Just like all industry that undergone changes due to the arrival of modern media, the sport industry is one of the ones that has changes how its fans, players, or clubs interact with one another due to modern social media, whether its directly or indirectly. Social media has opened up an endless possibilities for sports to grow, from local competition to top professional sport leagues in the world. A commentator once described sport and social media as being ‘a match made in heaven’, due to how easily and seamless the two are able to integrate. Social media has probably bring in more money for clubs than any other thinJust like all industry that undergone changes due to the arrival of modern media, the sport industry is one of the ones that has changes how its fans, players, or clubs interact with one another due to modern social media, whether its directly or indirectly. Social media has opened up an endless possibilities for sports to grow, from local competition to top professional sport leagues in the world. A commentator once described sport and social media as being ‘a match made in heaven’, due to how easily and seamless the two are able to integrate. Social media has probably bring in more money for clubs than any other thing in the history of sports, due to the fact that sports channel and clubs are able to get more promotion due to social media, and the industry becomes much more popular among a wide range of viewers, young people now has the ability to access and view live game with a click of a button on their mobile, and public relation teams are able to better market their top stars. Not only are social media changing the way athletes and viewers behave, it is also changing the behavior of journalists, and journalism in general. Back in the day of traditional media outlet, it takes a lot of credential for a journalist to be taken seriously, especially sports journalists. Most of these journalists spends decades trying to prove that their opinions mattered, and that they do make a difference with how they write their articles or how they present the sport in general. Nowadays, a teenager with a mobile phone and some basic English skills, who happens to have a lot of followers can write a blog and people would take their word seriously, going as far as allowing them to enter sporting events that are considered to be very VIP; such as the Olympics, NBA games, the Premier Leagues and more. Cable companies such as ESPN, Fox News, CBS sports, has to come up with new ways to improve their platform so that users will continue to use them for their services, otherwise they would simply gone under had they not adapted to the arrival of modern media. The changes that these sports channels made however, was revolutionary, now organizations are able to broadcast their stories and content directly to viewers just as fast, if not faster than if you were to stick with how they did it in the past, which is to use journalists as a medium between sports and fans. This made it very much more difficult for traditional news journalists to gain exclusive access to scores and stats, or get exclusive interview with athletes and coaches. This gave an incredibly large amount of power to the people in charge of an organization’s media department and PR people, since they now decide which players to appear on their broadcasts, or even control how their viewers are able to perceive the game both real-time, and during the highlight reels.

How the NBA market their teams and players to bring in so much revenue.

The National Basketball Association, better known as the NBA, is one of the largest sport leagues in the world, and the largest basketball league in the world, in terms of viewership. The league consists of 30 teams hailing from various parts of the United States, and one team from Canada, and featuring many players from all around the world, such as Luka Doncic who plays for the Dallas Mavericks, and Jeremy Lin who now plays for the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association. As you could see, the NBA was already an organization with a large amount of influence, and was already bringing more revenue that one could imagine. With the arrival of new media, also comes new technological advancements to match them, one of which are the SportsVU cameras. With the introduction of these high tech precision cameras, it revolutionized how NBA playoffs are analyze and commentated. Back in the day, players were judged on how good they are based on the stats alone, which consists of Points they score in a game, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, and field goal percentage. Nowadays, we are able to see so much more right as they are happening, for example, you are able to see in slow motion how a player made a shot, or see how the team communicated with each other to win the game. The NBA realized that they can use this new found innovation to better help build their brand, they are able to market players and teams in a way that is almost superstar-like, for example, Michael Jordan, a five-time MVP, six-time NBA champion, 14–time NBA all-star, and is considered to be the greatest basketball player of all time, was almost treated like he was some kind African-American Jesus Christ. This allowed the NBA to market off of this, by making Jordan, Bryant, Curry, etc the face of the NBA, they have been able to bring in almost 7 billion dollars annually, a number you wouldn’t even imagine for the NBA five decades ago.
As previously mentioned, as organizations began to market their players into superstars, the players themselves also has more power in deciding how they are viewed in the eyes of the public, and even how they impact their sport. Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, etc can be control directly by the players themselves, without the need for a manager who would normally control everything that is related to their public image for them. This means that athletes are able to interact with their fanbase, celebrity endorsement, and get sponsorship on their own if their contract allows it so. To put in Laymen’s term, modern day social media has remove the corporate aspect from how players are represented, due o the freedom it allows both athletes and fans to interact with one another.
Negativity and security aspects of new media in sports.

With all the benefits that social media provides, it does not without side effects. With people having easier access in the way that they are able to voice their opinion on a sport, without regards to their status or credibility, it is only natural that sometimes people have bad things to say, or criticize people that are involved with the sport, most of the time these comments are directed toward athletes, in the form of direct messaging, posts, comments, or even stories on platforms that enables it. Not only are there hate from fans to players, there are also conflicts between players, coaches, managers, sports personalities, and many more, which can be very dangerous if the person involved does not conduct themselves on social media, it could potentially ruin their reputation, or even their career. There was once an incident that involved the Europa League play off, where three individuals were prevented from attending the football match between Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC, due to the fact that a video footage of them making racist and inappropriate comments toward a Liverpool player who is Muslim, was made published.
Social media could also be a pathway for misinformation, propaganda, and nasty rumors in sports, which is why organization have a team of specialists that deal with these kinds of problems. They have to be very careful when dealing with allegations that have been thrown on their players, staffs, or even the entire organization as a whole, one misstep could potentially backfire on them and further making these allegations seem true to the public. Other than social media now giving sport organizations a platform to market their teams and players as was previously mentioned, it has also bring upon them political responsibility. What this means is that organizations now has an obligation to express where they stand in a political matter, and constantly sends political or social message so that they would not be viewed as being ignorant or inconsiderate of social affairs.
Social media accounts that associate with sport must take extra care in the style, value, and consistency in how they conduct themselves, and security for individual accounts should be a priority, since it is so easy to pretend to be someone you are not in today society. It is almost I possible sometime for athletes and coaches to avoid criticism from their viewer, or not to make an apology statement for the duration if their career, since the political landscape of the world is ever changing, and whether you like it or not, it has a direct effects on sport organizations. Even though there isn’t really any social media regulations that are put into paper in sport leagues, it is a common knowledge to athletes and coaches that there are ground rules that must be strictly followed in order to maintain the public image of the organization.