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When considering that athletes are becoming more vocal about their beliefs related to social justice initiatives, the role of an athlete's gender could have an impact on how sports fans view that athlete. When deciding to support or oppose a corporate social advocacy initiative, it can be argued that an individual's perception of an athlete's or team's stance towards social justice can be influenced by elements of one's social identity. Therefore, the current study expands on this idea by exploring how gender affects the perception of the credibility of an athlete as an endorser of CSA initiatives, considering both the gender of the participant and the gender of the athlete. Using both NBA and WNBA athletes, this experiment manipulates a league CSA initiative and players' endorsements of the initiative to determine if (a) the participant's reported gender and (b) the athlete's gender will impact the perception of the athlete's credibility. Results provided evidence that gender plays a significant role in that evaluation, such that the NBA player was perceived as more credible regardless of respondent gender, and while female respondents recorded no difference, male participants perceived the NBA player as more credible than his WNBA counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NBA's (National Basketball Association's) racial justice initiatives during the 2020 Playoff Bubble are considered an act of corporate social advocacy and provide an exemplary scenario to explore this intersection of sport and politics. Based on this observation, the purpose of this study was to explore how one's level of identification with the NBA and his/her identification with a political party can impact one's perception of the NBA's racial justice initiatives. Specifically, the researchers wanted to determine if outrage toward the NBA and one's perception of the NBA's reputation is influenced more by one's political identity or one's fanship for the league. A survey was conducted using a national convenience sample of 518 participants recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Results showed that while both fanship and political identity had effects on one's outrage toward the NBA and one's perceived reputation of the NBA, the stronger factor differed between Democrats and Republicans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to address a practical question and problem: what can explain the small number of underrepresented racial and ethnic practitioners in the public relations industry? By placing race at the center of this study via critical race theory, the authors sought to answer the previously mentioned practical question. The authors focused on the undergraduate environment as a pipeline to the profession. The goal was to determine whether issues of race in the undergraduate public relations environment played a role in students' ability to succeed in their public relations coursework and in their ability to secure internships, network with professionals, etc. Design/methodology/approach: The authors interviewed 22 practitioners with five or fewer years of industry experience. The authors used email interviews to gather data from young professionals. Although email interviews are impersonal in nature, because of a lack of the use of social cues and non-verbal communication (Hunt & McHale, 2007), email interviews are more cost-effective, expand the range of participants that one could interview, and this method allows participants to reflect longer on their answers, which could result in more detail -- whereby participants might share information they would not normally share face-to-face. Findings: The findings reveal that half of the Latina, African American and Asian American participants noted that being underrepresented was not necessarily a hindrance to their academic success; rather, being underrepresented was uncomfortable for them at times, as they believed they had to prove themselves more than whites. Additional findings reveal that in terms of developing social skills for the profession, participants did not experience negative or positive effects of race. Findings are used to gain insight into how to increase diversity in the profession and to gauge the extent to which racial identity plays a role in public relations students' collegiate development. Originality/value: This study asks racially and ethnically underrepresented applied communication students to reflect on their experiences as undergraduates as a means of refining the undergraduate educational experience to make that experience more attractive for and conducive to academic success for current and future underrepresented applied communication undergraduate students. It's a first of its kind in that regard.

We interviewed racially/ethnically diverse, early career public relations practitioners. By asking participants to reflect on their collegiate social and educational development, we unearth contributing factors to these individuals' success both in college and in their professions to date. Respondents desired much more in-school training and technical skill acquisition than they were provided. Respondents also alluded to ways that the female/male composition of the undergraduate classroom affected their educational environment and student learning experiences. Findings are used to address the extent to which the educational/prepare-students-for-industry dialectic should be addressed by communication faculty and administrators.

