This manuscript is a case study into public responses to an amateurism transgression committed by Chase Young, a former Ohio State University football player and Heisman candidate. In November of 2019, Young utilized his personal Twitter to announce an amateurism transgression stemming from his acceptance of an improper loan. This study considers 1,674 public and direct replies to Young on Twitter. A variety of themes were identified, including attempts to support Young, externalize the blame, dispute Young’s story, exchange information, communicate ambiguously, and contemplate consequences of the transgression. Utilizing social identity theory and identity threat management, public expressions of fandom were positioned as a variable that explained the diversity in responses to Young’s transgression. Indeed, findings illustrated in-group and out-group biases, whereby Ohio State fans supported Young and fans of other teams disputed his story. Interestingly non-expressed fans engaged in image repair on Young’s behalf via externalizing blame to other institutions, especially the NCAA, which may demonstrate the interplay of multifaceted identities. Results from this manuscript help lay the groundwork for audience-centered efforts to understand athlete transgressions.
In early April 2020, as states began to release demographic data related to COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, it became clear that Black individuals in the United States were disproportionately impacted by the virus. The current research is a content analysis of stories about racial disparities related to COVID-19 published by U.S. newspapers between April and June 2020 (N = 181) conducted to examine framing patterns. Specifically, the study examined how relative risk was communicated and the causes attributed to the disparity. The overall results suggest mixed progress in terms of how racial health disparities are communicated to the public.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.