthe informants had worked for multiple different teams andleagues, and their experience spanned multiple different roles. From the interviewgroup, 9 were currently working for a team or league in a mediaOrelations capac-ity, 4 were sport journalists, and 5 were sport or public-relations/digital-mediaexperts. With the exception of the sfKjrt journalists, all informants worked for

Table 1 Sport-Media-Relations Interview Summary

Informant

123456789101112131415161718

Date ofinterview"

May 2June 21July 12July 18July 21May 30May 31June 4June 5June 6June 6June 7June 8June 8June 8June 11June 12June 18

Role

Team media relationsTeam media relationsTeam media relationsTeam media relationsTeam media relationsTeam media relationsSport journalistsSport PR/digitalSport PR/digitalSport PR/digitalSport journalistsTeam media relationsSport journalistsSport journalistsTeam media relationsTeam media relationsSport PR/digitalSport PR/digital

Sports organizationworking with"

NHL and NBACFLCFLCFLCFLNHLNewspaperNHLNBA, NFL, and NHLBroadcastNewspaper + BroadcastNHLNewspaperBroadcastNBANBANBA, NFL, and NHLNBA

Years ofexperience"

1244109617277161717193632242430

Note. NHL = National Hockey League; NBA = National Basketball Association; CFL = Canadian Football League;PR = public relations; NFL = National Football League.

"All interviews conducted in 2012. These organizations represent the current category of sporting organizationthat the informant is working for or with at the time of the interviews. In most cases they work for a team in aleague. 'Calculated based on the interview occurring in 2012.


professional-league teams or league offices in Canada and the United States duringtheir career. Generally, team media-relations informants only worked for one orpotentially two different teams, whereas the sport or public-relations/digital-mediaexperts consistently worked for multiple teams.

Data Collection and Analysis

A formal interview protocol was used to ensure that the interviews were conductedusing standard procedures. The interviewer asked a preset list of questions, as wellas additional probing questions. In keeping with the pbenomenological approach,probing questions were directed at the participants' feelings, beliefs, and experi-ences related to the question (Welman & Kruger, 1999). During the interviews,the researcher would frequently follow up with more questions or ask for furtherexplanation to probe deeper into the phenomenon. All interviews were conductedby telephone between June and July 2012, recorded, transcribed, and coded foranalysis in Nvivo.

To analyze the transcribed interviews, four steps for data explication were used:(1) bracketing and phenomenological reduction, (2) delineating units of mean-ing, (3) clustering of units of meaning to form themes, and (4) extracting generaland unique themes that make a composite summary (Groenewald, 2004; Hycner,1985). The only modification to the steps created by Hycner was the review of theinterview summary by the interviewee. Time limitations made the possibility ofa second interview not feasible. To offset this missing step, the researchers spentextra time in the review and coding process to ensure that the lived experiences ofthe informants were captured.

Results

Twitter and Sport Media Practitioners

In this study. Twitter emerged as the most used and influential social-media plat-form in sport media relations. Even after probing questions related to Facebookor YouTube were asked. Twitter was still considered the most disruptive platform.Though the literature review alluded to this aspect of Twitter, the interviews con-firmed that Twitter was the most influential form of social media for sport mediarelations. A digital-media expert who works with multiple teams commented,"The most disruptive—I suppose it would have to be Twitter.... Probably gottenthe most headlines and caused tbe most challenges just because it's real-time andso convenient and can travel with players in the locker room or on the sidelines"(Informant #9—sport PR/digital expert NBA, NFL, and NHL). This viewpoint wasalso shared by someone with more than 32 years of sports experience: "Twitter,because it has given a direct voice for the athlete, the coach, and the manager tothe fans" (Informant #15—team media relations, NBA).

With the identification of Twitter confirmed as the most disruptive social-mediaplatform, three themes of change emerged from the interviews: media landscape,mechanical job functions, and changes specific to sport media relations. Together,these three categories provide insight from the lived experience into how Twitterhas changed the nature of sport media relations.


Media Landscape

The category "media landscape" includes the lived experiences that changed as aresult of Twitter and other media. This category was labeled and segmented outfrom other categories because it provides general insights into lived experiencesthat are relevant to all forms of media relations and technology—not limiting theexperiences of respondents to sport or Twitter. Overall, two clusters of conceptsemerged from the informants' experiences: speed and media competition.

