Introduction:
The most bizarre storyline of the most recent NFL offseason and the early days of the regular season was undoubtedly the news surrounding Antonio Brown. After finding a new team in Oakland following a falling out with his former teammates in Pittsburgh, Brown seemed poised to return to form as an elite wide receiver. However, that all changed after several unusual events. Brown first froze his feet during cryotherapy treatment due to not wearing the proper footwear, then got in a dispute with the team and league because he was upset about the new helmet he had to wear in accordance with new safety standards, and finally got in a heated argument with the team’s general manager at practice. Following all these problematic stories, which Brown actively posted about on social media, Brown was released by the Raiders. Shortly after, he was signed by the Patriots, and played in a game for them. However, allegations of sexual assault as well as allegations of farting on a doctor and not paying his bills came out soon after he joined the Patriots, and he was released again. While many people criticized Brown for actions perceived to be immature, there were some people defending Brown and advocating for him on social media.
Methodology:
I utilized the TAGS v6.1.9.1 software in conducting my research, allowing me to analyze thousands of tweets surrounding Antonio Brown. I filtered my results by including only tweets from a three day span, and further refined the sample by including only tweets from users with at least 2500 followers who thus have some modicum of influence or a following. This resulted in a pool of 235 tweets containing the hashtag #AntonioBrown.
After refining my sample, I coded all of the tweets using five factors: whether the tweet was positive or negative as it relates to Antonio Brown, the purpose behind the tweet, whether it was original or a retweet, the topic and the tone. Using these codes, I was able to analyze the sample and draw some larger conclusions about the Twitter discourse surrounding Antonio Brown.
Analysis:
My first analysis of the sample tweets was regarding the purpose of the tweets. I wanted to know if the discourse surrounding Antonio Brown online was made up of mostly jokes, opinions, information or something else. As you can see in the chart below, the purpose of the tweets varied greatly, with informing tweets, opinions and advertisements dominating the category. Many of the advertisement tweets were for podcasts and listed Antonio Brown as a
Figure #1:
subject of discussion for the given episode, which shows that the discourse surrounding Brown transcended Twitter and took place on other digital platforms as well. There were slightly more opinionated tweets in opposition to Antonio Brown, but I was generally surprised at how many tweets referenced Brown in a positive manner. However, one tweet in defense of Brown following the news that he had lost his Nike endorsement centered around the perceived unfair nature of athlete endorsement contracts, and it was retweeted many times and, thus, appeared repeatedly in the sample. This tweet, pictured below, was coded as an opinionated tweet that was in favor of Antonio Brown, and represents a large chunk of that category in the chart above. Therefore, there were far fewer original opinionated tweets regarding Brown, and this one didn’t really defend his character or actions, but rather critiqued the way athlete endorsement contracts are set up. The second dimension of my analysis concerned the topics of the tweets, because with
all the different unusual and serious storylines surrounding Brown, I wanted to see which subjects people were talking about the most. Based on the results, illustrated in the chart below, it is clear that the allegations of sexual assault and resulting loss of endorsements were dominating the discourse surrounding Antonio Brown on Twitter. The large number of tweets with unknown topics is due largely to tweets which function as podcast advertisements. Because they are not specific about what they are discussing in regards to Antonio Brown, instead just listing him as a topic of discussion, it is impossible to know what the specific topic of their discussion is going to be. In general, the discussions about Antonio Brown online had shifted almost entirely away from football and now revolve around accusations of sexual assault and the subsequent events.
Figure #2:
Conclusion:
The discourse surrounding Antonio Brown on Twitter was largely what I expected it to be. In the sample, the community of people tweeting #AntonioBrown are primarily sports fans and pundits. Rhetorically, many people in opposition to Brown cited his character and past behavior as reasons for not liking him. Many of the people coming to his defense, however, had a much more angry tone, and often talked about how Brown was not benefitting from the presumption of innocence which is guaranteed in our justice system. This analysis shows that arguing on the internet often comes from a very emotional place, and rhetorical and argumentative strategies are often idealized or anecdotal rather than logically or statistically based. In terms of limitations to my analysis, the sample included retweets, so some tweets showed up multiple times, like in the example above. Furthermore, the sample did not include replies, and true argumentative discourse would be easier to analyze through a back and forth interaction rather than one-off takes.