AbstractsWomens Studies

Gendered Self-Presentation on Social Media: A content analysis of Tweets from UNLV Men's and Women's Athletic Teams

by Alexandra Nicole White




Institution: University of Nevada – Las Vegas
Department:
Year: 2016
Keywords: gendered; Goffman; Self-presentation; social media; team; Twitter; Broadcast and Video Studies; Journalism Studies; Sports Management; Sports Studies
Posted: 02/05/2017
Record ID: 2133509
Full text PDF: http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations/2763


Abstract

ABSTRACT This thesis examines how sports teams vary by means of self-presentation on a social media platform in relation to gender and sport. Building on Erving Goffman’s (1959) constructs of selfpresentation and operationalizing impression management strategies, this study content analyzed seven UNLV teams’ Tweets. The analysis spanned from August 2015 to October 2015. Every Tweet posted, during these three months, from the seven different sporting teams was coded to compare and contrast the men's teams accounts with the women’s teams accounts, as well as one account that combines the men’s and women’s team on one Twitter page. The study found that the time of the season affects how teams present themselves. Moreover, the teams of the same sport (i.e. men’s and women’s basketball) had similarities in the content of their Tweets, including the media they included in each Tweet. Advisors/Committee Members: Gregory Borchard, Olesya Venger, Larry Mullen, David Dickens.