A Fumbled Opportunity? A Case Study of Twitter’s Role in Concussion Awareness Opportunities During the Super Bowl

Abstract

Doctors, journalists, and other advocates are attempting to draw attention to the dangers of head trauma in football, and the popularity of social media has given them a new outlet to perform advocacy. This case study explores how advocates for concussion awareness in football used Twitter to help spread their message during the 2013 Super Bowl. A content analysis of tweets from 92 concussion advocates on the day of the Super Bowl was conducted. Analysis revealed that the advocates used Twitter for (a) linking to football concussion content, (b) Super Bowl game-related commentary, (c) non-concussion or non–Super Bowl related links or messages, (d) linking to non-football concussion content, (e) concussion-related commentary, (f) engagement, and (g) self or website promotion. Results demonstrate that while advocates have a tremendous opportunity to use the agenda-setting possibilities that are afforded through Twitter, concussion advocates did not utilize Twitter in this manner.

Keywords

Twitter concussion football NFL social media sport health

The week of the Super Bowl is usually littered with feel-good stories about athletes, coaches, and the teams playing in the biggest professional football game of the year. However, a week before Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, the event took on a political tone when U.S. President Barack Obama stated, “If I had a son, I’d have to think long and hard before I let him play football” (Foer & Hughes, 2013). At issue was the debate over concussions in the sport, and the President’s input on the situation only added to the discussion raging off the field. With the world’s sports media descending on New Orleans for the Super Bowl, and millions of people set to watch the game at home, opportunity was ripe for discourse regarding the issue of concussions. For concussion awareness activists, the day of the game was an opportune chance to get their message out through the social network Twitter.

On Super Bowl Sunday, many concussion advocates took to Twitter to express their opinions about what the National Football League (NFL) could do to improve player safety. Those advocates were hardly the only people using the social network during the game, as the Super Bowl resulted in approximately 52.5 million social media posts (Sullivan, 2013). According to data released by Twitter, there were 24.1 million tweets about the game and halftime show, not including tweets mentioning advertisements (Ashtari, 2013). The opportunity for concussion advocates to reach a football audience this vast may never have been larger and Twitter provided them a platform to reach this size of audience.

The purpose of this study was to determine how advocates for sports health and safety used social media to help spread their message. This study is rooted in the concept of digital activism, which describes the process of using digital media technologies to help promote social change (Fuentes, 2007). Previous research has examined the effectiveness of Twitter when used by sports journalists (Sanderson & Hambrick, 2012; Schultz & Sheffer, 2010; Sears, 2011), athletes (Hambrick, Simmons, Greenhalgh, & Greenwell, 2010), and politicians (Cozma & Chen, 2011), but fewer studies have examined how advocates for sports health and safety have used Twitter in an attempt to get their message across to the public. Using content analytic methods, this case study explored how concussion advocates used Twitter on Super Bowl Sunday to raise awareness about the concussions issues in football.

Literature Review

Concussion Awareness in the NFL

One week before the start of the 2013 NFL season, the league agreed to pay US$765 million to settle a lawsuit filed by more than 4,500 former players and their families (Belson, 2013). The agreement was an effort to compensate players who had sustained concussions and are dealing with the health consequences stemming from them. In January 2014, a judge rejected the proposed settlement because she feared that it would not be enough money for former players (Belson, 2014). If a settlement is eventually agreed upon, it could put an end to the legal battles regarding concussions, but the dangers on the field remain. During the 2013-2014 season, the NFL reported a staggering 152 concussions sustained by its players (Breslow, 2014). A concussion is defined as a “minor traumatic brain injury that may occur when the head hits an object, or a moving object strikes the head” (Heller, 2013). This can occur when players collide with one another helmet-to-helmet, when a player hits his head on the ground, or, in other cases, when the head of a player sustains any kind of unexpected physical force. Brain trauma can be serious and is linked to illnesses such as depression and progressive dementia (McKee et al., 2009). In addition, a growing research body suggests a direct relationship between football and brain injury that leads to the development of chronic brain damage (Fainaru, 2012).

