Data, Methods, and Ethics

Data, Methods, and Ethics

            To answer the many questions I have about this topic and to have a better understanding of the all of its components, I used several methods of research that I analyzed. I did research online and found a large amount of archival data such as articles and books that covered my topic very well. Another important part of my research was an interview I did with an assistant for the San Jose Giants baseball team and the student manager for the university baseball team.  The core of my research was a survey I conducted in which asked many questions about people’s uses of social media in relation to sports. The interview and survey was a perfect source of information for my project because they directly involve the heart of my topic, which are the sports fans that use social media. The archival data provided an in depth look into facebook and twitter themselves, as well as their involvement in sports. So all of these sources provide important pieces to my research and helped me fill in all the blanks.

           I created my survey using a Google form and then invited all my friends on facebook (including ones that are fans of ESPN, Sports Center and a number of sports teams on facebook) to take it. All the people the end up participating in the survey submitted their results to me. A Google form gives me the ability to see all the answers to the survey at once, which allowed me to easily analyze and interpret the data to make graphs and charts to observe the results. For my interview, I formulated a series of questions that cover the main interest of my topic. I selected someone who is very much involved in the sports world. I asked him about ten questions, including the questions I mentioned earlier on the home page. This interview took about ten minutes and was an insightful interview because it helped me fill in the blanks to some of my questions and brought some more uses of social media in relation to sports to the surface. I did try and sent a tweet to the show Audibles, but no luck getting my tweet on the show.

           The only ethical concerns I had was making sure that all names for the survey and interview remain anonymous, which I promised to all people that took the survey in a message I sent to all of them. I did use an informed consent form for the interview I used and assured the individual that that his name would remain completely anonymous if he wished. He did wish for his name to remain anonymous so he will be called John Morgan

Archival Data

               For my archival data, I found quite a large amount of information but I chose  two main sources to further analyze because they best covered my topic and gave me the best direct information. I found these sites using Google, Google Scholar, and the OSCAR university catalog. It took a few days, but I did eventually find all the information needed to carry out this task of analyzing social media’s relation with sports. I found my data using key terms such as sports, facebook, twitter, social networking usage, and of course social media and sports. My criteria for choosing data I would analyze from the result that I founds was articles or books that made a connection between social media and sports, focused on how social media sites are used, or examined sports in a social or culture way. Any sources of information that didn’t provide any of these I chose to exclude. I also did research on facebook and twitter to look at athletes and get counts for the amount of facebook fans and twitter followers they have.  

Interview

            For the interview, I had an acquaintance with someone hugely involved in the sports world. I selected him because I knew he was a big sports fan/social media user and he is around sports everyday of his life. I actually only interviewed one person, but because of his involvement in social media and sports, I felt that his responses would sufficiently answer the kinds of questions I had about the relationship between sports and social media. The responses I got perfectly filled in the blanks to my questions and was a crucial part to piecing together my conclusions. I did record and transcribe the interview changed his name upon his request. The questions are below.
-How often do sports you use social media as a resource and interaction platform for sports?

-How do you use social media in relation to sports?

-What gratification do you get from using social media as a platform for interaction and information for sports?

-What’s the main sports related use you use social media for?

-How do you get your game updates when you’re not watching the game?

-Which social networking site do you use most for sport related activity?

-Are you apart of any sports groups or communities on social networking sites? Which ones? 

-Do you participate in any ESPN surveys, especially ones aired on the show?

-Do you follow any players on twitter or are you a facebook fan of any players? Do you follow their social media activity?

-What is your favorite feature or characteristic of social media’s integration into the sports world? 

Survey Data

 

           I did create a survey to use as a source of data to analyze how the majority feel about and use sports and social media together. For the people I chose to participate, I firstly looked at all my friends on facebook and tried to find all the ones that showed they liked and are fans of sport teams, athletes, ESPN, Sports Center, Sports Nation, and ESPN First take. All the individuals that are fans of these on facebook I directly sent an invitation to them to take the survey. I chose them because since they had an interest in sports, I knew they would have more of an interest in taking the survey and would give the greatest answers to my questions. I then sent a mass invitation to all my friends to take the survey so I could get more diversity for my survey and get overall look into how the all people view and use the connection between sports and social media. Below is a link to the survey


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEtYTUlnbTU3dm85Z29YVnZPcTFsX2c6MQ#gid=0