International Journal of Sport Communication, 2012, 5, 384-402 © 2012 Human Kinetics, Inc. www.IJSC-Journal.com CAse Study

Covering the Scandal in 140 Characters: A Case Study of ’s Role in Coverage of the Penn State Saga

Jimmy Sanderson Clemson University, USA

Marion E. Hambrick University of Louisville, USA

This case study explored how sports journalists used Twitter to cover allegations about former Penn State University assistant football coach sexually abusing young boys. A content analysis of 1652 tweets from 151 sports journalists was conducted. Analysis revealed that sports journalists used Twitter in the following ways: a) offering commentary, b) breaking news, c) interactivity, d) linking to content, and e) promotion. The results suggest that Twitter serves as an additional venue for sports journalists to frame stories; however, their behav- ior in this venue blurs professional and personal boundaries as they mock fans and promote their competitors. The analysis further suggests that the immediacy with which news breaks on Twitter places sports journalists and sports media organizations into a dialectic between “being first” and “being accurate” when reporting news.

Keywords: Twitter, sports journalism, social media

On November 5, 2011, the sports world was rocked by news that former State University (PSU) assistant football coach Gerald “Jerry” San- dusky was being charged with sexual abuse of minors. Testimony from a investigation revealed numerous accusations against Sandusky—specifically that he had molested 10 boys during a 15-year period—with some of the abuse alleged to have occurred at Penn State facilities (Chapell, 2011). One of the more prominent allegations involved assistant football coach Mike McQueary (then a graduate-assistant) who reported that in 2002 he personally witnessed Sandusky engage in sexual activity with a young boy in the football facility’s showers. McQueary reported the incident to head football coach Joe , who in turn disclosed this information to PSU Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice-President of Finance and Business Gary Schultz. Curley subsequently demanded Sandusky’s

Sanderson is with the Dept. of Communication Studies, Clemson University, Clemson, SC. Hambrick is with the Dept. of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.

384 Journalists and Psu 385 locker room keys and prohibited him from inviting children to the football facility and campus, but neither Curley nor Schultz reported the alleged abuse to the police (Chapell, 2011). On November 6, 2011, the University Board of Trustees fired both Curley and Schultz. The trustees also terminated Paterno and PSU President , but placed McQueary on administrative leave (Chapell, 2011). During a tumultuous two-week period from November 5–18, 2011, media outlets across the nation covered this developing news story in extensive detail. However, via Twitter messages, or “tweets,” sports journalists broke the latest news, shared information, and discussed the story immediately as events unfolded (Daniels, 2011). For instance, NBC’s John Clark noted the football team’s reaction: “ spoke to team today and broke down in tears. He is very upset and sad. Players gave him standing ovation.” ESPN’s Buster Olney argued for Paterno to step down: “The right thing to do: Joe Paterno should offer his resignation. Penn State would have opportunity to accept or decline, when it deems necessary.” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writer Dejan Kovacevic speculated about President Spanier’s fate: “I don’t see how Graham Spanier lasts the day. Really don’t. He’s next. #PSUcharges.” Yahoo! Sports columnist Pat Forde weighed in on students marching in support of Paterno: “Sensing a massive disconnect between the feelings of Penn State students and fans here vs. the rest of the nation when it comes to Paterno.” These tweets depict the variety of sports journalists (e.g., Olney covers Major League Baseball for ESPN) covering and weighing in on this story (Daniels, 2011). Previous research has examined the growing use of Twitter within the sports industry, although most work has focused on professional athletes (Hambrick, Sim- mons, Greenhalgh, & Greenwell, 2010; Pegoraro, 2010) and their Twitter followers (Clavio & Kian, 2010; Kassing & Sanderson, 2010). Fewer studies have examined sports journalists’ Twitter use (for exceptions, see Schultz & Sheffer 2010; Sheffer and Schultz, 2010). This case study explores how sports journalists used Twitter as a sports crisis was unfolding and discusses shifts in journalistic standards that arise as social media becomes more prominent in sports reporting.

Literature Review Social Media and Sports Media Sports fans’ consumption of sports news has shifted from traditional outlets such as television and newspapers to digital resources such as blogs, mobile applications, and social media sites (Kian, Burden, & Shaw, 2011; Sanderson, 2011). This real- location has ushered in an era of “on-demand” sports news, characterized by three factors: 1) the rapid speed with which information is transmitted, 2) the numerous channels facilitating this information exchange, and 3) the democratic nature of information dissemination processes (Hutchins, 2011). Digital media have flattened sports media hierarchies, offering publication and distribution tools to those outside mainstream sports media circles. Hutchins and Rowe (2009) posit that this transfor- mation constitutes a shift from “broadcast scarcity” to an era of “digital plentitude” (p. 354) and that this digital plethora, “demands adjustment and reorganization in both media and sports industries” (p. 355). As a result there is not longer a scarcity of sports media channels and sports media organizations are now competing with athletes and bloggers in the race to break news (Sanderson & Kassing, 2011). 386 Sanderson and Hambrick

Social media has shifted sports news from a one-way to a two-way avenue. Traditional one-way flows designated news providers as the single authoritative source, leaving consumers with little means to engage in a discussion. Yet, these capabilities are now possible via Internet and social media technologies, as con- sumers can respond to information as well as create and disseminate content of their own (Galily, 2008; Hutchins, 2011). In response, sports journalists have been forced, out of necessity to move into digital spheres—most notably Twitter.

