IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i9p4554-d543182.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of COVID-19 on Sport in Twitter: A Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Luis-Millán González

    (Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain)

  • José Devís-Devís

    (Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain)

  • Maite Pellicer-Chenoll

    (Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain)

  • Miquel Pans

    (Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain)

  • Alberto Pardo-Ibañez

    (Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain)

  • Xavier García-Massó

    (Departament de Didàctica de l’Expressió Musical, Plàstica i Corporal, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

  • Fernanda Peset

    (Instituto Universitario de Matemática Pura y Aplicada, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

  • Fernanda Garzón-Farinós

    (Departamento de Bioestadística, Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir, Quevedo 2, 46001 Valencia, Spain)

  • Víctor Pérez-Samaniego

    (Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain)

Abstract

The spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has transformed many aspects of people’s daily life, including sports. Social networks have been flooded on these issues. The present study aims to analyze the tweets produced relating to sports and COVID-19. From the end of January to the beginning of May 2020, over 4,000,000 tweets on this subject were downloaded through the Twitter search API. Once the duplicates, replicas, and retweets were removed, 119,253 original tweets were analyzed. A quantitative–qualitative content analysis was used to study the selected tweets. Posts dynamics regarding sport and exercise evolved according to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, shifting from considering sport as a healthy bastion to an activity exposed to disease like any other. Most media professional sporting events received great attention on Twitter, while grassroots and women’s sport were relegated to a residual role. The analysis of the 30 topics identified focused on the social, sporting, economic and health impact of the pandemic on the sport. Sporting cancellations, leisure time and socialization disruptions, club bankruptcies, sports training and athletes’ uncertain career development were the main concerns. Although general health measures appeared in the tweets analyzed, those addressed to sports practice were relatively scarce. Finally, this study shows the importance of Twitter as a means of conveying social attitudes towards sports and COVID-19 and its potential to generate alternative responses in future stages of the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Luis-Millán González & José Devís-Devís & Maite Pellicer-Chenoll & Miquel Pans & Alberto Pardo-Ibañez & Xavier García-Massó & Fernanda Peset & Fernanda Garzón-Farinós & Víctor Pérez-Samaniego, 2021. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Sport in Twitter: A Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:9:p:4554-:d:543182
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4554/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/9/4554/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mike Thelwall & Kevan Buckley & Georgios Paltoglou, 2011. "Sentiment in Twitter events," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(2), pages 406-418, February.
    2. Rubén López-Bueno & Joaquín Calatayud & Lars L. Andersen & Carlos Balsalobre-Fernández & José Casaña & José A. Casajús & Lee Smith & Guillermo F. López-Sánchez, 2020. "Immediate Impact of the COVID-19 Confinement on Physical Activity Levels in Spanish Adults," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-10, July.
    3. José van Dijck & Thomas Poell, 2013. "Understanding Social Media Logic," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 1(1), pages 2-14.
    4. Cynthia Chew & Gunther Eysenbach, 2010. "Pandemics in the Age of Twitter: Content Analysis of Tweets during the 2009 H1N1 Outbreak," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(11), pages 1-13, November.
    5. repec:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2016.303512_4 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Washer, Peter, 2004. "Representations of SARS in the British newspapers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(12), pages 2561-2571, December.
    7. Mike Thelwall & Kevan Buckley & Georgios Paltoglou, 2011. "Sentiment in Twitter events," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(2), pages 406-418, February.
    8. Simon, Tomer & Goldberg, Avishay & Adini, Bruria, 2015. "Socializing in emergencies—A review of the use of social media in emergency situations," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 609-619.
    9. Joachim Büschken & Greg M. Allenby, 2016. "Sentence-Based Text Analysis for Customer Reviews," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(6), pages 953-975, November.
    10. Antonio Lopez-Villegas & Daniel Catalan-Matamoros, 2019. "The Potential of Specialized Media in Public Health: Analysis of Health-Related Content in Sports Newspapers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-11, April.