While concussions in football have become a concern for the NFL Players Association (Cameron, 2013), the teams, and the NFL, there are also other groups that are making efforts to raise awareness of the issue and advocate for a safer environment in football. The Sports Legacy Institute has collected more than 140 brains of deceased players and soldiers in an effort to determine the long-term impact of repeated hits to the head (Plaschke, 2012). To further increase the awareness about the dangers of concussions, some members of the media (About Concussion Watch, 2013) and various other websites and blogs have drawn added attention to the cause by writing about the issues involved with concussions in football (Anderson, 2013). While media attention has increased, the most notable recent development was ESPN canceling its partnership with PBS, after closely collaborating on the documentary “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis,” highlighting the concussion developments in the NFL (Sandomir, 2013). Thus, PBS worked on the documentary alone, eliminating an opportunity for the biggest sports media outlet to shine additional light on concussions. With media coverage still in its infancy, Twitter is becoming a helpful outlet for concussion advocates to spread their messages and link to helpful information. The hashtag “#concussion” is used by a variety of advocates, including researchers, medical experts, and those with concussion experience (Norris, 2012).

Twitter and Sports

Social media has become an integral part of the world of sports (Sanderson, 2011). With athletes, fans, sports organizations, and journalists heavily involved in social media platforms, sports communication has undergone a transformation (Sanderson, 2011; Sanderson & Hambrick, 2012; Sheffer & Schultz, 2010). One of the most widely adopted social media platforms in sports is Twitter (Clavio & Kian, 2010; Gregory, 2009; Sanderson & Kassing, 2011). Twitter has grown tremendously since its debut in 2006, with more than 500 million registered users (Holt, 2013), and climbing toward an estimated one billion users by 2015 (Dugan, 2012). The impact of social media may not be any stronger than it is in the world of sports (Sanderson, 2011). Sports fans are now more likely to check social media websites than traditional news websites when looking for the latest sports news, and 83% of fans check social media while watching a sporting event on television (KT Tape, 2012). Social networks are now moving toward becoming the primary source of sports information, displacing traditional media (Werner, 2012).

As Twitter is searchable (Mansfield, 2010), users are able to find others who are writing about topics that may interest them. Perhaps the most effective way Twitter users are able to find those with similar interests is through the use of hashtags. A hashtag is created when users take a key phrase or identifying word and put a number sign (#) in front of it. These hashtags, such as “#SuperBowl,” are a method for the tweet to become part of a larger discussion (Bruns & Burgess, 2012; Meraz & Papacharissi, 2013). For example, those looking to raise awareness about football concussions could use the hashtag “#NFLconcussions.” The use of hashtags can be an effective way to start a conversation with other Twitter users.

Most research on Twitter and sports has focused on how athletes are using the social network. Athletes are increasing their visibility (Pegoraro, 2010), interacting directly with fans (Sanderson, 2011), and avoiding the traditional media by using the network to send out messages that do not have to go through a media gatekeeper (Schultz & Sheffer, 2010; Sheffer & Schultz, 2010). With athletes using the network, the fans have followed. Athletes have some of the largest followings on Twitter (Gaines, 2012), and fans have a way to directly connect with athletes that they did not have previously (Browning & Sanderson, 2012; Hambrick et al., 2010). As fans have flocked to Twitter, the doors are open for more than just athletes to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the social network. Teams, coaches, and others are joining Twitter to have their voices heard as well. For concussion advocates, the large number of football fans using the service gives them an opportunity to reach an audience that they would normally not have access to and provide information about their cause.

Digital Activism

Digital activism, or cyber activism, refers to a form of activism that employs digital media technologies as a fundamental tool for social and/or political change (Fuentes, 2007).

Digital activism has increased in recent years given the rise of new media platforms and access to digital technologies around the globe. Websites, blogs, social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, wikis, and podcasts are just a few instruments implemented by those advocating for mass mobilization. The key benefits for utilizing these platforms are their abilities to aid in the quick dissemination of information, to connect individuals with common goals, and even to gather support from international observers (Lagman, 2005; Wall, 2007).