Speed. The speed of Twitter as a news-distribution platform was one ofthe expe-riences mentioned most by informants, several of whom frequently highlightedTwitter in comparison with other forms of media: "It's an avenue to break thingsmuch, much faster than traditional media" (Informant #6—team media relations,NHL); "Twitter is faster to access things" (Informant #18—team media relations,NBA). When sharing experiences about Twitter, many informants discussed thespeed of Twitter in comparison with the past: "Where in the old days . . ." (Infor-mant #14—sport journalist). The results of this increased speed of media com-munication means that media-relations staff must react more quickly to issues asthey arise in real time.

Media Competition. The media-competition category consists of commentsabout how Twitter has increased the competition among traditional media outletsand how teams now compete against traditional media for exposure. The experi-ences discussed by the informants are also relevant to media relations in a nonsportcontext because journalists are often in competition with other forms of new media.The increased competition among journalists was common in comments by teammedia-relations informants: "Twitter nowadays is like the biggest source of competi-tion for members of the print media" (Informant #6—team media relations, NHL).

Time Demands. One of the interesting comments from a digital-media expert,which was echoed by other informants, was related to the shifts in the work sched-ule for people working in sport media. Twitter creates an environment whereinmedia-relations staffs constantly follow Twitter to be aware of issues: "It's changedthe rhythm of sports, where it was already bad enough. It now truly is 24/7 365"(Informant #17—sport PR/digital expert, NBA, NFL, and NHL).

Mechanical Job Functions

The "mechanical job functions" category was derived from comments related tonew job functions—now performed by sport-media-relations staff—that did notexist before Twitter. Unlike media-landscape category items, which could havebeen caused by other forms of digital technology or could be applicable to mediarelations in other verticals or industries, the category of mechanical job functionsis specific to Twitter.

This category includes a summary of the new tasks performed as a result ofTwitter. The term mechanical came from one of the informants with more than 21years of experience, who described how Twitter has changed sport communications:"I can say the mechanics ofthe communications job has changed" (Informant #15,team media relations NBA). Two clusters of concepts emerged from the informants'experiences: monitoring Twitter and tweeting.


Monitoring Twitter: Importance. By far the most-reported changes in the livedexperience of sport media relations are related to the function of monitoring Twitter.What was particularly interesting about these monitoring activities was the cross-monitoring between the different informants: In addition to monitoring players,both team media relations and Sportjournalist informants reported monitoring eachother. Informants continuously expressed the importance of monitoring Twitter:"Twitter is the first place that I go when I get off a plane to know what's going on"(Informant #7—Sportjournalist); "It makes us follow social media a lot during theday" (Informant #12—team media relations, NHL). Twitter has become so impor-tant to some sport journalists that it has become their primary monitoring tool. Oneinformant, who spends 5 hours a day online and used to follow four or five Websites every day, now only monitors Twitter; if a story or content is interesting, theinformant will then go to Web sites. For team media-relations staff, the importanceof monitoring Twitter is similar to that of sport journalists. The lived experiencesdemonstrate the necessity of monitoring a multitude of groups for different purposesat all times of the day, providing further insight into how Twitter has changed thejob functions of sport media relations.

Monitoring Twitter: Fan Service. Before Twitter, sport-media-relations staff hadvery limited contact with individual sport fans, as their primary focus was therelationships with traditional-media outlets and the team. With the onset of Twit-ter, media-relations staff must now monitor fan activity and respond to fan issues:"I'll kindof monitor the Twitter account during games... . It's just such an easierform of communication and it is very informal and everybody can see it. . . . [Ican respond to] questions that are answered easily" (Informant #3—team mediarelations, CFL).

The action of monitoring fan tweets has become necessary due to the impor-tance of a speedy response and the increased significance of this mode of fan inter-action. Several informants shared experiences in which monitoring Twitter duringa game enabled them to respond to pressing fan issues. In some cases, the issueswere related to the television broadcast, and one example even concerned gameofficiating. The media-relations staff understand the importanee of direct contactwith individual fans to meet their expectation of receiving an immediate response.

Monitoring Twitter: Players. All team media-relations staff reported monitoringthe players' Twitter activities. One team media-relations informant used Twitterto monitor and flag and did not use it to "regulate because I want them to do it andI treat them as brand ambassadors (Informant #3—team media relations, CFL).