Nationalistic notions are embedded within every part of the Olympic Games, inculcating feelings pertaining to one's nation. Previous research examined the degree to which one is affected by portrayals of nationalism during international sporting events, finding that media consumption and results increase nationalistic feelings. However, such analyses rarely infused overarching fandom into the equation and failed to make global comparisons. This study surveyed 2,245 people from three continents in six different nations (Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Sweden, and the United States) to examine nationalistic attitudes during the 2018 Winter Olympics and subsequent effects. Significant differences between nationalized qualities manifested between each continent, as did their paths to becoming a fan and consuming content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A national sample of 390 self-identified National Basketball Association (NBA) fans were asked motivational differences regarding use of four unique forms of social media information offerings: team-managed, media-managed, fanmanaged and player-managed outlets. While entertainment emerged as the top motivational factor across all four offerings, many significant differences were found among the four information offerings in relation to 12 key uses and gratifications. Revealing which information offerings users tend to use when attempting to fulfill a specific gratification, this study yields insights for academicians and sport practitioners, pinpointing distinctive features of different social media platforms to frame social media goals, as well as matching the perceived strengths and features of a particular platform and information offering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A national sample of 393 NFL (National Football League [professional]) fans were surveyed about their use of ancillary devices when consuming NFL media products. Results indicate that male, younger, and highly educated participants were more likely to use second-screen options. Such second-screen activities were just as likely to be used for distraction (multitasking other content not related to the NFL) as for enhancement (bolstering NFL consumption with other NFL-related content). Moreover, the more participants used second screens for multitasking and distracting purposes, the more they felt that second-screening helped build, interact, and maintain vast social networks; advanced social interactions among their social groups for a shared purpose; and made them feel psychologically present among other people. Fantasy-sport participation was also found to be a relevant predictor of second-screen use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public relations researchers make inferential claims about populations based on analysis and evaluation of data they have collected from smaller samples of people. A question that has been raised in the social sciences is how well the populations sampled in conducted studies represent or reflect broader populations. We also ponder, to what extent DEI-related topics are explored in public relations scholarship. We conducted a quantitative content analysis of 1,277 articles published in leading, peer-reviewed journals in public relations or adjacent journals in mass communication, strategic communication, and communication studies known to publish public relations research. We found that scholars are not providing complete demographic data when conducting research involving human participants; samples include significantly more women than are represented in the most current U.S. Census; samples overly rely on White participants; samples include significantly fewer persons of Latin origin than reflected in the most current U.S. census; and DEI-related publications are still proportionally few but are increasing. Based on these findings, we introduce the Researcher Responsibility to Diversity and Inclusion, which provides six guiding principles for journal editors and researchers to advance disciplinary theorizing and research and to make inclusivity a more central aspect of disciplinary theory and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a hierarchy of effects theoretical framework, the present study investigates psychological responses to positive and negative publicity about athlete endorsers. Furthermore, this research addresses the role of brand novelty on these processes. Participants were exposed to an ad for a soft drink brand (either novel or well-established) that featured an athlete endorser. Each ad was paired with a news story that contained either positive or negative information about the athlete's off-field behavior. Participants' cognitive, affective, and conative responses were assessed. Results indicate more cognition, affect, and conation to ads associated with positive publicity about the athletes and for established brands. Unexpectedly, publicity and brand novelty interacted such that established brands were more susceptible to the effects of publicity than were novel brands. Results are discussed in regard to furthering theory and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the relationship between stakeholder enacted crisis communication and organizational crisis response. Through textual analysis, the reputation repair strategies that head coach Urban Meyer utilized in his four public statements regarding the Zach Smith scandal were identified. Next, 10,000 tweets from Ohio-based stakeholders were content analyzed to examine the extent to which stakeholders mirror the selected strategies employed by an individual enveloped in a crisis and amplify them through their own social media networks. Results showed that stakeholders engaged in three primary behaviors: rallying together by using the ingratiation and reminder strategies; mirroring some of Meyer's official strategies; and utilizing their own strategies to attribute blame to other, external parties. Implications regarding how stakeholders utilize Twitter, itself, during