Digital activism is all-encompassing and can range from mere online petitions (e.g., anti-animal cruelty) to organizing offline actions in forms of demonstrations (e.g., Occupy Wall Street); however, it is often most visible during political and social conflicts (Postmes & Brunsting, 2002). In particular, political conflicts in countries across the Middle East, Asia, and Northern Africa have illustrated the changing landscape in activism behaviors and the growing trend toward online actions. Much research has been conducted examining the online movements in these conflict-prone regions (Brough & Li, 2013; Graziano, 2012; Jansen, 2010; Marmura, 2008). Specifically, the uprisings in Egypt and the role of Internet technologies such as blogs and social media platforms have sparked a wave of research interested in the power of digital activism (Lim, 2012; Saleh, 2012; C. Wilson & Dunn, 2011).

While scholarship in the political digital activism realm is flourishing, research on digital activism in sports has been sparse. Few studies have looked at nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) within the sport setting and how these groups use digital activism strategies (Thorpe & Rinehart, 2013; B. Wilson & Hayhurst, 2009). However, no existing literature sheds light on digital activism in sports by individual advocates. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how concussion advocates used the social media platform Twitter during Super Bowl XLVII, using digital activism as a framework.

Twitter and Advocacy

Much like the impact social media has had in the sports world, Twitter has become an important part of online advocacy. With Twitter available to people from all over the world, and with no restrictions placed on the messages from most governments, those looking to enact change are able to send an unfiltered message to a substantial group of people. By using hashtags, groups are able to create large interpersonal conversations among those with similar interests or causes (Meraz & Papacharissi, 2013). The direct conversations and messages that can be achieved through these hashtags allow for people to connect who may not have been able to previously. In areas where the traditional media is controlled by the government, Twitter gives those who previously did not have a voice a chance to be heard by millions (Hamdy, 2010).

For example, in the 2011 Egypt uprisings, Twitter messages were seen as a major factor that led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak (Meraz & Papacharissi, 2013). Protests were organized using Twitter (Kassim, 2012), and the platform was even credited as a main contributor of speeding up the revolution due to its ability to reach a large audience (Gustin, 2011). In Tunisia, people used Twitter to share information about where to avoid the military (Nguyen, 2011). Major media outlets reported after the events in Tunisia that social media was a major source for their reporting (Moore, 2011), so these messages for change are not just reaching groups of people but are influencing the traditional media as well. While concussion advocates obviously do not have to deal with the same oppression as those in these war-torn areas, their use of Twitter is very similar, in that they are able to reach a larger audience that is beyond just those in their immediate circle.

Despite having the opportunity to reach thousands and, in some cases, millions of followers on Twitter, athletes have largely avoided using Twitter for advocacy purposes. Few athletes address controversial topics online (Pegoraro, 2010). Exceptions include a select number of athletes who spoke out after the not-guilty verdict of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin (Schmittel & Sanderson, 2014), U.S. Olympians tweeting their opposition to a rule that prohibited athletes from advertising non-Olympic sponsors (Belson, 2012), and basketball player Royce White attempting to draw attention to mental illness (Favale, 2012).

Nonprofit organizations have embraced the social network as a way to get their advocacy message out. Many of these groups do not have large budgets and cannot afford a wide-ranging public relations campaign, so a free service, such as Twitter, that can reach a large audience has become an important tool in raising awareness. Nonprofits are using Twitter for relaying information, building relationships, and encouraging followers to become active members in the group through fundraising or volunteering (Lovejoy & Saxton, 2012). However, most groups use the social network for mostly one-way communication (Lovejoy, Waters, & Saxton, 2012), so conversations between the nonprofits’ Twitter accounts and the public are limited. While Twitter’s use is still in its relative infancy for advocates, it has the potential to be a valuable tool for raising awareness about causes.