Twitter and Sports Journalism Twitter started in 2006 and has grown to 462 million registered users; it is expected to reach 500 million users by the 2nd quarter of 2012 (Bennett, 2012). At the pres- ent time, Twitter has 100 million active users (defined as accessing the account at least once per month) with 250 million active users expected by the end of 2012 (Bennett, 2012). Twitter is a microblogging site that allows users to create messages, termed “tweets,” that are no more than 140 characters in length. One’s Twitter account is linked to a username preceded by the @ symbol. Twitter users connect to one another by electing to “follow” another Twitter user. Each tweet a person sends is transmitted to their “followers,” who can reply to the tweet by adding their own commentary, or “re-tweeting” (retransmitting) the message to their individual followers. Twitter has become the social media tool of choice for athletes and, increasingly, sports reporters (Hambrick et al. 2010; Sanderson & Kassing, 2011; Schultz & Sheffer, 2010; Sheffer & Schultz, 2010). For sports journalists, Twitter represents both an information source (e.g., citing an athlete’s tweet in a news story) and a means for transmitting information (e.g., posting a tweet that promotes an upcoming story; Hutchins, 2011). While Twitter is becoming more integral to sports journalists, few researchers have conducted empirical studies to examine how these media members employ Twit- ter. Schultz and Sheffer (2010) completed a two-part study by surveying sports journalists working in print and broadcast outlets and identifying their reasons for using Twitter. In the first study, the researchers asked journalists open-ended questions about their Twitter use, and discovered that Twitter was used in the fol- lowing ways: a) breaking news, b) providing personal opinions, c) promoting media outlets, d) connecting with fans and others, and e) becoming a better journalist. The journalists rated breaking news and promoting their media organizations as the chief reasons for using Twitter, while assigning lower rankings to the other categorical areas. Schultz and Sheffer (2010) noted that these journalists and their affiliated media organizations used Twitter in similar ways. As such, they observed that social media may enhance rather than truly transform sports news coverage. They suggested future studies should examine this “emerging hybrid of journalism” (p. 237) to better understand the interplay between Twitter and more traditional news communication outlets. As a follow-up, Sheffer and Schultz (2010) revisited their previous study results by conducting a content analysis of tweets posted by sports journalists. They sought to determine differences between sports journalists described versus actual Twitter usage. They collected 1008 tweets over a three-week period from 297 journalists. The results revealed divergences from the previous study. Most Journalists and Psu 387 notably, sports journalists frequently used Twitter to offer commentary as more than half of their tweets contained personal commentary about an athlete, team, or other sports-related content. The researchers concluded these differences in reported versus actual usage suggested a Twitter-based transformation in sports media, as sports journalists appeared to be comfortable sharing their opinions in social media forums as opposed to the more impartial representations they displayed in traditional outlets. Sheffer and Schultz (2010) suggested that future studies should explore Twitter’s role in sports journalism by reviewing a wider range of tweets over a specific time period and/or conducting qualitative interviews with journalists who tweet. That sports journalists regularly use Twitter to dispense commentary indicates that Twitter is a venue where sports journalists can frame sports stories to influence audiences by dispensing commentary that is easily consumed and retransmitted by their peers and sports media consumers.

Sports Media and Framing Framing is a common practice in the mass media. Framing occurs when mass media outlets report news items in ways that guide and shape audience interpreta- tions (Kuypers & Cooper, 2005; Paxton, 2004; Tian & Stewart, 2005). Framing has been conceptualized as a) strategically emphasizing certain aspects of a story to promote particular definitions, interpretations, evaluations, or recommenda- tions; and b) invoking socially shared meanings that are consistent over time that symbolically structure and organize the social world (Entman, 1993; Reese, 2001; Tian & Stewart, 2005). Through these techniques news stories become vehicles to reinforce ideology (Carruthers, 2000; Wolfsfeld, 1997). Framing processes are prominent within sports media (Eagleman, 2011; Kian & Hardin, 2009; Sanderson, 2008). For instance, Bishop (2005) chronicled local press coverage of Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Joey Galloway during his 1999 holdout as he attempted to renegotiate his contract. His analysis revealed that media accounts framed Galloway as an immature individual who, by holding out, was abdicating his team responsibilities. Conversely, these stories positioned the head coach as a revered organizational figure whose authority is never to be questioned. Thus, readers were prompted to think about Galloway as a selfish and sophomoric individual, with little prompting to consider the rationale behind his holdout. In addition, consider National Basketball Association (NBA) player LeBron James, who in 2010 announced that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to sign with the Miami Heat (joining two other premier players, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh). James received widespread criticism for his decision (some of which was attributable to the grandeur of his nationally televised broadcast announcing his plans), and reporters suggested that James’ decision would ultimately tarnish his legacy. For instance, “as a legacy guy, he needs to know: His decision to spurn the Cavaliers for more talent and hope in Miami forbids LeBron from ever being one of those all-time greats” (Wise, 2010, p. D1); and “Time will no doubt, heal many of the wounds James opened last Friday. However the deepest ones will last, and, most importantly, leave scars on his legacy regardless of his achievements from here on end” (Cuaycong, 2010, p. S6). 388 Sanderson and Hambrick

As these brief examples demonstrate, sports journalists routinely frame sports stories to guide specific audience interpretations, a task that translates into digital as well as traditional forums. Indeed, social media is a growing platform for framing prominent news stories (Hamdy & Gomaa, 2012) and social media platforms such as Twitter provide audiences with immediacy that often supersedes traditional media formats. Given the wide scope of the PSU saga and the volume of sports journalists covering the story as it progressed, this case provides a rich opportunity to explore how sports journalists used Twitter to cover a prominent sports story. Twitter and other social media outlets are transformative forms of communication (Sanderson & Kassing, 2011), and changing the way sports journalists gather information and report news (Hutchins, 2011; Kian et al., 2011). Consequently, it is imperative that researchers investigate how social media tools influence sports media processes. As Kian et al. (2011) note, “academic research on Internet sports journalism is in its infancy” (p. 32); and this research seeks to contribute to the growth of this area by investigating how sports journalists used Twitter as a national sports crisis was unfolding.

