The Role of Twitter and Parasocial Interaction in College Students’ Sport Media Consumption

• In Event: Examining Mediated Sport: Top Papers in the Sports Interest Group

Abstract

The present study investigates college students’ use of Twitter to consume sports related content. More specifically, it assesses the relative importance of Twitter in relation to other distribution systems (i.e. television, news websites) and tests where obtaining information about sports ranks among common uses of the microblogging platform. In addition, the study assesses potential reasons for why individuals might prefer Twitter to television to consume sports related content. Findings suggest that social media plays an important role in students’ sport media consumption, but that this importance might have been overstated in previous studies. More specifically, the study finds that television remains the main source sports related content, followed by news websites. Results of a subsequent regression analysis find that the subset of individuals that prefers Twitter is motivated in part by their tendency to engage in parasocial interactions, their Twitter use patterns, as well as their perceived expertise in sports.

Author

• Jan Boehmer, University of Miami