Method

Data Collection

Data were obtained from groups and individuals who often tweeted about the issue of concussions in the NFL. Tweets from the concussion advocates were gathered by targeting individuals and groups who were outspoken on the subject of concussions in the NFL. These users were discovered through snowball sampling (Welch, 1975), as prominent concussion experts and research companies were identified through Internet searches, and then additional Twitter users were located by examining who those selected accounts were following. For example, Chris Nowinski (@ChrisNowinski1) was the first concussion advocate identified for the sample based on his position as the co-founder and executive director of the Sports Legacy Institute. Twitter accounts followed by Nowinski were then examined to locate other users who were interested in the issue of concussions in football. The inclusion criterion for these accounts was that their Twitter biographies stated an interest in concussions and sports. This process was repeated with the newly identified accounts, until no new additions to the sample were located. Ultimately, 92 different Twitter accounts were followed, and their tweets appeared in the timeline of an account created for this study. The accounts represented doctors (10 accounts), researchers (30 accounts), health organizations (37 accounts), and concerned citizens (15 accounts). All of the advocates’ pages are “public,” so their tweets can be viewed by anyone who visits the page. The Twitter activity of those 92 accounts was examined for the entire day of the Super Bowl XLVII, February 3, 2013, leading to a total of 289 tweets. The Super Bowl was chosen because it is the biggest sporting event of the year and watched by millions of fans throughout the world.

Data Analysis

To determine how concussion advocates discussed the issue of concussions in the NFL during the Super Bowl, each tweet recorded was analyzed and placed into a category. All tweets were analyzed incorporating constant comparative methodology as established by Glaser and Strauss (1967). To check for intercoder reliability, both researchers coded the entire sample. The intercoder reliability was calculated using Cohen’s kappa (κ = .943, p < .001). Both coders reviewed the collection of tweets independently and then discussed common themes that emerged. In all, seven different categories were developed from the tweets of the concussion advocates.

Linking to football concussion content occurred when the advocates identified articles related to concussions in football and sent links to these articles to their followers.

Super Bowl game-related commentary occurred when the advocates tweeted about the actual game.

Non-concussion or non–Super Bowl related links or messages included personal anecdotes or the advocate addressing other medical-related issues.

Linking to non-football concussion content demonstrated that football is not the only sport dealing with issues relating to brain trauma.

Concussion-related commentary allowed for concussion advocates to express their opinions regarding head injuries in an unfiltered manner.

Engagement demonstrated how Twitter has allowed for interaction among everyday users in a public forum.

Self or website promotion occurred when the advocates used Twitter to discuss their own ventures relating to player safety.

Results and Interpretation

Content of Tweets

The tweets analyzed during Super Bowl Sunday by concussion advocates represented the many different methods in which people are using the social network. While many took advantage of the opportunity to spread their message during the biggest professional football game of the year, there were others who elected not to use social media during the day. Table 1 provides an example of each theme, along with the frequency of theme’s appearance. For clarity, all links to various website addresses have been removed from the tweets and replaced with the notation (link).

Table 1.

Concussion Advocates’ Twitter Usage During Super Bowl Sunday Usage Themes.

Theme	No. of occurrences	Example
Linking to football concussion content	74 (25.6%)	“Healthy Living: CTE and football injuries [link]” (CTE Information)
Super Bowl game-related commentary	58 (20.1%)	“#ravens are playing lights out . . .” (Dr. Tony Coats)
Non-concussion or non–Super Bowl related links or messages	56 (19.4%)	“Superbowl Sunday begins with scrambled eggs and Stinkin’ good green chili. Mmmmmm mmmmmm good!” (Dr. Mark Adickes)
Linking to non-football concussion content	34 (11.8%)	“N.H.L. Grapples With Applying Its Own Concussion Protocols [link]” (Sean Lager)
Concussion-related commentary	30 (10.4%)	“Goodell, ‘we started a committee in the 90s that led the way on concussions.’ Led the way in duping the public and the players?” (Paul Anderson)
Engagement	29 (10%)	“@DrDavidGeier Thanks for the shout out. Ravens today?” (MomsTEAM)
Self or website promotion	8 (2.8%)	“Never looked forward to a #SuperBowl quite like this. Working w/@BleacherReport, @IanKenyonNFL, @injury expert makes sports that much better” (Dave Sieber)

During the Super Bowl game, when Twitter users were at their peak (Ashtari, 2013), the concussion advocates that were followed for this study tweeted 119 times. Table 2 restates each analyzed theme along with the number of tweets during an hour before the game started (5:30 p.m. EST) until 30 min after the game ended (11:15 p.m. EST).

