Social media in sports is now more than just a tool for fans to connect with their favorite team. It is also a source for up to date stats, communication between athletes and their fans, opinions of other players, and allows you to become more educated about the sport that you love.
The digital revolution has created a new generation of sports superfans armed with smartphones. These fans share unfiltered opinions, create memes, and build online communities. This new form of fan engagement is driving revenue opportunities for sports teams and helping them grow their audiences.
With the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery world, social media has become a primary outlet for sports enthusiasts to banter with fellow fans and share information about their favorite teams. However, this influence must be managed carefully to ensure that it does not negatively affect the health of both the athletes and spectators.
This article presents a critical review of the current state of social media research in sports. A coding framework was developed to categorize articles by their research streams, platforms, and theories. The inductive and deductive approaches to coding were combined to provide a comprehensive analysis of the existing literature and theoretical frameworks on social media and sport.
The results of this study show that social media is the focus of research in several areas within the sport management field. However, despite the widespread interest in this topic, there is little consistency in the methods used to collect data. It is recommended that future research focuses on the application of mixed-methods to investigate the multifaceted nature of social media in sports.