Most of the players are on Twitter, so it's kind of hard to keep a real close watchduring nonbusiness hours and weekends. We see a good tweet by a player,and we'll say that's very smart, that's the way you should be using it; and ifsomeone sends us something that is a little off side we will certainly be thereto say you can't be doing that. (Informant #12—team media relations, NHL)

The general tone of the experiences with Twitter and monitoring athletes waspositive. Comments generally focused on good tweets that players have made ratherthan watching for risks. Team media-relations staff also used past tweets as a wayto coach and encourage players to connect with fans.


Rather than seeming frustrated at the new activity, which was hypothesized tobe the case as a result of increased workload, informants typically did not considerit burdensome, considering the act of monitoring Twitter a new job function. Weposit that this positive attitude toward increased responsibilities could be linkedto several motivations: (a) People working in sport media are often also devoutfans, which may lead them to find these insights into a player's life interestingand noteworthy; (b) managing a player's brand through Twitter may have madetheir job more streamlined, as it offers a single platform by which sport mediapersonnel can manage a sport brand in real time. For example, many sportmedia staff reported spending less time on the phone and face-to-face with othermedia professionals, which many would see as a significant advantage of Twitter;and/or (c) being proactive with this new media platform may give media-relationsstaff an advantage over colleagues who have not embraced this new communica-tion tool, which could help in their career advancement.

Monitoring Twitter: Media. The last group that team media relations frequentlymonitor was sport journalists. They monitored sport journalists to keep aware ofissues on which to brief players or coaches. Team media-relations staff commented,"It really will enable the media relations department to stay one step ahead ofthemedia, . . . to be as prepared as possible" (Informant #6^team media relations,NHL), and "We're always following on tweet deck and just trying to be a stepahead of the media or on the same step at least" (Informant #12—team mediarelations, NHL). This monitoring ofthe media is related to the increased speed ofcommunications and the need for the media-relations staff to prepare their coachor players before the media have an opportunity to meet with them.

Tweeting: Press Release. Team media relations all monitor Twitter and tweetedinformation. Two common techniques emerged from the team media-relationsinformants: reduced emphasis on the press release and timely game updates. Sev-eral informants reported that the traditional press release was no longer importantbecause of Twitter. Although these organizations still produce press releases, theymay use Twitter first and, if given a choice, will tweet versus a press release dueto its immediate, broad exposure to fans and other stakeholders. While many com-ments were related to reduced emphasis on the press release, two comments by teammedia-relations staff really stood out: "Press releases are pretty useless becauseby the time you send it out, the news is already out there on Twitter" (Informant#2—team media relations, CFL) and "We continue to e-mail newsletters and pressreleases and still deal with the media on a daily basis, but Twitter probably reducedthe emphasis on it" (Informant #4—team media relations, CFL).

Tweeting: Updates. Before Twitter, sport-media-relations staff would be incontact with the traditional-media outlets to update them on roster issues relatedto injuries, trades, or other items. Now these updates are simply tweeted out.One NBA executive with 24 years of experience commented that "Twitter hasaffected what we do prégame: We tweet out our starting lineup; we tweet outany injuries. . . . Same thing within games with the records or anything that isinteresting. . . . We never did anything like that before" (Informant #16—teammedia relations, NBA). By tweeting out these updates, the experience ofthe teammedia-relations staff suggests a change in the amount or importance of other forms


of traditional communication. Similar to the decrease in importance ofthe pressrelease, informants have experienced a decrease in the use of phone calls as aform of communication with sport journalists. One informant reported spending"less and less time on the phone than I ever have before" (Informant #6—teammedia relations, NHL). And another said.

In some cases it reduces face-to-face dialogue with reporters. Instead of megoing around to 25 reporters spread throughout the arena watching practice torelay an item of information, I can just send out a tweet. . . . So, it does takeaway the face-to-face dialogue. (Informant #12—team media relations, NHL)

Specific to Sport Media Relations

The category specific to media relations consists of the lived experiences relatedto how Twitter is changing the nature of sport media relations. Three clusters ofconcepts emerged from the informants' experiences: direct access, managementcontrol, and changing hierarchy.