Method Data Collection Data were obtained from sports journalists’ tweets about the PSU story. Tweets were cultivated by targeting and collecting the tweets of 151 sport journalists using Twitter from November 4–18, 2011. The journalists represented major media outlets in television (e.g., CBS Sports, ESPN), newspapers (e.g., , USA Today), magazines (e.g., Sports Illustrated, Sporting News), and blogs (e.g., Rivals. com, ). Sports journalists were identified using snowball sampling, “an approach for locating information-rich key informants or critical cases” (Patton, 2002, p. 237). One of the authors first learned about the PSU story after Dana O’Neil of ESPN posted a tweet in response to tweets about the PSU story from peers Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports, Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated, and Bill Rabinowitz of the Columbus Dispatch, and O’Neil’s tweet started the data collection process. The authors collected information from these four journalists’ Twitter accounts, paying close attention to whom these journalists followed on Twitter. From the list of the combined 2321 Twitter users they followed, 146 sports journalists were identified, and the authors collected tweets from these journalists. This iterative process was completed four times until a total of 236 sports journalists were iden- tified; however, sports journalists who were not followed by at least three other sports journalists were removed from the sample. This resulted in a final sample of 151 sports journalists. Every tweet posted by these 151 journalists from November 4–18, 2011 was downloaded. This time period encapsulated the PSU story initially breaking and additional noteworthy events such as Joe Paterno’s firing and Jerry Sandusky’s interview with . The sports journalists wrote a total of 62,742 tweets during the two-week period, with 6608 devoted to the PSU story. Given the large number of tweets, a stratified random sample was selected for analysis with every fourth tweet selected for inclusion, providing a sample of 1652 tweets. Journalists and Psu 389

Data Analysis To ascertain how sports journalists used Twitter in covering the Penn State story, a thematic analysis of the sports journalists’ tweets was conducted using constant comparative methodology (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Each tweet served as the unit of analysis. The tweets were initially read to gain a sense of how the sports jour- nalists were using Twitter. After this initial immersion in the data, the tweets were microanalyzed and classified into emergent categories (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) based on the primary way that the sports journalist was using Twitter. After this initial categorization of data, the authors returned to the data to gain insight into the usefulness of developed categories (Suter, Bergen, Daas, & Durham, 2006). Through this process, development, clarification, and enhancement of categories continued until new observations failed to add significantly to existing categories. Both authors reviewed all tweets independently, and then discussed emergent themes until reaching consensus regarding the content and nature of themes. Analysis revealed that sports journalists used Twitter in the following ways: a) offering commentary, b) breaking news, c) interactivity, d) linking to content, and e) promotion. Table 1 provides an illustration of each theme along with the frequency of each theme in the data. Each of these themes along with exemplars drawn from data are now discussed.

Table 1 Sports Journalists Twitter Usage Themes # of Theme Occurrences Example Offering commentary 467 “At the end of the day PSU’s exemption to open records laws is ultimate hammer lock of secrecy. & it sticks out like a sore thumb right now” (Charles Robinson-104)

Breaking news 424 “No lie at least 500 students marching toward Old Main. Also saw 2 dozen cops in riot gear” (John Walters-1364)

Interactivity 374 “@playonenote There’s nothing wrong with reacting with emotion there. The grand jury report was enough. And Joe admitted he didn’t do enough” (Andy Staples-2)

Linking to content 233 “Statement from Scott Paterno: [link]” (Jon Wilner-528)

Promotion 154 “To anyone who’s doubted the role of news- papers in modern society, witness the Patriot- News of Harrisburg. #pennstatejustice” (Chris Jones-1472) 390 Sanderson and Hambrick

Results and Interpretation To indicate where a tweet fell in the data set, a number is attached to each exem- plar. The name of the journalist also is included before the number of the tweet. For example, a tweet with the code (Andy Staples-200) indicates the tweet was posted by Andy Staples and represented the 200th tweet in the data set. Tweets are reported verbatim from the data, spelling and grammatical errors were left intact. Many of the tweets were embedded with links to other places on the Internet. For ease of reading, the notation [link] has been inserted to denote where the link was located in the tweet, rather than providing the text of the hyperlink.