Table 2.

Concussion Advocates’ Twitter Usage During Super Bowl Game Usage Themes.

Theme	No. of occurrences
Super Bowl game-related commentary	58 (48.7%)
Concussion-related commentary	23 (19.3%)
Non-concussion or non–Super Bowl related links or messages	11 (9.2%)
Linking to football concussion content	10 (8.4%)
Engagement	8 (6.7%)
Linking to non-football concussion content	5 (4.2%)
Self or website promotion	4 (3.4%)

Only tweets that focused on concussions were included in the following analysis.

Linking to Football Concussion Content

For the concussion advocates, Twitter was a way to distribute articles to the public by sending links to their followers through the social networking site. Linking to football concussion content accounted for 74 tweets (25.6%) on Super Bowl Sunday. Sean Lager, the head of a nonprofit organization designed to raise concussion awareness in football, sent out a link to inform his readers about new technology, “Football-helmet sensor warns of concussion risk via phone app [link].” Sports medicine writer Will Carroll added in his own commentary on an article when sending out a link: “This could be huge. My instinct is to be cynical, but I honestly hope this is the big step it could be: [link].” With the myriad of different stories and developments regarding concussions, these advocates can play an important role in the dissemination of information to their followers. By acting as the gatekeeper and deciding what articles and press releases to pass along to their followers, these concussion advocates help find the articles they deem important, while filtering out the articles that may not be as relevant to their cause.

Linking to Non-Football Concussion Content

Concussions in football may get the most attention, but 34 of the tweets from the advocates (11.8%) discussed the issue in other sports. On the morning of the Super Bowl, users updated injury information from basketball games, which took place the night before. Some advocates retweeted this injury information from other sources. Neurologist Tad Seifert posted a message directly from hockey’s Columbus Blue Jackets when he retweeted, “Update on Wiz: RT @RobMixer: #CBJ coach Todd Richards said James Wisniewski has a concussion.” While these tweets were not directly about the NFL, they did provide an opportunity to demonstrate how concussions are becoming a prevalent problem in the entire sports world (Klein, 2013; Morosi, 2012). By drawing attention to this issue, these advocates are working to start the conversation about the dangers that exist beyond the football field.

Concussion-Related Commentary

With the advocates’ strong passion for eliminating the issue of concussion in sports, it should be no surprise that many offered their own commentary on the situation. Dr. Philip Skiba posted one of the 30 tweets (10.4%) categorized as commentary when he stated, “Watching the NFL commish say more research is needed to link to football to concussion. Rewind 20 years, replace him with tobacco exec. Familiar?” Advocate Julie Norris tweeted, “Commissioner Goodell: please make the right call 2day. The historical call on the side of safety. No #concussion 2day. #nfl #keepplayerssafe.” Not all commentary was in a negative light, as President Barack Obama’s stance on the dangers of football garnered him praise from advocates. Dr. Andrew Blecher wrote, “Props to @BarackObama for calling out @NCAA to do more to help its injured athletes. #concussion #CTE Now how about legislation?” Twitter gave these users a platform to speak to millions of people they may not have been able to reach before.

Engagement

Concussion advocates used Twitter not only to relay their message but also to connect directly with their followers. Engagement accounted for 29 (10%) of the tweets, including a Twitter conversation between Dr. Andrew Blecher and sports medicine journalist Will Carroll regarding whether a certified athletic trainer should use previous knowledge of a player’s behavior when diagnosing a concussion. In addition, Dr. David Geier and Dr. Andrew Blecher had a discussion over Twitter about CBS’s coverage of head injuries during the pregame show. While these conversations could have taken place over the telephone, email, or text message, the public nature of Twitter allows for followers of the authors to share their viewpoints with their followers. The interactivity of the social networking platform opens up these conversations to the public, and could possibly draw in others to the conversation as well. These concussion advocates can use the social network as a way to make new connections with those who may not be as familiar with their cause.

