Abstract

This study examines trends in the public’s response to gender discrimination in sports through social media. More specifically, it examines trends in posts by Twitter users in response to disparities at the NCAA 2021 Women’s Basketball National Championship Tournament. Disparities created by the NCAA were seen as they provided the men’s tournament with more resources than the women’s tournament. A computer-mediated discourse analysis is used to analyze language use and discover recurrent patterns throughout the discourse. In addition, I apply a wild public network perspective to analyze how people engage on social media. My findings reveal this debate was driven by affect, characterized by “wildness,” and generated movement.

Advisor

Tian, Zhenyu

Department

Communication Studies

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Broadcast and Video Studies | Communication | Communication Technology and New Media | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication | Mass Communication | Social Media | Women's Studies

Keywords

women’s sports, hegemony, feminism, affect, social media landscape, gender roles, wild public network

Publication Date

2023

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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