Course Description
Introduces students to using social media professionally in the context of sports journalism and communications. They will study theories to understand the phenomenon of social media and evaluate how sports media outlets, teams, leagues, athletes, and other stakeholders make use of apps and platforms.
Athena Title
Sports and Social Media
Non-Traditional Format
This course will be taught 95% or more online.
Semester Course Offered
Offered summer semester every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course is intended to introduce students to using social media professionally in the context of sports journalism and communications. They will study the theory behind why people are so drawn to social media. They will study how sports media outlets, teams, leagues, athletes, and other stakeholders use and evaluate the use of social media. They will experiment with journalistic storytelling and mass communication via social media. Students will have the opportunity to discuss social media with professionals, to work individually and in teams to create social stories and campaigns, and to evaluate how sports news and issues play out in the social realm. Specifically, students will learn how to: •Use social media to promote sports content and branding •Use social media effectively in sports breaking news/crisis communications situations •Use social media to enhance audience engagement with a live sporting event •Use social media as a reporting/research tool in sports journalism and communications •Use social media to tell sports feature stories •Evaluate audience engagement with social content related to sports •Analyze whether social content produced by sports journalists and communicators follows best practices, including media law and ethics
Topical Outline
•Social network theory •Social capital theory •Various social media platforms and their respective analytics •How to cover breaking news on social platforms •Crisis communications in the social era •Live sports event coverage on social media •Social promotion of sports content and branding •Building and measuring audience engagement with social content related to sports •Social media as a reporting and research tool •Storytelling on social platforms •Ethics, diversity, and fair use best practices on social media