Sabermetrics Over Time: Persuasion and Symbolic Convergence Across a Diffusion of Innovations

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Sports Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

This study sought to examine the movement of advanced baseball analysis, or sabermetrics, as a case study of diffusion of innovations. It examined the nature and extent of diffusion of the sabermetric approach and the persuasive strategies that may have effected it, employing a content analysis of sabermetric texts to determine common features of their discourse while measuring the frequency of those features in texts originating from media, fans, and baseball insiders. It also measured different types of persuasive appeals and references to other work in sabermetric discourse to comprehend the persuasive strategies and tone of discussion in the movement. Findings included marked diffusion to media and fans, minimization of credibility-based persuasive appeals in sabermetric discourse, largely positive references to other texts, and shifts in data presentation that symbolize both the role of computerized media in the diffusion process and a “hardening orthodoxy” that shifts the movement’s focus over time.

Authors

• Nathaniel Stoltz, University of Maryland

• Michael David Hazen, Wake Forest U