Conor WardAbstract: In my research paper, I intend to examine the effect social media has had on the way fans view athletes and the sports they participate in. I am interested in this topic, because social media has become increasingly prevalent in recent years and I am curious to see how it has changed the sports industry. I plan to explore this topic by examining what effects social media has had on sports leagues as a whole, in a addition to the effects it has had on fans perception of individual athletes. The scope of my research will be limited to the major US sports, such as Football, Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, and Soccer. Within thee sports I will also examine how certain athletes have gone about their use of social media.

BibliographyKritsch, Alyssa. "Six Top Athletes Using Social Media to Dominate." Hootsuite Social Media Management Six Top Athletes Using Social Media to Dominate Comments. N.p., 16 Oct. 2013. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

Alyssa Kritschs article, "Six Top Athletes Using Social Media to Dominate comes from a website owned by a company that actually works in the social media industry. The company, Hootsuite, helps other companies use social media to market and manage the image of their products. Thus, this article may come with a little bias, because it is inclined to support the use of social media. However, the article is about how a certain six famous athletes have used social media websites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, to build and market their image. The article argues that these six athletes have used social media to become the dominating presence or face of their respective sport. Thus, the article seems to be encouraging athletes use of social media to build their image. This article seems that it will be helpful in examining how famous athletes use social media to build their image. Additionally, it has many points of connection with other articles, in that it articulates that sports leagues and particularly athletes themselves can use social media to further they own causes.

Wagoner, Nick. "Rams Players React to Sam Bradford Trade." Espn.go.com. N.p., 11 Mar. 2015. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.In this ESPN.com article, Nick Wagoner writes about the reactions of St. Louis Rams players reactions to their quarterbacks, Sam Bradford, trade. However, Wagoner was not present to view said reactions, but instead he documents how Bradfords teammates and friends felt about the trade through their reactions over social media. The article most likely is intended for fans of the St Louis Rams, because it gives insight into how players from that team specifically felt about one their own being traded. This article will be useful in my research, because it gives insight into how social media can be used by fans looking to get to know their favorite players better. As a result of this social media usage, players can know that Bradford was well liked and respected by his teammates, which is something that might not be as well known without social media. the article is quite short, but what it does not have in writing is made up for by the images of some of the many tweets sent out by the players. Thus, this article gives useful insight into how social media changes the way fans can think of a player, by exposing them to other sides of players that they might usually not see.

Billings, Andrew C., and Marie Hardin. Routledge Handbook of Sport and New Media. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2014. Print.

In this book by Andrew Miller and Maria Hardin, compile a collection of scholarly articles relating to sports and media. This is a fairly new publication and most of the articles are up to date. The most useful parts of this collection seem to be parts III and IV, with part III describing Shaping, Marketing and Branding, while section IV talk about Audiences: Fan ship and consumption. Both these sections contain articles that directly relate to my topic. For example, one of the articles from section III is titled, Sport, Public Relations, and Social Media and this article directly relates to my question of how Social media changes the way people think about athletes and certain sports in general. Moreover, using social media to manage public relations is a big part of my research, because this usage of the medium changes the way people think about sports. I think this will be one of my most useful sources, because it is such large collection of material and most of it directly relates to my topic.

Sports, Nicole Auerbach. "The Good and Bad of Twitter and College Athletes." USA Today. Gannett, 10 Jan. 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.

The article, The Good and Bad of Twitter and College Athletes. by Nicole Auerbach, is an article that was published by USA today and it describes how social media, in particular twitter, can have positive a negative effects on athletes and sports images. The intended audience would most likely be college sports fans who are curious to see how social media may negatively effect their favorite sport, team, or athlete. The argument of this article is that social media can have a very negative effect on the self esteem of college athletes, due to all the negativity directed at them through the internet. This article will be useful,because not only does it provide an in depth look at a particular group, college athletics, but it also provides a different perspective than many of the other sources, which tend to be more positive.

"Valid Business Reasons to Monitor Social Media." Mondaq Business Briefing. N.p., 19 Sept. 2012. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

This article, which was published in the Mondaq Business Briefing, provides useful information on how social media can be used for athletes and sports leagues in general, for monetary profit. This information will be helpful in making the argument that athletes can use social media to build their image and market themselves for greater monetary gains, while in the process exposing themselves to a greater number of potential fans. Thus, athletes use of social media can be helpful in providing publicity for sports and thus bringing greater profits to leagues as a whole. This article provides many of the same themes as "Six Top Athletes Using Social Media to Dominate. and Routledge Handbook of Sport and New Media, because they all provide information on how athletes use social media for financial gain. Hundley, Heather L., and Andrew C. Billings. Examining Identity in Sports Media. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2010. Print.The book, Examining Identity in Sports Media, by Andrew Billings and Heather Hundley, describes how ones personal image can be affected by sports. The book goes chapter by chapter giving different example of how certain sports and events changed the identity of either the sport, event, or a particular athlete. This book will be usefull, because it can be used to see how media and in particular social media effects the image of athletes and sports. This book is a little old and many parts focus on times before social media, but those that do include social media are useful in examining who the identity of players and sports changed as a result of media. It is helpful in understanding how and why certain medias portray specific athletes and sports like they do. It also talks about how certain medias are used to build an image and this will be an important part of my argument about how social media changes the way athletes and the sports themselves are viewed by fans.