The representation of athletes in tweets at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games: an agenda setting analysis

Abstract

The agenda setting theory questions how the selection and arrangement of news affect the public’s perceptions over news events. As Twitter is a new platform for sport organizations to release news, bypassing traditional agencies, “agenda setting” bears new meanings. This thesis attempts to determine the agenda set during the 2015 Toronto Pan Am and Parapan Am Games by examining the representation of athletes on the Twitter account @TO2015. Initially, without considering that the news release was the Organizing Committee itself, the analysis assumed incorrectly that the representation favoured the Pan Am Games. Without the support from the data, the researcher re-examined the study and realized that his preoccupations with “equal representation” misled his categorization of the tweets. Then the researcher reanalyzed the tweets in new categories. This time the analysis observed the cultural differences of the two Games, and thus came up with recommendations for more effective Twitter management.