Offering Commentary Twitter functioned as a convenient channel for sports journalists to instantaneously disseminate commentary about the PSU story. This occurred in the following ways: a) speculation, b) criticism, c) balancing coverage, and d) empathy. Speculation. Sports journalists both contemplated about and proposed actions that various Penn State stakeholders should undertake. This included, “Depending on what comes next, I can absolutely see Penn State taking Paterno’s name off its library” (Darren Rovell-275); “Tad early to start thinking about it, but expect Penn State to reach out to MSU’s Mark Dantonio if/when it engages in a coaching search” (Charles Robinson-656); and “FWIW, my employment law buddy says (depending on contract language) PSU may want to decline Spanier’s reported resignation, fire him instead” (Andy Glockner-884); and “Mike McQueary can fight it, but I think there’s an argument to be made that he’s much better off not showing up Saturday” (Darren Rovell-667). They also weighed in on the ramifications of the PSU story and its place in the annals of sports scandals, “In 2010, State College Pa. was ranked 3rd safest metro area in the US by CQ Press. Tonight, it might be the most dangerous” (Darren Rovell-974)’ and “Is PSU already the greatest US sports scandal of our time? I think so” (Clay Travis-59); “Wondering now with a friend: has there ever been a bigger story in sports history than what has transpired at Penn State?” (Adam Schefter-447). Criticism. A number of sports journalists devoted tweets to lambasting various players in the PSU story. Penn State administration received sharp criticism for their apparent cover-up of Sandusky’s behavior, “You know [what] action PSU took when they found out Sandusky was raping 10 year olds in locker room? Took away his locker room keys. Not kidding” (Clay Travis-1508); and “PSU’s presi- dent has to be gone. Every single person in authority who knew and did nothing has to be gone. Clean house” (Clay Travis-1285). Critique also extended to Penn State’s press conference management, “One last time. I agree w/Board of Trustees decision. However that news conference w/a joke. Someone from their PR school should have helped” (Tim Brando-1196); “Lemme get this straight, Penn State ur FB program’s embroiled in child abuse scandal & media’s not supposed to ask Paterno abt it? #Ignorance” (Bonnie Bernstein-1259); and “Going to Jo Pa press conference. Was told not to ask non-football questions. I didn’t come here to talk fullbacks” (Gregg Doyel-1398). Penn State’s crisis management efforts also incurred wrath, “For anyone who would like to break into sports media relations Journalists and Psu 391 take not of how Penn State is handling this situation…and do the opposite” (Matt Kramer-1341); and “Penn State gets an “F” in crisis management [link]” (Darren Rovell-1303). Joe Paterno also was rebuked: “If Paterno never even questioned Sandusky about incident & allowed him to continue to use facilities he’s even more culpable than I thought” (Arash Markazi-154); and “Gee, poor Joe all upset he was fired via a phone call. Had he made a phone call to police to prevent he wouldn’t be in this spot” (Jay Glazer-730). PSU students who demonstrably protested after Joe Paterno was fired were similarly scorned, “Love NY post headline about penn state students demonstrating for paterno and still deifying him: Nitt Wits” (Jon Heyman-1476); “And there goes the first flipped news truck. Doing your school proud. You are . . . Penn State” (Gregg Doyel-718); and “Would PSU students cheer on any man who met bare minimum legal requirement for protecting a child victim, or just a legendary coach?” (Desmond Howard-1318). As terse as these aspersions were, they paled in comparison with the ire directed at Jerry Sandusky, particularly after his interview with Bob Costas. Examples included, “Sandusky: It was just horseplay. Horses: Leave us out of it asshole” (Gerald Mulligan-227); “Sandusky repeating the ‘are you sexually attracted to young boys’ question and awkward pause seemed telling” (Bruce Feldman-261); “San- dusky’s answer when asked if he was sexually attracted to young boys proves that he is sexually attracted to young boys. Good Lord” (Clay Travis-269); “Sandusky sounded like Michael Jackson describing his love for children” (Dan Wetzel-271); and “Sandusky says he did nothing wrong but regrets showering w little boys. If any man showered w my son I’d slit his fucking throat” (Jay Glazer-293). Outside the realm of Penn State, other popular targets included ESPN and media personalities who appeared to be supporting PSU/Joe Paterno. With respect to ESPN, columnists observed, “Watch ESPN and see how long talking heads go without uttering words ‘victims,’ ‘children,’ etc. It’s far too infrequent” (Jason Whitlock-1213); “Tom Rinaldi is reporting from the only place on campus where no news is taking place. Well done ESPN” (Clay Travis-962); and “The miserable fail of ESPN’s Penn State coverage last night. Paging Tom Rinaldi. [link]” (Clay Travis-658). For their contemporaries who appeared to be withholding condemna- tion, scathing commentary included, “I love you @JPosnanski, but if that’s your kid in the shower, you don’t write what you wrote today. That was somebody’s kid” (Andy Staples-588); “Note to Posnanski: junk your book unless you re-report it get the Joedust out of your eyes. Your post was pathetic justification of JoePa” (Buzz Bissinger-646); “Trevor Matich says people ‘had reason to want to put blame on JoePa’ Says he doesn’t see enough to ‘put this on Joe’ . . . Pull him, ESPN” (George Dohrmann-1026); and “Wow. breaking down on live TV trying to defend Joe Paterno. This whole thing gets more maddening by the moment” (Bruce Feldman-1241). Balancing Coverage. Whereas criticism was a popular opinion, some journal- ists suggested that more balance was needed in media coverage of the story and/or cautioned that it was unwise to paint Penn State with a broad brush. For instance, “and again, remember the bright side, paterno’s program never was busted for a major ncaa violation. that’s important!” (Bomani Jones-392); “The absolutism w/ which ppl are judging Joe Paterno, knowing what we do at this stage, is pretty 392 Sanderson and Hambrick stark. Ignoring all his good is silly . . . (Andy Glockner-587); “Thought police has also been out in force. Any opinion expressed contrary to stampede’s wishes is equated with defending child molestation” (Seth Davis-367); and “Rioting Penn Staters getting the press, but let’s not condemn entire student body. More are likely appalled by scandal on campus” (Bonnie Bernstein-629). Empathy. Twitter also served as a platform to advocate for the abuse victims and promote healing. These messages were typified by tweets such as, “to the veterans and to the victims of child abuse who speak out, thank you for your courage” (J.A. Adande-506); “Feel compelled to constantly keep the Penn State victims and their families in prayer. So many layers to heal from” (Jason Romano-1017); “Hoping Penn St. game is about more than football. Time to focus on healing. And long overdue, time to focus on & remember the victims” (Dana O’ Neil-395); “Off to bed, Tweeps. Thx as always, for being so engaging. Appreciate ur opinions. Please say a prayer for the victims. #PennState” (Bonnie Bernstein-628); and “Nebraska fans have waded into the most hostile arenas in the country. This is about the vic- tims, their parents, Senior Day and healing” (Dennis Dodd-492). Sports journalists offered a variety of commentary relating to the PSU story and Twitter enabled them to conveniently distribute these views to sizeable audiences. One striking feature of this commentary was the passion and intensity underpinning it. This suggests some sports journalists possessed a level of personal involvement and identification with the story that perhaps went beyond professional boundaries. Although it is difficult for journalists to be entirely impartial (Fox & Park, 2006; Hack, 2003) standards still remain. With this particular story, sports journalists offered fervent opinions and in some cases, derided their counterparts whom they perceived to lack the requite indignation this story warranted. This apparent lack of impartiality was typified by this comment from Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples, “I probably would have looked at this lens three years ago, but the protective instinct is insane” (AS-1228). The prevalence of sports journalists using Twitter to disseminate commentary and opinion has been noted (Sheffer & Schultz, 2010) and this behavior seems to magnify when journalists become personally involved in a story. This emotional investment resulted in terse commentary about PSU that promoted negative interpretations of the university. While these framings may have been warranted, it was interesting that some sports journalists noted the uneven direction the story was taking and opined for more balance to be applied. Twitter then served as a forum where sports journalists unabashedly dispensed personal opinions and also where their peers advocated tempering the vitriol. As sports journalists opined and criticized various people in the PSU story, they also engaged in a traditional reporting function—break- ing news.

