Story: Matt Moczygemba, Morgan Crump, Ciara Gaines and Jantzen Murray
As part of Dr. Lea Hellmueller’s Sports, Social Media & Scandal class
Sports coverage has evolved over time, and social media continues to be a game-changer for both the athlete and the reporter. On one end of the spectrum, social media has demanded that athletes be held accountable for what they say or tweet. This is because their lives have become public; therefore, what they do and say is available to their fans and followers. On another note, social media has become an outlet for instantaneous news delivery, and sometimes what we see on social media isn’t always true. When scandals are in the public sphere, people can now use social media as a way to voice their opinions on the issue at hand. If the scandal is big enough, public opinion can be influenced very fast just by looking at what everyone else may be saying about the issue on social media. Because social media accounts are available to everyone, it is sometimes difficult to decipher which posts are accurate and which posts are fabricated. Either way, social media allows for the potential for both good and bad, it just depends on how we choose to use it.
One scandal that has come to the forefront of people’s attention is the ongoing Biogenesis issues in Major League Baseball. As the result of an investigation, 14 major league and minor league baseball players were suspended due to their use of performance-enhancing drugs they acquired from an anti-aging clinic in South Florida. This turned into an especially big story because some of the high-profile names involved, including Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun and Nelson Cruz.
The Miami New Times broke the scandal in January 2013 after they acquired boxes of documents with handwritten records of players’ nicknames and what they purchased from Porter Fischer, a former employee of the clinic (http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2013-01-31/news/a-rod-and-doping-a-miami-clinic- supplies-drugs-to-sports-biggest-names/). MLB soon started an investigation into the matter and major news outlets such as ESPN, Fox Sports and CBS Sports started reporting on the scandal. Once the public heard about the ordeal, there was widespread commentary on social media – particularly Twitter – regarding the situation, especially on the plight of Alex Rodriguez since he is such a polarizing figure.
Tony Bosch, the owner of the anti-aging clinic that supplied performance-enhancing drugs to the players, was eventually confronted by the MLB on his involvement in the matter. Pedro Gomez of ESPN also confronted Bosch, which can be seen in this video.
After the conclusion on the investigation, most of the players involved were suspended for 50 games, which effectively ended their seasons as the ruling was after the All-Star Break and there were few games left. Alex Rodriguez, though, was suspended for 211 games, the longest suspension in MLB history. As of recently, the suspension has been reduced to 162 games including playoff appearances, but the public backlash remains. A full timeline of Alex Rodriguez’s involvement with Biogenesis can be seen here.
The Biogenesis scandal created quite a stir among the social media community. It’s interesting to note that when the story first broke in January with the Miami New Times, the popularity of the story didn’t indicate a legitimate scandal. However, once the MLB got their hands on the story and released the names of each player involved in the Tony Bosch report, there was a significant increase in Biogenesis-related tweets.
In February 2013, Biogenesis-related tweets were the topic of conversation for only 5,443 Twitter users. This includes the keyword “Biogenesis,” but it also includes the three most prominent names involved in this scandal: Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Braun and Nelson Cruz. These names didn’t impact the number of Biogenesis-related tweets initially because the names weren’t released until the MLB bought the reports at a later date. Once the appropriate suspensions had been issued to these players for their involvement in the scandal, Biogenesis related tweets peaked on Aug. 5, 2013 with 16,324 tweets. Also on the same day, mentions of Nelson Cruz peaked at 13,145 tweets. The Rodriguez keyword topped out at 76,667 tweets on Aug. 6, 2013. The one player who blew everyone away, though, was Ryan Braun, who had 176,147 tweets about him; more twice the number of tweets mentioning Rodriguez.
According to the two pie charts above, there were mixed feelings on how the Twitter world responded to the news. We did a Twitter sentiment analysis to see exactly which feelings were being expressed by the people tweeting about the topic.
Our first search was focused around the biggest name leaked in the Bosch reports, Alex Rodriguez. This was Rodriguez’s second time to be caught up in a situation where his name, along with a few others, was linked to allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs. As you can see, the Twitter population was mixed in their emotional stance towards Rodriguez. The emotion with the highest percentage was contentment and gratitude with 30.8% while sadness and grief along with affection and friendliness were tied for second with 23.1%. This graph shows that while there were people who may have been sentimental for Rodriguez, most of the tweets expressed feelings of satisfaction in regards to the suspension issued by the MLB.
In our second Twitter sentiment analysis, we looked at the sentiment of tweets that included the word Biogenesis. The majority of the tweets, 59.4%, portrayed feelings of anger and loathing in regard to the scandal. The next most popular was affection and friendliness with 34.8%, but that could also be a sentimental point of view similar to the Alex Rodriguez chart.
Overall, social media has had a significant impact on the sporting world for both reporters and athletes. It has given athletes a bigger platform for how they release information, connect with fans, and communicate, but it also creates the possibility of them becoming a target for negativity. It can ruin a player’s reputation, create a loss in revenue for teams, and even potentially ruin a person’s career. For reporters, social media has become the go-to place for breaking news and important features because of the way people communicate today. Instead of having to wait for the news the next day or the paper, communicating in 140 characters seems to be the new normal, which can also lead to scandal if not used correctly. So, although athletes and reporters alike have this new medium to reach “the people,” careful use of it is necessary.
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