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- All Subjects: Social Media
- Creators: Eaton, John
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
When it comes to my story, I wanted to make sure I told one that was interesting, relevant and worthwhile. I felt lost for quite some time in regards to what direction I wanted to take with my thesis. After meeting with Dan Moriarty and Kevin Brilliant of the Chicago Bulls during an outreach trip with the Sports Business Association, I knew I wanted to gain more insight into how teams are telling their digital stories and connecting with their fans. I wanted to learn more about how teams across the country are playing the game of social media and what strategies they put into place to be impactful and successful. I wanted to learn the value teams found in social media and how social media impacts the organizations as a whole, specifically in revenue generation. Most importantly, I wanted to learn how teams are engaging with fans and how social media has changed the world of sports. This research includes insights from various individuals in the industry as well as survey data from W. P. Carey students. The accumulation of this thesis has resulted in a closer look into social media in the sports industry and how teams are measuring success in the digital space.
In an effort to address these trends, we founded a student organization, The Political Literates, to fight political apathy by delivering political news in an easy to understand and unbiased manner. Inspired by our experience with this organization, we combine our insights with research to paint a new perspective on the state of the American political system.
This thesis analyzes various issues identified through our observations and research, with a heavy emphasis on using examples from the 2016 election. Our focus is how new technologies like data analytics, the Internet, smartphones, and social media are changing politics by driving political and social transformation. We identify and analyze five core issues that have been amplified by new technology, hindering the effectiveness of elections and further increasing political polarization:
● Gerrymandering which skews partisan debate by forcing politicians to pander to ideologically skewed districts.
● Consolidation of media companies which affects the diversity of how news is shared.
● Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine which allowed media to become more partisan.
● The Citizens United Ruling which skews power away from average voters in elections.
● A Failing Education System which does not prepare Americans to be civically engaged and to avoid being swayed by biased or untrue media.
Based on our experiment with the Political Literates and our research, we call for improving how critical thinking and civics is taught in the American education system. Critical thought and civics must be developed pervasively. With this, more people would be able to form more sophisticated views by listening to others to learn rather than win, listening less to irrelevant information, and forming a culture with more engagement in politics. Through this re-enlightenment, many of America’s other problems may evaporate or become more actionable.
We developed multiple surveys that were distributed to Marketing & Business Performance (MKT 300) students at Arizona State University and AWS Mechanical Turk Workers. The goal of obtaining information from both college students and paid survey-takers was to compile a diverse set of opinions regarding how consumers react to athletes’ social media and public behavior. This led us to analyze how consumers interact with athletes on social media platforms based on the sport they play and consequences of their actions. After examining our consumer research, interviewing executives in the legal background, and talking to some of the university’s top-prospective athletes to gain different viewpoints, we created consumer and athlete categories.
We established six main consumer categories and six main athlete social media strategy personas in order to create social media strategy recommendations. With this information, athletes have the opportunity to develop well-thought out social media strategies that are more tailored to their fan base(s). Athletes must be cognizant of how the content on their social media accounts and their public actions will affect consumers’ perceptions about who they are and their personal brand.
Esports is the fastest growing sub sector within the entertainment industry, predicted to garner over 600 million viewers by 2022. However, there is a big category of esports - mobile esports - that are not yet recognized globally. This thesis project analyzes how mobile esports has risen in the Eastern countries of the world, primarily Southeast Asia, and compares it to the possibility of replication in the Western countries of the world, primarily the United States and Brazil. It examines the specific factors that caused mobile gaming and thus mobile esports to flourish in the East Region of the world. The thesis additionally incorporates current attitudes towards esports and mobile esports in the United States and discusses the viewpoints of consumers in those specific areas. This research uses primary data and literature synthesis to ultimately increase knowledge on how mobile esports has risen in popularity in various Asian countries and whether or not mobile esports can thrive in a different environment such as the United States.<br/><br/>This thesis takes data from the “Newzoo Global Esports Market Report” conducted in 2020 by Newzoo. This report does the following:<br/>- dives deep into the global and regional esports economy<br/>- provides a realistic estimate of the market’s future potential regarding revenue streams, audience numbers, key trends, and franchises<br/>- highlights financial and statistical trends for the esports industry in the future<br/><br/>Overall the thesis finds that mobile esports have succeeded in the Asian market due to an established demographic of esports fans and players, mobile first consumers, and wide technology network in Asia. Data analysis finds that currently many American gamers still find mobile gaming to be “boring” and ultimately that cultural attitude, generational shifts, and the ideal game need to align for mobile esports to succeed in the United States.
The way in which we communicate has forever changed. In person interactions are slowly being replaced by digital experiences that we share with other users. Even after the Covid-19 crisis, some companies will continue to have employees work remotely. This will further push our worlds in being shaped by the actions that occur online. As this continues, it will become increasingly important that we pay attention to the online communities that we create. Communities that reside on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and more will continue to grow in prevalence in our day to day lives. We have seen how communities can organize and have real world impacts through their interactions with each other. R/Wallstreetbets is an online community on Reddit that caused the price of multiple stocks to skyrocket by all agreeing to buy as a collective group. This gained national attention and it was focused on how an online community was able to manipulate the market, but what was even more intriguing is how it represents the future of communication. It is easy to forget that the interactions we have online are with real people on the other side of their username and profile photo. We are consistently conversing with strangers as we leave comments on posts and reply to certain users. It is incredible that we are able to network with just about any user that is on a social platform. Despite this incredible ability to connect, we live in a world that is also divided and polarized. This is a result of using platforms that create filter bubbles and work to gain your attention to sell advertisements. These sites are largely unfocused and play host to both viral videos and social justice awareness. This thesis is focused on proving the concept of a new platform’s ability to resolve these issues. In this paper I will describe to you the problems that have arisen due to large social media companies, my proposal for a platform dedicated to resolving these problems, and the validity and testing of this proposed platform.