Athlete Branding in the Digital Era: Athlete Personal Branding through Self-Presentation on Twitch
Abstract
Scholars have developed a burgeoning stream of literature on athlete personal branding and athlete social media usage, with a focus on athlete impression management via social media. While digital media like Twitch have emerged as a new platform that allows athletes to live broadcast, little is known about how the synchronous interaction may alter the athlete impression management in the digital media context. Specifically, additional research is needed regarding the personal branding behaviors and self-presentation of athletes on Twitch. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore how athletes use the live streaming platform Twitch for personal branding and self-presentation. I observed 12 Twitch channels that were created and owned by professional athletes. Using a netnography, I explored athlete personal branding behaviors on Twitch. Findings suggested athletes created positive personal brands through four steps: identity, positioning, image, and relationship. I further adopted the thematic analysis method to explore the athlete self-presentation on this digital media. Findings from the thematic analysis indicated that athletes perform four types of self-presentation: frontstage, backstage, onstage, and offstage. Finally, I conducted a sentiment analysis to examine how fans perceive the athlete self-presentation on the live-streaming platform. Results show the majority of comments had neutral or positive sentiment scores. A one-way ANOVA was conducted and suggested a significant difference between backstage and offstage athlete self-presentation in sentiment scores. This study adds to the athlete branding literature by exploring athlete personal branding and impression management in the digital media Twitch. More importantly, this study contributes to the development of Self-presentation Theory in a digital media context by adding two types of performance (i.e., onstage and offstage). Practical implications regarding athlete personal branding and self-presentation strategies are discussed.
Citation
Yu, Bo (2022). Athlete Branding in the Digital Era: Athlete Personal Branding through Self-Presentation on Twitch. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /198140.