Direct Access. The direct-access cluster of concepts is related to how Twitter iseliminating the traditional intermediary in the sport communications paradigm.Although it can be argued that the Internet and team Web sites were the firstplatforms that helped reduce the importance of intermediaries in sport communi-cations over time, the category of direct access supports the greater importanceof Twitter based on informant experiences. Within the category of direct access,two clusters of concepts support the statement that Twitter was the first platformto actively promote a closer connection between media-relations staff and the fan:filter elimination and direct fan access.

The concept of filter elimination is based on the experiences of team media-relations staff that demonstrate how Twitter enabled them to speak to a sport fanwithout using traditional media as an intermediary. Before Twitter, the facilitationof communication between media-relations staff and sport fans was limited to in-person experiences and Web-based communication platforms like chat rooms. Teammedia-relations staff reported "an unfiltered connection to our fans. We don't haveto worry about newspaper writers or radio guys putting their own spin on thingsor misinterpreting things" (Informant #5—team media relations, CFL), and "Wewere the ones that gave the information to the media, and the media communicatedto the fans. Now the teams can directly communicate with the fans" (Informant#16—team media relations, NBA).

It is interesting that team media-relations informants reported that they wereaware Twitter has changed the sport media paradigm, allowing them to activelyengage in dialogue with fans. One team media-relations informant spoke abouthaving limited direct access to fans before Twitter: "We didn't have many opportuni-ties to be directly engaged with our fans, even at a game. We can wander around agame and shake hands with people, but it's only a small percentage of the peoplethat are there" (Informant #5—team media relations, CFL).

The direct access to fans has brought about a change in sport entities' com-munication strategies. A review ofthe lived experiences of sport communicationsinformants would suggest that Twitter promotes a closer connection between thesport entity and the fan. Recognizing this function of Twitter, team media-relations


informants have modified how and what they tweet to increase intimacy betweenthe fan and the particular sport franchise that they work for:

"We will retweet fun things. Or just humorous fun for our fans.... Sometimeswe will retweet reporters who have written really good stories about our guys,and we want the fans to see it" (Informant #4— t̂eam media relations, CFL), and"It really enhances the return of engagement; I can now truly engage with fans"(Informant #3—team media relations, CFL).

Management Control. Through this direct access with fans, it could be argued thatteam media-relations informants are using Twitter to enact more control. However,experiences of the sport-media informants would suggest that Twitter can be toughto control during a conflict. Although some elements of Twitter make communica-tions more controllable, other elements make it more erratic. A review of the livedexperiences will identify these conflicting viewpoints. Two examples that identifyTwitter as a controllable communications tool include, "Trying to set the recordstraight with tweets that prevent the coach after the game from having to answer aspeculative question from the media" (Informant # 12—team media relations, NHL)and "We are our own publicity tool now, where in the past we weren't. And thatis one of the good things about also being in Twitter, is you control your messagea little bit more" (Informant #16—team media relations NBA). Two examplesthat identify Twitter as a communications tool that can become uncontrollable forsport teams include, "Oh, it's created an unpredictable environment. You know, aguy could tweet out something long after I've gone to bed, and I could wake up,turn on the radio, and it's leading off the newscasts on all sports radio" (Informant#12—team media relations, NHL), and "We always joke too that your iPhone oryour Blackberry should have a breathalyzer with it" (Informant #8—sport PR/digital expert, NHL).

Twitter presents a complex form of communications to manage. Some feel thatit provides management with more control, and others find that it makes communi-cations less manageable. To manage Twitter effectively, teams need to understandthe nuances of the system that make it controllable and uncontrollable. Without anunderstanding of these nuances, it makes the sport communication process muchmore challenging for media-relations staff.

