Investigating framing of athletes on Twitter: An analysis of self-portrayals across gender and sport

Athletes are a growing constituency who utilize social media to communicate with their audiences. Due to the limited amount of research regarding athlete content on Twitter, it is unknown whether the frames used to examine sport content in traditional forms of media are applicable to Twitter. It is also unknown if athletes are using frames to portray themselves in stereotypical ways that align with coverage previously found in traditional media. This dissertation was the collective representation of two studies. The aim of these studies was to determine the frames used by athletes on Twitter, and examine how athletes are presenting themselves on Twitter to determine if differences exist across gender.;A textual analysis was employed to identify the keywords, descriptors, and frames used by 18 athletes on Twitter. This process employed data reduction and constant comparison to reduce tweets into keywords and then further into the four frames of athlete as an everyday individual, athlete as a thankful and grateful individual, athlete as a competitor, and athlete as a promotional figure. Results suggested the content categories created to examine different forms of media could be applicable to the study of athlete content on Twitter.;The second study in this dissertation utilized a content analysis to examine the frames utilized by a different set of 18 athletes across gender. The results of this study indicated the primary use of the frames of athlete as an everyday individual and athlete as a thankful and grateful individual. Examining frame utilization based upon the frame alignment with communal and agentic characteristics revealed male and female athletes both predominately utilized communal frames. The results indicated female athletes were continuing the stereotypical portrayals of female athletes found in traditional media while male athletes were moving toward feminine portrayals.