Breaking News Social media has accelerated the sports media culture (Hutchins, 2011), in particular news-breaking has intensified and grown more immediate. This trend was apparent in the data as sports journalists used Twitter to convey breaking news in the PSU saga. Examples included, “Penn St BOT announces Joe Paterno out immediately. So is PennSt Pres Graham Spanier”(Bruce Feldman-912); “Pennsylvania senator Journalists and Psu 393 calls for full investigation, blasts Penn St prez [link] (Dan Wetzel-1605); “Big Ten removes Joe Paterno’s name from championship trophy” (Brett McMurphy-315); and “NCAA has launched an investigation into Penn State [link] ‘institutional control’ questioned” (Dan Wetzel-13). Breaking news also encompassed offering tidbits to audiences, “State Col- lege resident: ‘There were rumors for a couple years’ Penn State student: ‘There were always rumors and stuff’ [link]” (SBB-1528); “Pa Atty General Linda Kelly: Sandusky had unrestricted access to PSU locker rooms as part of retirement agree- ment” (Darren Rovell-1566); and “According to a report, a grad assistant/eyewit- ness reported incident to JoPa. He notified his superior, Curley, who never alerted authorities” (Stewart Mandel-1684). With the flurry of information percolating about this story, journalists also broke news by clarifying apparent incorrect reports, “Bradley also discredits rumor that seniors may choose to sit out on Saturday” (Wayne Drehs-702); “paterno son scott says father has not been contacted by anyone on board of trustees about retirement” (Dick Weiss-1409); and “The upstate South Carolina tweet refers to a hoax making the rounds concerning Sandusky scandal. A Greenville TV station got hoodwinked” (Andy Staples-458). of the Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Patriot-News demonstrated a unique way to use Twitter to break news by tweeting comments from Sandusky as his interview with Bob Costas unfolded. “#Sandusky says he was only hors- ing around in the shower, boy was sliding across floor” (Sara Ganim-331); and “#Sandusky: 2000 locker room incident witnessed by janitors is made up” (Sara Ganim-332). She also used this tactic when reporting comments by PSU interim president during his press conference, “#PSUcharges Erickson: ‘It certainly appears from what we know’ that some indivs were afraid to make known what they might have seen” (Sara Gamin-546); and “#PSUcharges Erick- son: Lives have been severely impacted by this and that is my first consideration” (Sara Ganim-547). As the PSU story progressed, news broke at rapid rates, as such, Twitter enabled journalists to immediately distribute this news and provide information to audiences. In bringing audiences information as it was occurring, journalists established a telepresence (Hutchins, 2011) for the audience by offering them information that was only available at the actual event. Audiences certainly could have obtained this information eventually, but Twitter allowed them to receive information directly, offering them immediate access as key events were evolv- ing. Sport journalists, via Twitter, provided “insider” information (Kassing & Sanderson, 2010) to audiences, giving them a “front-row” seat to important news about the PSU saga. Given that many of these sports journalists maintained an active presence on Twitter during this story, it was not surprising that audience members began to engage them, leading to interaction and exchanges that rarely occur in traditional news outlets.

Interactivity Social media has heightened interaction opportunities between athletes, sports figures and fans (Sanderson, 2011; Sanderson & Kassing, 2011) and sports jour- nalists have adopted this practice as well (Sheffer & Schultz, 2010). The nature of the PSU story coupled with the intense commentary emanating from many sports 394 Sanderson and Hambrick journalists precipitated seemingly inevitable clashes with audience members. In some cases, sports journalists defended their reactions to the story, “@bartmanpsu Dude, a grand jury report is a pretty strong piece of evidence. Put it this way, nobody is under oath when we interview them” (Andy Staples-43); “@spencerjsteel Read grand jury report. Read dozens. Won Pulitzer for investigating Philly courts. This is the worst, not some PR document” (Buzz Bissinger-54); “Not pro or anti anybody. Just want to know the truth RT @ MikeSwags: its pretty obvious you arent pro Joe Paterno, we get it dude” (Michael Smith-531); and “@JeffPack arrogant? Dude, its child rape. I know what I wouldn’t have done” (Michael Smith-773). Sports journalists also invited interaction through comments such as, “Any lawyer out there able to provide a viable reason why you’d want a client to be open to such an interview as Sandusky gave?” (Bruce Feldman-249); “A query about McQueary: If his testimony is key in putting away Sandusky, is employing him worth it for Penn State? #PleaseRespond” (-747); and “If u are a Penn St. ticket holder/donor tweet @ me. What are you doing w/your tickets your/$? Wait & see or are you already making a move?” (Darren Rovell-1516). They also answered questions posed by audience members, “@kujoatc75 Really hard to say. I do think we’ll get more revelations out Penn State in the upcoming weeks. People will talk” (Richard Deitsch-325); “@traverseread5 I can’t indict McQueary as much . . . who knows how anyone would react to seeing something that shocking” (Dan Wolken-661); and “This PennSt story looks like the worst one linked to coll. sports in a long time. @leahslevel, what’s worse, osu situation or psu situation?” (Bruce Feldman-1630). Whereas some of exchanges with fans were pleasant, there were times when journalists openly criticized and mocked fans. For instance, “@bartmanpsu Keep on spinning. Your hero screwed up” (Andy Staples-44); “Charles Manson called. He thinks you’re psycho RT @MargieJPhelps: Did you know about raping coaches, Greg? (Gregg Doyel-405); “Hey look! A tweet from an idiot. RT @clvlandsteemer: Mine is “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone’” (Andy Staples-866); “Comi- cal RT @dmswat3 I think it’s pretty clear you have a personal vendetta against Joe Paterno” (Darren Rovell-968); “@farzyness I’m sorry that you can’t see that you are defending a man who enabled child rape. But you are. God forgive you” (Keith Olbermann-1084); and “Blocked on account of you’re an idiot RT @Legal_Knievel: Are you hoping Sandusky did that to these kids?” (Gregg Doyel-1612). Although fans were the primary recipients of interaction, journalists also engaged their contemporaries via Twitter. Examples included, “@richarddeitsch How about McQueary claiming he stopped the rape, which implicates Sandusky and removes his doubt/deniability?” (Andy Glockner-151); “Yo @darrenrovell, prosecutors don’t need any witnesses. Just tape of Sandusky’s interview with Costas. It’s over bro.” (Jason Whitlock-348); “@jeffpearlman Interesting. And also stupid. Problem is: if you are the man Paterno was said to be, you don’t do the minimum” (George Dohrmann-709); “@RonnieRamos Also for context, more than reputations were ruined. Lives of defenseless children were ruined. And all involved failed them” (Jay Bilas-729); and “@BryanDFischer Don’t you see? Failure To Monitor IS the poster child for compliance” (Ray Ratto-793). Involving fans in social media discussions brings both prosocial and prob- lematic outcomes for athletes and sports personalities (Hambrick et al., 2010; Sanderson, 2011), which also extend to sports journalists. In this case, journalists Journalists and Psu 395 invited fans to offer commentary and responded to inquiries from them, yet they also tersely criticized audience members and labeled them in ways that crossed professional decorum. While certain media platforms encourage this behavior (e.g., sports talk-radio) it is plausible that if journalists made comments of this nature during a broadcast or in a column, it would result in censure. To some extent, these reactions were driven by the nature of this story, yet the propensity to mock fans raises questions about how sports journalists navigate the personal/ professional continuum in social media domains. Confrontations between athletes and fans via social media have become more prevalent (Sanderson & Kassing, 2011; Sanderson, 2011), and sports journalists appear to be following suit. When sports journalists were not occupied with providing commentary, breaking news, and engaging others, they served as information sources by directing audiences to pertinent content about the PSU story.