a crisis were also proffered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey's social media post advocating for Hong Kong independence, a 2 (NBA, Houston Rockets) × 3 (attacking the accuser, justification, apology) experimental design was utilized to explore the effects of different crisis response strategies on sports fan relationships between/among a professional sport league, one of its teams, and crisis responsibility attribution. Results indicated that apology strategy functioned better in reducing the blame placed on the organization than attacking strategy. Also, people with a more positive relationship or a higher level of identification with the organization would attribute less responsibility. However, when controlling the organization-public relationship or sport identification, response strategies could no longer predict attribution of responsibility significantly, suggesting that the previous relationship matters more than which response strategy is utilized in a crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication scholars have demonstrated great interest in exploring the manifestation of parasocial relationships (PSR) with media persona. Despite such elaborate investigations, the mechanisms underlying PSR and parasocial breakup (PSB) are relatively unexplored in nonfictional circumstances. This study examines the oftenoverlooked effect of multiple identities (i.e., social and team identity) on expressions of PSR and PSB. Using the 2021 exit of soccer superstar Lionel Messi from FC Barcelona, this study incorporates data from 293 Spaniards to assess a structural equation model, finding that social and team identities were positively related to PSR, although both identities revealed distinct influences. Similarly, social and team identities intensified PSB. Finally, our results also indicate that PSR is positively related to PSB. This study advances current theoretical understandings of PSR and PSB, particularly within a non-American media context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Given Slovenia's independence in 1991, examining the potential impact of Olympic media consumption on this young nation offers a unique opportunity for scholarly investigation. Prior examinations of Olympic telecasts in Slovenia have uncovered core elements of nationalized pride and focus (Ličen & Billings, 2013a), yet have not fully explored the potential effect of the mass viewership found within the Olympics. This study explores how social cognitive and social identification theories interact to influence consumption behaviors relating to international competition--in this case, the Olympics. For this study, 175 respondents were surveyed to examine the relationship among personal determinants defined by one's national identity, Olympic fan involvement, and behaviors related to Olympic media consumption. Findings revealed that basic identification with Slovenia as a nation, and a need to defend Slovenia when faced with discouraging opinions, influenced one's fan involvement with the Olympics, which in turn influenced digital and televisual media consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses social presence theory and social identity theory as theoretical frameworks to examine global social TV usage during a mega-sporting event. A total of 2,296 people from six different nations (Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Sweden, and the United States) were surveyed about their social TV usage, degree of social presence, and team identification in the week following the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Primary findings illustrate that increased social TV use predicts increased measures of social presence, social capital, and perceived sociability, which then influences one's identification with their national team and Winter Olympics fandom. Additional insights are found regarding global social TV engagement and ancillary device usage habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have found that minority athletes were perceived more positively than their White counterparts, which is counterintuitive to previous research. In order to explain this "racial contradiction," this study analyzes how an athlete's response strategy and the amount of sports news consumed by participants could impact differences in the perceptions of athletes of different races. A between-subjects, double-blind experiment was conducted among 464 participants to examine how an athlete's race, an athlete's chosen response strategy, and participants' level of sports news consumption affect the perception of athletes accused of criminal allegations. Results show that while low sports news consumers did not differ in their perception of an athlete regarding whether he was Black or White, high sports news consumers perceived Black athletes more positively than White athletes, supporting the "racial contradiction." Also, results showed that while participants who were low sports news consumers accepted the White athlete's use of denial more than that of the Black athlete, participants who were high sports news consumers accepted the Black athlete's use of denial more than that of the White athlete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we explored the perception of sports based on gender norms in China. Applying social cognitive theory, we surveyed 423 Chinese respondents about their gender perceptions of 16 sports. Results revealed four distinct categories—masculine, lifestyle, neutral, and feminine—and that men tended to rate sports as significantly more masculine than women. Overall, gender role beliefs, sports participation, and sports media consumption all significantly correlated with individual gender typing of sports. The findings of this study, which is based on findings from Hardin and Greer and is one of the first quantitative studies about gender perceptions of sports in China, shed light on the role that gender norms play in shaping the country's sports landscape. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]