Gender Effect Through Media: A Twitter Analysis Of The NFL's Carolina Panthers

ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Arianne Grace (Creator)
Institution
Appalachian State University (ASU )
Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
Advisor
Thomas Mueller

Abstract: The National Football League (NFL) is the most popular sport in the United States (Norman, 2018). Of the NFL’s passionate fan base, 46 percent are women (Bazilian, 2014). This research analyzes Twitter content from the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, examining the discrepancy between Panthers communication strategies with male and female audiences from January and February, 2018. Word concordance tests found that male pronouns occurred more than female pronouns across the months of January and February. There was an increase found in female pronoun usage in February. Linguistic inquiry and word count modeling transformed Twitter content to variables; “clout” was a unique significant predictor of “drive” in January. In February both “clout” and “tone” are significant predictors. Sentiment analysis for February found the level of negative sentiment in communication decreased, while the level of positive sentiment increased. These tests demonstrate that there is an increase in tone and positive sentiment in February, while there is a decrease in negative sentiment in the same month. February data also indicated there was an increase in the use of female pronouns. NFL teams can use this information to assess gender communication. That may include the increased use of female pronouns as well as increase the use of language that contains positive tone in its communication.

Additional Information

Publication
Honors Project
Grace, A. (2018). "Gender Effect Through Media: A Twitter Analysis Of The NFL's Carolina Panthers." Unpublished Honors Thesis. Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.
Language: English
Date: 2018
Keywords
Gender communication, NFL female fans, Carolina Panthers gender communication, Carolina Panthers and female fans, NFL content analysis

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