Linking to Content Via Twitter, sports journalists connected audience members to content about the PSU story to satiate their informational demands. This included pointing people to sites where they could obtain “inside” looks at details of the Penn State case, “Here is a copy of 3-page letter NCAA sent to Penn State, notifying school of pending investigation [link]” (Brett McMurphy-31); “Reading the Grand Jury Report for the Penn State child abuse case. Here is the document [link]” (Bonnie Bernstein-924); “Don’t believe any PSU official when they say they’re shocked by Sandusky charges. Check out what was written in April: [link]” (Teddy Green- stein-999); and “Penn State’s soon-to-be-ex-coaches lives here. Back porch. [link]” (Gregg Doyel-1035). As events unraveled, readers were linked to pertinent data, “Here’s some new biographical info on David Joyner, #PennState’s newly-announced interim athletic director: [link]” (Bonnie Bernstein-101); “Here’s the full interview with Sandusky from NBC [link]” (Dan Wetzel-177); “Here’s a Photo of Jerry Sandusky’s Lawyer With the Girl he Allegedly Got Pregnant When She Was 16 [link]” (Jason McIntyre-230); and “Here’s Jerry Sandusky Taking 17 Seconds to Answer Whether or Not He’s Attracted to Young Boys [link]” (Jason McIntyre-243). In providing access to content, sports journalists substantiated their commentary with photo- graphs and video, cultivating “insider” perspectives (Kassing & Sanderson, 2010) with audience members. For example, a journalist reporting the scene at protests augmented their description with multimedia content. Audience members then had the capability to distribute this content to their followers, exponentially increasing information flows. Given the volume of sports journalists covering this story, it was necessary to maintain a visible profile to capture audience share. In that vein, sports journalists used Twitter to publicize and direct audiences to their columns and interestingly, to laud their competitors. Promotion Given the character limits Twitter imposes, journalists often tweeted links to more lengthy commentary about the PSU story by “teasing” audience members. Examples included, “I’ve spent two days thinking about this. Cannot summarize my thoughts on Joe Paterno any better: [link]” (Bonnie Bernstein-627); “Culture 396 Sanderson and Hambrick of indifference at Penn State ultimately costs Paterno his job. My column [link]” (Matt Hayes-764); and “If Sandusky stuff is true, Penn State should/will pay. But it’s not NCAA business. My column [link]” (Gregg Doyel-25). Sports journalists also praised their coworkers and encouraged people to follow their work, “Needless to say, if you are following Penn State then Pulitzer winner @Jo_Becker is now a must follow” (Pete Thamel-77); “Solid piece by L. Jon Wertheim on the Penn State scandal in SI. Worth your time . . .” (John Wal- ters-129); and “Great take on Joe Pa’s legacy from @DennisDoddCBS [link]” (Brett McMurphy-1577). Social media has escalated the competiveness in breaking stories and this task no longer resides solely in the hands of journalists (Sanderson & Kassing, 2011; Sheffer & Schultz, 2010). Nevertheless, there was a notable propensity for sports journalists to promote their competitors. For instance, “Very good piece by @ PeteThamelNYT & others at NY Times on how break in Sandusky investigation came via internet [link]” (Brett McMurphy-74); “Kudos to NBC News’ @PeterAl- exander (who lived 2 doors down from me in college) for obtaining McQueary’s e-mail to former teammates” (Stewart Mandel-338); “Here is the Twitter handle for the British chick who is kicking ESPN’s ass on Penn State @IshaSesayCNN” (Clay Travis-959); “For the scene from the ground tonight at Penn State, I recommend @ DailyCollegian” (Richard Deitsch-1138); and “Also, kudos to @PeteThamelNYT for breaking the news 2 days ago that the board was working on getting rid of Paterno” (Michael Rosenberg-1155). Although different journalists at times received compliments, Sara Gamin and the Patriot News garnered frequent commendation. For instance, “The @Patriot- News continues with dramatic fronts regarding the case against Jerry Sandusky [link]” (Richard Deitsch-35); “Once again, I continue to bang the drum for @ sgamin. If you are interested in the Penn State story, she is your essential follow” (Richard Deitsch-215); “Make sure you read @sganim’s latest special report on the PSU investigation” (Andy Glockner-242); “I think the Patriot-News will win journalism awards for great work on PSU; I think @sganim & @ben_jones88 will have many job offers” (Jason McIntyre-834); “Another great story from @sganim, speaking to current PSU student whose brother was an alleged Sandusky victim: [link]” (Stewart Mandel-1129); and “Sara Ganim of Harrisburg Patriot-News is an absolute force on Sandusky story @sganim” (Dan Wetzel-1292). Twitter was a tool for sports journalists to entice audience members to consume their work on the PSU story. This was not surprising as sports media organizations must augment traditional media offerings with digital content (Butler & Sagas, 2008; Schoenstedt & Reau, 2010). What was striking, however, was the frequency with which journalists lauded their competitors. Whereas sports journalists do credit their competitors when reporting stories, it is difficult to imagine a columnist devoting space in his/her column to promote a reporter at a competing paper. Social media enables consumers to conveniently access competing media outlets and this kind of promotion, while perhaps, collegial, also seem to be pro bono. This finding offers further evidence that sports journalists operate under different professional expectations and standards when using social media. These referrals essentially serve as free marketing for the recipients and when one considers the audience size of Twitter, a promotional tweet is quite a valuable gesture. Journalists and Psu 397