Self or Website Promotion

The Twitter users interested in NFL concussion awareness largely elected not to use Super Bowl Sunday as a day to promote themselves or their online articles, as only eight tweets (2.8%) fell into this category. The person running the account for the website Brainstream wrote, “The Brainstreams.ca Daily is out! [link].” These tweets were often generic, not incorporating any information directly tied to the Super Bowl. It could be argued that these tweets are scheduled ahead of time to be sent out daily and would have been sent had the Super Bowl not taken place at the time. It certainly could be argued that such tweets would be more effective if they were specific to the Super Bowl. Audiences are more likely to be interested in material that relates to what they are viewing (in this case, the biggest sporting event of the season), as opposed to content they are able to receive any other time (Midha, 2014). Scheduled tweets could be effective for those who wish to push out several messages on a specific day and software companies such as Hootsuite even encourage the use of scheduled tweets during big events (Hootsuite, 2014). However, concussion advocates missed an opportunity to showcase their own work. They tweeted out many links that pertained to concussions in the NFL and other sports on Super Bowl Sunday, but very few used the platform to send links to articles they themselves had written.

Discussion

This case study examined how advocates can use Twitter to help spread their message to their followers and subsequently magnify the reach of their message. With the Super Bowl being one of the most watched sporting events of the year (Collins, 2013), and concussions being one of the main topics of interest off the field, the Super Bowl afforded concussion advocates an immense opportunity to spread their message to millions of football fans who were following along with the game on Twitter. A 30-second advertisement on CBS television was sold for an average of US$3.8 million for the 2013 Super Bowl (Elliott, 2013), a cost at which most concussion awareness centers would likely balk. However, with Twitter users sending out 24.1 million tweets during the game (Ashtari, 2013) to more than 200 million active Twitter users (Fiegerman, 2012), concussion advocates had the opportunity to deliver information about their cause to a large number of people who may not have normally been paying attention. Whether they succeeded is beyond the scope of this study, but it is clear that the concussion advocates did not send many messages about their cause during the actual game. Studies have shown that fans are watching games and using Twitter at the same time (KT Tape, 2012), so the advocates could have benefited from tweeting more about their cause when the game was taking place. Instead, only 33 of the 289 NFL concussion-related tweets sent by the advocates on Super Bowl Sunday were sent during the game (11%).

By barely tweeting about concussions at all during the game, the advocates missed a tremendous opportunity to use the agenda-setting possibilities that are afforded through Twitter. The media can have a major influence on the importance of a topic to the public (McCombs & Shaw, 1972), and those opportunities are growing with Twitter. Agenda-setting has traditionally only been considered relevant to traditional media (Coleman, McCombs, Shaw, & Weaver, 2009; McCombs & Shaw, 1972), but with many Americans now getting their news from social media (Sonderman, 2012), the impact of Twitter’s role in agenda setting cannot be ignored. Twitter provides the opportunity for news organizations to deliver links to content, individuals to post breaking news updates, and photos to be sent straight from the scene of the action and delivered instantly to mobile devices (Frederick, Burch, & Blaszka, 2013). Twitter’s active audience allows for users to send information to people, and then have the audience resend that information to others. Retweeted messages can reach a wider audience, as individuals have the power to decide what information is important and is worthy of being sent to their followers.

In addition, concussion advocates could have benefitted from creating a hashtag to be used by all advocates. Then, users interested in the issues could search for that hashtag to get information and be part of the conversation. Instead, the advocates missed an opportunity by not having a hashtag during the Super Bowl and simply tweeted without a unified message. Brock (2012) demonstrated how hashtags are used for cultural discourse and allow people from all over the world to participate in a conversation. Brock further explained how African American Twitter users created hashtags that dominated the “trending topics” list on Twitter (Brock, 2012). These conversations are creating a discourse in which many different people want to participate. If something becomes popular, then people may want to be a part of it, so concussion advocates can learn from this example and not only create a hashtag, but work to make it popular enough to be a trending topic. Future attempts at raising awareness online should be accompanied by a hashtag that all advocates can use when sending a tweet.

