University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School March 2021 The Rise of the "Gatecrashers": The Growing Impact of Athletes Breaking News on Mainstream Media through Social Media Michael Nabors University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Journalism Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Nabors, Michael, "The Rise of the "Gatecrashers": The Growing Impact of Athletes Breaking News on Mainstream Media through Social Media" (2021). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/8833 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Rise of the “Gatecrashers” The Growing Impact of Athletes Breaking News on Mainstream Media through Social Media by Michael Nabors A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Mass Communications Department of Mass Communications Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications University of South Florida Major Professor: Travis Bell, Ph.D Janelle Applequist, Ph.D Artemio Ramirez, Ph.D Dates of Approval: March 9, 2021 Keywords: Twitter, ESPN, SportsCenter, sports, NFL, Gatecrasher, Gatecrashing Copyright © 2021, Mike Nabors TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... ii PREFACE ........................................................................................................................................1 INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................2 LITERATURE REVIEW ..............................................................................................................10 Gatekeeping Theory ...........................................................................................................10 Evolution of Sports Coverage ............................................................................................17 Arrival of SportsCenter ......................................................................................................20 Athletes and Social Media ............................................................................................... 25 Evolution of Gatecrashing ................................................................................................ 32 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .......................................................................................................... 35 METHOD ......................................................................................................................................36 Data Analysis ....................................................................................................................36 Data Collection ..................................................................................................................38 Lead Stories ...........................................................................................................39 Breaking News .......................................................................................................40 Supportive .............................................................................................................40 Self-promotion .......................................................................................................40 RESULTS. .................................................................................................................................... 42 Lead Stories .......................................................................................................................43 Breaking news category .....................................................................................................45 Supportive category ...........................................................................................................46 Self-promotion ...................................................................................................................48 Discussion ..........................................................................................................................49 Future Implications ............................................................................................................59 Anecdotal carryover ...........................................................................................................63 Study Limitations .............................................................................................................. 65 Discussions for Future Research ........................................................................................66 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 67 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................68 i ABSTRACT This study provided a detailed examination into how gatekeeping theory is losing its traditional impact due to the increased opportunities social media has afforded the modern athlete. For the purposes of this research, those athletes who communicate through social media were able to circumvent traditional mainstream media (MSM) to broadcast their own messaging and as a result, the exclusivity of their respective content is frequently relevant to contemporary news organizations. The research explored how the MSM uses the content it airs from these athletes. An important distinction and goal of this study was to determine whether this messaging used by the MSM serves to break news or just support stories they were already planning to broadcast. This research concluded it accomplished both. Using thematic analysis, this study coded six weeks of ESPN’s SportsCenter, the longest running daily sportscast in American history (Fang, 2014). The research evaluated 30 hours of programming and found the athletes’ impact was profound. SportsCenter aired a story which originated from a social media post 27 of the 30 days which often resulted in stories deemed the most meaningful in the show’s daily rundown. Nearly one third of the shows led with a story that originated from the athletes’ messaging while more than a third of the SportsCenter episodes researched aired content which was categorized as breaking news. The research illustrated the heighted trend of how these stories impacted traditional gatekeepers in terms of the premium by which the messages were received and ultimately broadcast. ii This study characterized those athletes who provided traditional gatekeeping MSM platforms with meaningful content as gatecrashers. The research specifically illustrated how their content routinely resulted in the biggest stories on SportsCenter. The results define a gatecrasher by showing the content which exploited the depth of how their impact has evolved. This study provided context on the evolution of the athlete on social media, including how it started, matured and escalated. The findings revealed the importance of that process in an increasingly relevant role of the gatecrasher. iii PREFACE The motivation for this research stemmed from my background as a veteran broadcast journalist. My professional career has spanned over three decades at the local, regional, and national levels working for a multitude of sports networks and professional teams as both a sports anchor and reporter. During this time, my industry has undergone radical changes beginning with how stories are produced. From using a typewriter, then graduating to a desktop computer and ultimately traveling around the country with a laptop, the changes in technology have led to easier means by which journalists can do their jobs in terms of speed and proficiency, but simultaneously have altered the relationships with the sports personalities the media covers. During my career, it’s been a priority to get to know athletes and coaches away from crowded locker rooms and often impersonal press conferences. Gaining quality access was challenging yet highly rewarding whether it was uncovering breaking news or producing a story which provided exclusive content, but the dynamic has changed with the advent of social media. From my perspective, the modern athlete decreasingly needs the media to get their messaging out because they can do it themselves and with online platforms so interactive, often it has made today’s sports stars more guarded and thus tougher to form a working relationship with. At the same time, a notable trend has been watching several sports media outlets at every level increasingly lean on the athletes’ messaging instead of finding ways to obtain content in person. The research in this study aimed to discover the depths of how this aspect of the modern media relationship between journalists and professional athletes has transformed the gatekeeping process and as a result launched the growth of the gatecrashers. 1 INTRODUCTION On February 21, 2020 SportsCenter anchor Kevin Negandhi was conducting an interview with the network’s NFL Insider Dan Graziano concerning the league’s pending collective bargaining agreement. Negandhi