Discussion This case study explored how sports journalists used Twitter when covering a prominent sports story. Beyond the emergent themes, this research offers several important implications. First, Twitter appears to be an arena wherein journalistic standards maintain diminished salience. Sheffer and Schultz (2010) observed that social media technologies such as Twitter are beginning to reshape media communication. One aspect they identified to support this claim was that Twitter facilitated personal dialogue and conversation, communication characterized by, “rumor, gossip, innuendo, and other techniques that are typically discouraged by the professional journalistic community” (p. 481). In the current study, sports journalists willingly participated in each of these behaviors and in some cases, aggressively critiqued fans. Sports journalists may have deviated from professional scripts as a result of becoming invested in the story, but such attachment seems to preclude, or at a minimum, damper impartiality. Indeed, while the allegations against Sandusky were atrocious, they remain (at least as of this writing) allegations. That many of the sports journalists openly displayed strong emotions in covering the story certainly influenced their commentary and subsequently, their framing (Entman, 1993) of it. Such behavior seems to be incited by the immediacy of social media and blends personal and professional boundaries for sports journalists. Twitter also seems to elevate sports journalists’ willingness to step outside professional spheres. Many of the journalists uttered commentary that would be unlikely to appear in more traditional platforms, and in this respect, sports jour- nalists seem to be mimicking athletes in creating social media controversies. For instance, in January 2012, Tony Grossi, a longtime (almost 20 years) beat writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, tweeted that Browns owner Randy Lerner was a “pathetic figure, the most irrelevant billionaire in the world” (Diadiun, 2012). Grossi was immediately removed from covering the Browns. Consider also that several of the journalists in the study used profanity in their tweets. Had they used this language on television broadcasts or in columns, they likely would have been disciplined. Using profanity in Twitter suggests that sports journalists perceive Twitter to be a personal, dialogical channel more than an official news platform. Nevertheless, many sports journalists visibly identify their employer on their Twitter accounts. A second implication emanating from this study as it pertains to journalistic standards is the frequency with which sports journalists promoted their competi- tors. Certainly sports journalists share a bond, but as sports media hierarchies have flattened (Hutchins & Rowe, 2009) and sports media consumers have seemingly limitless options for sports information, sports journalists could be, perhaps unin- tentionally, diminishing their relevance with audiences. Granted, media titans such as ESPN and Sports Illustrated are unlikely to experience significant viewership losses, but one can imagine that ESPN would frown upon an anchor who openly encouraged viewers to follow Fox Sports coverage of a story. Perhaps Twitter is a way for veteran sports journalists to publicize up-and-coming contemporaries who stand to benefit from the endorsement of a tenured sports media personality. This dialectic bears watching in the future and it will be interesting to observe if sports media organizations encourage their employees to curtail this behavior. 398 Sanderson and Hambrick