An obstacle to awareness may be that some advocates could feel that promoting a cause during a game may provide the opposite desired effect, and instead turn off those who might be potentially interested in the issues. Readers might only be interested in the game and may not want to be bothered by people who are tweeting about concussions. However, the Super Bowl is a prime opportunity for advocates to reach these fans, so those fears may have to be ignored. In addition, Twitter users have traditionally been more willing to accept tweets that endorse certain causes and products. In one study, female Twitter users had a moderately positive attitude toward celebrity endorsement tweets (Cunningham & Bright, 2012), so it is possible that people are more willing to tolerate these messages if they trust the person sending them.

Advocates may have elected not to discuss head trauma injuries during the game because no obvious concussions occurred during the Super Bowl. This appears to be a mistake. Advocates should not wait until a concussion occurs to relay the information that is important to their cause, and should instead be consistent with their message by shining a light on the issues regarding concussions during all games. By doing this, advocates can keep the message in the forefront of all games, instead of simply bombarding fans with a litany of messages when an injury occurs. DeLuca, Lawson, and Sun (2012) studied how those involved with the “Occupy Wall Street” movement used Twitter, and they found that Twitter was one of the main methods used to start individual conversations that eventually became a national dialogue. This demonstrated how advocates are no longer waiting for the mass media to get information out about a cause, as those involved in the case are doing it themselves. This concept can be used by concussion advocates who should not wait for a concussion, or worry about alienating their audience, and simply start the conversation now and hope that it can grow exponentially. Twitter has proven to be a successful tool in both advocacy and sports, so the ability to combine those two interests should be successful as well. Ultimately, the concussion advocates may have missed an opportunity to deliver their message to a wider audience than they normally have.

Conclusion

As social networking platforms such as Twitter grow in popularity, the opportunities for those willing to advocate through the network will expand as well. These groups can recognize that a chance for interaction among users, the ability to deliver commentary, and the gatekeeping functions of delivering links to the millions of users on Twitter are opportunities that should not be ignored. Concussion advocates can ensure that missed opportunities do not occur in the future by being more consistent with their message. By tweeting out messages on a regular basis, especially during games when fan engagement on Twitter is at its peak, concussion advocates can work to ensure that their message is not heard only in times when a head injury has occurred. Twitter advocates should stay vigilant with their use of social media by not only being reactive to events that happen on the field, but being proactive by getting information about concussions on the field to the public. Twitter has an ability to reach a wide audience and keep topics in the mainstream by sending out the 140-character messages on a regular basis.

The concussion issue will likely feel some resistance from those who may not think head injuries are a serious issue. The NFL has little motivation to create change in how the game is played because the sport is still one of the most popular in the world despite the potential of serious long-lasting injuries that can be sustained. However, as the league has begun to receive negative publicity regarding off-the-field transgressions of their athletes (Belson, 2014, Vendel, 2012; Whitmer, 2014), some have begun to question the impact head trauma has had on the decisions made by the players involved in these crimes (Delsohn, 2014; Mellinger, 2014; Pearlman, 2013). With this added attention, the NFL, and the public as a whole, may place a greater importance on concussion awareness. Concussion advocates can work to raise further awareness about the issues and perhaps convince fans to then take a more active role in promoting change themselves. This can occur through frequent tweets, use of hashtags, and not capitalizing on important opportunities to reach a massive audience. As has been demonstrated in previous uses of Twitter in relation to advocacy, messages have the ability to reach a wide audience that can help bring about change. Twitter is an optimal resource because advocacy groups can get their message out directly to the audience and not have to worry about whether the mass media will aid their cause. The use of hashtags and direct communication with football fans can help a message travel to many different users. Social media is a platform for concussion advocates to relay their message about the danger of concussions and the need for change, so they can have more tweets similar to the good news posted by one user at the end of the game, “Great to see no #concussions during the #super bowl.”

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biographies

Kevin Hull (MAT, North Carolina A&T University) is a PhD student in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. His research focus is how sports broadcasters are using social media to engage viewers, sports organizations, and athletes.

Annelie Schmittel (MS, Winona State University) is a PhD student in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. Her research interests center on social media technologies in the sport environment, crisis communication and image repair in sport, and athlete development.

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10.

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