    11. Sinnenberg, L. & Buttenheim, A.M. & Padrez, K. & Mancheno, C. & Ungar, L. & Merchant, R.M., 2017. "Twitter as a tool for health research: A systematic review," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 107(1), pages 1-8.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jairo León-Quismondo, 2023. "Social Sensing and Individual Brands in Sports: Lessons Learned from English-Language Reactions on Twitter to Pau Gasol’s Retirement Announcement," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-13, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel E. O'Leary, 2015. "Twitter Mining for Discovery, Prediction and Causality: Applications and Methodologies," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 227-247, July.
    2. Hajar Sotudeh & Zeinab Saber & Farzin Ghanbari Aloni & Mahdieh Mirzabeigi & Farshad Khunjush, 2022. "A longitudinal study of the evolution of opinions about open access and its main features: a twitter sentiment analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(10), pages 5587-5611, October.
    3. Sanmitra Bhattacharya & Padmini Srinivasan & Phil Polgreen, 2014. "Engagement with Health Agencies on Twitter," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-12, November.
    4. Ma, Jie & Tse, Ying Kei & Wang, Xiaojun & Zhang, Minhao, 2019. "Examining customer perception and behaviour through social media research – An empirical study of the United Airlines overbooking crisis," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 192-205.
    5. Diana Maynard & Gerhard Gossen & Adam Funk & Marco Fisichella, 2014. "Should I Care about Your Opinion? Detection of Opinion Interestingness and Dynamics in Social Media," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-25, August.
    6. Han, Chunjia & Yang, Mu & Piterou, Athena, 2021. "Do news media and citizens have the same agenda on COVID-19? an empirical comparison of twitter posts," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    7. Karin Sim Smith & Richard McCreadie & Craig Macdonald & Iadh Ounis, 2018. "Regional Sentiment Bias in Social Media Reporting During Crises," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 20(5), pages 1013-1025, October.
    8. Beatriz Barros & Ana Fernández-Zubieta & Raul Fidalgo-Merino & Francisco Triguero, 2018. "Scientific knowledge percolation process and social impact: A case study on the biotechnology and microbiology perceptions on Twitter," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 45(6), pages 804-814.
    9. Umar Ali Bukar & Fatimah Sidi & Marzanah A. Jabar & Rozi Nor Haizan Nor & Salfarina Abdullah & Iskandar Ishak & Mustafa Alabadla & Ali Alkhalifah, 2022. "How Advanced Technological Approaches Are Reshaping Sustainable Social Media Crisis Management and Communication: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-26, May.
    10. Lipizzi, Carlo & Iandoli, Luca & Ramirez Marquez, José Emmanuel, 2015. "Extracting and evaluating conversational patterns in social media: A socio-semantic analysis of customers’ reactions to the launch of new products using Twitter streams," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 490-503.
    11. Thomas T. Hills & Eugenio Proto & Daniel Sgroi & Chanuki Illushka Seresinhe, 2019. "Historical analysis of national subjective wellbeing using millions of digitized books," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 3(12), pages 1271-1275, December.
    12. Ping-Yu Hsu & Hong-Tsuen Lei & Shih-Hsiang Huang & Teng Hao Liao & Yao-Chung Lo & Chin-Chun Lo, 2019. "Effects of sentiment on recommendations in social network," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 29(2), pages 253-262, June.
    13. Widmar, Nicole Olynk & Bir, Courtney & Clifford, McKenna & Slipchenko, Natalya, 2020. "Social media sentimentas an additional performance measure? Examples from iconic theme park destinations," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    14. Stefan Stieglitz & Christian Meske & Björn Ross & Milad Mirbabaie, 2020. "Going Back in Time to Predict the Future - The Complex Role of the Data Collection Period in Social Media Analytics," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 395-409, April.
    15. Neu, Dean & Saxton, Greg & Rahaman, Abu & Everett, Jeffery, 2019. "Twitter and social accountability: Reactions to the Panama Papers," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 38-53.
    16. Dhiraj Murthy, 2017. "Comparative Process-oriented Research Using Social Media and Historical Text," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 22(4), pages 3-26, December.
    17. Herbst, Chris M. & Desouza, Kevin C. & Alashri, Saud & Kandala, Srinivasa Srivatsav & Khullar, Mayank & Bajaj, Vikash, 2018. "What Do Parents Value in a Child Care Provider? Evidence from Yelp Consumer Reviews," IZA Discussion Papers 11741, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Dibya Nandan Mishra & Rajeev Kumar Panda, 2023. "Decoding customer experiences in rail transport service: application of hybrid sentiment analysis," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 31-60, March.
    19. Zavala, Araceli & Ramirez-Marquez, Jose Emmanuel, 2019. "Visual analytics for identifying product disruptions and effects via social media," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 544-559.
    20. Mohammad Masoud Rahimi & Elham Naghizade & Mark Stevenson & Stephan Winter, 2023. "SentiHawkes: a sentiment-aware Hawkes point process to model service quality of public transport using Twitter data," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 343-376, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:9:p:4554-:d:543182. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.