A third implication of this study is that it demonstrates Twitter’s relevance when news breaks. When the PSU story broke and as events evolved, Twitter was the hub for real-time information and commentary. News was certainly still obtained from television and print sources, but this information was already outdated by the time it hit these platforms, placing them further in Twitter’s rear-view mirror in the race for news immediacy. Twitter is arguably the preeminent exemplar of the emerging sports media hierarchy that is characterized by accelerated information flows and expanded communication networks (Hutchins, 2011; Hutchins & Rowe, 2009). No longer are there a finite number of content producers upon whom sports audiences depend for information. Both sports media and sports organizations cannot be afraid of Twitter, but must embrace the ability to shape information flow, as Darren Rovell noted, “Organizations have to understand that the speed of info dictates that there be a swifter response” (Darren Rovell-1607). However, with the volume of information available on Twitter, validity ques- tions emerge. This uncertainty stems from the dialectic sports media organizations face between “being first” and “being accurate.” Consider that mainstream news outlets must satisfy source verification procedures before news can be reported, yet, many independent, digital-based news sites do not subject themselves to these requirements (Sanderson, 2011). The PSU story offers a telling example of this dialectic. On Saturday, January 21, 2012, editors at Onward Slate, an independently run student publication at Penn State, tweeted and wrote an online article that Joe Paterno had passed away. This report stemmed from two staff writers who “heard” that an e-mail had been sent by Paterno’s family to PSU informing the school of his passing. Onward Slate’s report was immediately picked up by CBSSports.com and links to the reports, via Twitter, were shared by a contingent of journalists (Stelter, 2012). Shortly after this story broke, two of Paterno’s sons refuted the story—via Twitter. Onward Slate and CBSSports. com publicly apologized and acknowledged that they had failed to verify the reports of Paterno’s death. Paterno did pass away the next day, but this premature reporting depicts the struggle over “being first” or “being right” when reporting a story as well as the ramifications that result when being first results in report- ing an inaccurate story. Twitter has clearly changed the configuration of sports journalism. When sports news breaks, Twitter is the place where the “action” resides and sports journalists must maintain a viable presence in this realm, or risk becoming irrel- evant with sports media audiences. As sports journalists increasingly populate Twitter when covering sports stories, fans have access to a wealth of commentary and opinions and also have the opportunity to engage and debate sports journal- ists. As social media continues to entrench itself in sports media, there will be a host of exciting opportunities for future research. We address some of these in the following section.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research As with all studies, this research has some limitations that must be recognized. First, the analysis was conducted from the journalists’ point of view. It would be important to incorporate how audiences are affected by the ways journalists use Journalists and Psu 399 social media and which functions audiences endorse or criticize. Second, the analy- sis was cross-sectional. While the dates we used to truncate the tweets generated a significant amount of data, longitudinal approaches may shed more insight on how journalists’ social media use shifts over time. Perhaps some journalists remain assertive in commentating on the story while others move on to other topics. Which direction a sports journalist goes may be a function of his/her perception of social media’s value in performing his/her job (Schultz & Sheffer, 2010). In looking to the future, there are a number of compelling opportunities for future work. First, more clarity is needed in determining the professional and personal boundaries for sports journalists in social media realms. Where do journalists perceive the boundaries to be and to what extent do these perceptions align with their employers? How do traditional journalistic practices translate to social media? Consider a recent debate between CNBC’s Sports Business col- umnist Darren Rovell and ’ Richard Sandomir. On February 17, 2012, Rovell tweeted that he had confirmed Sandomir’s report that Madison Square Garden (the parent company of the NBA’s New York Knicks) had settled a cable dispute with Time Warner. Sandomir took exception and their disagree- ment played out via Twitter (Sports Business Reporters, 2012). Sandomir argued that Rovell’s confirmation created unfriendly perceptions about the veracity of his story, whereas Rovell argued he was merely verifying the story (as journalistic standards require). Sandomir ended up telling Rovell to no longer give him credit when reporting stories, to which Rovell agreed. Apparently, there is a divergence of opinion between sports journalists about confirming stories via social media. Similarly, does a retweet of another sports journalist’s story equate to giving source credit? It is likely that there is incongruence among sports journalists on this topic as well. Second, how do journalists use social media to drive stories? Clearly the PSU story received coverage across all media platforms, but with the popularity of social media, journalists have another tool to drive agendas. Consider the case of NBA player Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks. In late January 2012, as a result of injuries, Lin, a little-used reserve was inserted into the Knicks starting lineup. Lin led the team on an impressive winning streak and became the rage in social media. Forbes magazine contended that Lin’s popularity was largely attributable to the publicity he received in social media, and as a result, his brand was valued at $14 million dollars (Ozanian, 2012). Social media offers sports journalists access to sizeable audiences who through retransmitting messages can coparticipate in driving agendas. Third, how do media organizations adjust traditional delivery systems to com- pete with social media? As this research suggests, social media is at the epicenter when sports news breaks and where media consumers turn to obtain the most cur- rent information and commentary. This competitive gap was again reinforced by the death of singer/actress Whitney Houston, whose death was reported on Twitter one hour before the press reported the story (Bennett, 2012). As mainstream sports media outlets face increasing competition from adversaries who do not follow established journalistic rigor and protocol, this constitutes a sizeable challenge. In large part, how sports media organizations respond may well be dictated by which side of the “being first”/“being correct” continuum they lean toward. 400 Sanderson and Hambrick

Conclusion Social media continues to exert tremendous influence in sport, and this was evident in the reporting of the PSU story. The commentary and interaction that emerged as sports journalists reported this story offers a number of compelling outcomes. It is imperative that sports media organizations, sports journalists, and sports media researchers pay strict attention to social media and harness the power that these com- municative channels provide. In other words, social media can no longer be ignored when sports news unfolds, and given the ability to frame messages, sports stake- holders must capitalize on these forums to competitively promote their agendas.

Case Questions 1. Why might sports journalists behave differently when using Twitter? 2. Is it problematic for sports journalists to mock fans via Twitter? Why or Why Not? 3. Given the nature of the Penn State story, many sports journalists appeared to be emotionally invested in the story. Is that an issue? Why or Why Not? In addition, if sports journalists do become emotionally invested in stories, should they be conscious of this before jumping on Twitter? 4. Much of the information during the Penn State saga was breaking on Twitter. For sports media consumers, Twitter provides instantaneous access to the latest news. How can other sports news delivery systems (e.g., local sportscast, newspaper) remain relevant with sports media consumers? 5. How credible is information reported on Twitter? How might sports media consumers discern between “fact” and “fiction”? 6. What are potential advantages/drawbacks to sports journalists promoting competitors via Twitter? 7. How might sports journalists use Twitter to boost their readership and/or public profile? Is Twitter an essential tool for sports journalists? Why or Why Not? 8. Twitter makes athletes and sports journalists more accessible to fans. Is this a positive outcome? Why or Why Not? 9. The dialectic of “being first” and “being accurate” was magnified in the Penn State story when premature reports of Joe Paterno’s death were reported on Twitter and picked up by CBS Sports and reported as fact. How do sports journalists navigate this dialectic? 10. If you were asked to develop a “best practices” for sports journalists when using Twitter, what would be included?

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