Hierarchical Change. Another theme from the interviews indicated how Twitteris changing traditional hierarchical roles in sport. Traditionally, team sports haverepresented a very hierarchical business. The players must follow the coach'sinstructions or risk losing playing time, and the coach follows the general manager'sinstructions or risks losing his job. Team management is tightly controlled, and theactors in the business stay on course for fear of being fired, released, suspended,fined, or punished internally. Lived experiences of the informants suggest thatTwitter is changing hierarchical roles:

[Twitter] exponentially changes their workload. It changes the coloration ofwhat their work is; they no longer have the control, and this is something Italk about often. In sports, it's a very hierarchical culture. The GM tells thecoach to do x, tbe coach tells the players to do y, tbe coach tells the trainer todo z, et cetera, and then you had to follow because they had. They could sendyou away, they could freeze you out—whatever the case may be. (Informant#15—team media relations, NBA)


Discussion and ConciusionTwitter has opened up communication channels for athletes, coaches, sport-organi-zation staff, and fans (Sanderson, 2012). Long-standing practices and norms relatedto sport media relations are changing 140 characters at a time. The unfiltered accessthat Twitter provides the sport community is slowly diminishing the gatekeepingfunctions related to the nature of traditional media relations. The empirical evi-dence presented in this research supports the statement that Twitter is the dominantsocial-media platform in sport, causing paradigm shifts in the management of sportmedia relations and flattening the sport media hierarchy.

Similar to the paradigmatic change from paper to electronic communicationidentified by Battenfield (2013), Twitter represents the next step of transformationin sport communication. Those in sport media relations have successfully adaptedtheir strategies to incorporate Twitter by responding to athletes' use, giving fansdirect access to their teams and creating new job responsibilities that have changedthe nature of media relations in sport. Twitter has made the role of media relationsin sport more complex, requiring its people to learn a new communication platform,as well as nuanced strategies to manage this platform (Hutchins & Rowe, 2012).

The model of sport media relations and Twitter in Figure 1 represents a visualrepresentation of the findings from this research. Though the press-agentry-pub-licity model of public relations (Grunig & Grunig, 1992) has been considered themost relevant model for understanding sport media relations (Stoldt et al., 2011),the direct access teams have to fans through Twitter is changing the nature of sportmedia relations. This research also provides empirical evidence to support the roleof Twitter in causing a paradigmatic change in the nature of sport media relations.As such, future versions of sport communication textbooks may need to considerupdating their definitions and descriptions of media-relations responsibilities.

Although some of these changes could be predicted based on previous researchand observations, the most notable shift that has been undocumented is the hier-archical change in sport media organizations. The findings from this researchsupport the statement that Twitter is making the sport media hierarchy flatter. The

SPORTMEDIA

REUTIONS

MEDIA LANDSCAPE• Speed• Media Competition• Time Demands

MECHANICALJOB FUNCTIONS

• Monitoring Twitter• Tweeting

HOWTWIHER

HAS CHANGEDTHE NATURE OF

SPORT MEDIARELATIONS

SPORT MEDIA RELATIONS ^ \< Direct Access \' (Un) Controllable by Management i' Hierarchical Change ^,.<^'

Figure 1 — Model of sport media relations and Twitter.


choice of the word flat is derived from Thomas L. Friedman's book The WorldIs Flat (2006), in which he presents a convergence of forces to support his argu-ments about globalization. The content of sport is no longer solely controlled anddistributed by traditional-media organizations. What was once a one-way modeof communication as explained by the modern model for sports-media-audiencecommunications (Schultz, Caskey, & Esherick, 2012) is now a two-way mode ofcommunication that represents a form of departure from traditional media models.

LimitationsThis research can claim new contributions to sport-media-relations literature,but they cannot necessarily be generalized to all people who work in sport mediarelations. Although the informants had a considerable amount of experience—allhad more than 5 years of experience in professional sport roles and averaged 16years of experience in sport media—the results of this study were based only on18 interviews with a varied mix of sport media experiences: team media relations,sport journalists, media consultants, and league staff. This mix of sport mediaexperiences helps to triangulate the research findings.

Future ResearchThis study represents one of the few investigations into how Twitter is changingthe nature of sport media relations. Future studies could look at Twitter's impacton other industries or the impact of other potentially game-changing, disruptiveplatforms of communications. The empirical results of this study demonstrate thatTwitter is a paradigm-shifting platform for sport media relations, but would it alsoprove to be paradigm shifting for more traditional media relations roles such ascorporate communications?

Since the first investigations into Twitter from a sport-media-relations jjerspec-tive. Twitter has also started to play a significant role in celebrity and entertainmentculture. Has Twitter changed celebrity and entertainment culture in a similar ordifferent way?

A study of the use of Twitter as a form of revenue generation by sport teamscould also prove significant. Professional sport has found a way to monetize mostforms of traditional media; can sport teams also monetize Twitter?

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