| Online Social Networks (OSNs) have had a considerable impact on the way people interact with one another. In the sport industry, these platforms have had a marked effect on the interactions that exist between and among stakeholders (e.g., Naraine & Parent, 2016a). In particular, Twitter has become a popular communication medium for information distribution and a simple yet powerful tool for reaching a large audience and spreading information quickly at a low cost (Armstrong, Delia, & Giardina, 2016). Over the past decade there have been studies focused on Twitter and the sport industry, but only limited research has been conducted on social networks and large-scale amateur sporting events such as the Youth Olympic Games (YOG). Compared to the Olympic Games (OG), YOG events have received limited media coverage overall (Hanstad, Parent, & Kristiansen, 2013), and this has resulted in minimal public awareness of the YOG (Judge et al., 2015). The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the global sport organization overseeing both the OG and the YOG, has suggested that social media enable the organization to achieve its goals, which are to reach young audiences and potential stakeholders, and to inspire them via the YOG and its ambassadors (IOC, 2015a). In addition, the limited number of YOG-based social media studies conducted have found that social media have been used to encourage interaction among stakeholders and to promote the YOG and its events (Hanstad et al., 2013; Pedersen, Burch, Eagleman, & Yoon, 2014). As such, the assessment of social media usage in this context is important in helping sport management scholars and practitioners better understand and utilize more effective social media usage strategies as they pertain to future YOGs.;Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to use a dual-study approach to conduct both in-depth and longitudinal social network analyses of the online communication surrounding the YOG. This exploration of social media usage through the two investigations was done with longitudinal data captured using the Python programming language. The first study examined changes over time in the public's attention with regard to the YOG compared to the OG. For this purpose, the relationships between the two events (i.e., YOG and OG), the three timeframes (i.e., before, during, and after), and the number of retweets, likes, and hashtags of tweets published for the past four staged events (i.e., 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016) were analyzed. The findings from the first study revealed that the effect of the three timeframes and the four game years on the number of retweets, likes, and hashtags was not the same for the YOG and the OG. In contrast, the study found that the primary similarity between the YOG and the OG was that they both attracted the public's attention considerably more during the two summer (as compared to winter) events. However, overall, the OG attracted the public's attention to a greater degree, especially during the events, than did the YOG. Findings from this study have implications for the continued development of social media study in sport and the theory surrounding social media usage in sport organizations. The results also provide a better and more complete understanding of the usage of social media platforms in the context of mega-sporting events.;The second study examined the social media interactions that take place between online (Twitter) stakeholders and the four YOG and OG events noted above. Specifically, the investigation sought to determine what type of users (stakeholders) exist as network members within the two organizations' social networks. The study analyzed the network structures as they relate to the primary users engaged with the two organizations and mapped the network members and their online relationships to reveal how the organizations' network formations facilitate the social media interactions. To fulfill these objectives, social network software UCINET 6.627 and NetDraw were utilized for various analytical procedures and visual representations of the networks. The results of the second study revealed that, for the YOG, there has been an evolution with regard to the structure and complexity of the network over time. In contrast, however, the findings revealed that the OG's interactions focused primarily on two summer (rather than winter) events. In addition, through a comparison of each organization's (i.e., YOG and OG) key stakeholders, this study found that national sport organizations represent a key YOG stakeholder, and media groups represent a primary OG stakeholder. Finally, the introduction of a comparison of networks is discussed as a potentially useful means of improving this network structure. Overall, the findings of the social media analyses across the two studies in this dissertation reveal that the YOG failed to initiate effective promotion-based activities via Twitter, especially during the Games. The results help sport management scholars by expanding organizational online communication and assist sport industry practitioners by illustrating the importance of effective social media usage strategies. |
