Should Universities Regulate Athletes' Twitter Usage?
An inside look at the successes, failures, and future of college athletes and their use of Twitter.
According to their website, Twitter has about 288 million monthly active users and about 500 million tweets are sent a day. With the evidently growing popularity of the social media site, it is changing the way in which people communicate with one another.
Celebrities have taken to Twitter to share more intimate, personal connections with their fans. However, good doesn't always come from the use of Twitter. Celebrities are always under the microscope, and one bad tweet can make a big impact on their reputation.
One group of people whose every move is particularly examined on Twitter is student athletes. Not only does every tweet represent themselves, but their institution and team as well. Student athletes using twitter can be pretty ugly, yet can also be an excellent tool used for good- but should Universities and Athletic Departments have the upper hand in this case?
The Background Info
Noticing the rising trend of college athletes and their use of Twitter, Fieldhouse Media released a recent survery on the social media usage of student athletes. After surveying nearly 1000 participants, 65% male and 35% female, Fieldhouse had some telling results. As seen in the chart on the left, roughly 75% of athletes surveyed have a personal Twitter account. This majorly increases the risk that one of them would send out a tweet that represents themselves, their institution, and their team in a bad manner. Additionally, as seen below, many student athletes, however, send out less than 5 tweets per day, which slightly decreases the chance that something unacceptable might appear on their feed. It is also important to note that just under 20% admitted to having tweeted something inappropriate. Another 22% admitted to responding to hateful tweets. These two statistics represent actions that are generally frowned upon and may elicit negative responses from the athlete.
The Good and The Bad
The final three statistics deal with visibiliy. Just under 20% of student athletes reported having a public account and more than 35% reported having over 500 followers. This means that their tweets are highly visible to fans as well as the public and any other media outlets, meaning that one bad tweet would be seen by many. Finally, over 40% of athletes reported checking twitter more than 10 times a day which means that they are more likely to see hateful tweets towards them which again may elicit the negative responses that many try to avoid.
What Are People Saying?
The NCAA (National Collegiate Atheltic Association) regulates the way in which coaches interact with recruits on social media, though they do not have any particular restrictions on how student athletes themselves use it. The NCAA puts their trust in the institutions and believes they can avoid any major issues and set their own rules regarding how student athletes use social media. However, if needed the NCAA will intervene. In 2012, the organization penalized North Carolina when it felt that the school was not doing a sufficient job of monitoring athletes' social media usage. Some institutions hire outside companies to do extensive reviews of student athletes' social media accounts. Some colleges require student athletes to allow school officials access to their accounts, some ban athletes from using an extensive list of specific words on Twitter, and some even ban student athletes from using Twitter altogether. However, questions have been raised regarding how far the schools can go in monitoring and restricting what their athletes post. As noted in an article written on the NCAA's limited stance on the matter, Arkansas, New Mexico, and Utah, as well as thirteen other states, have enacted social media privacy laws in order to protect the rights of both student athletes and employees.
In an article entitled, "The Good and Bad of Twitter and College Athletics" assistant professors Blair Browning of Baylor and Jimmy Sanderson of Clemson give advice for insitutions who feel the need to somewhat regulate the social media used by athletes. Besides not allowing athletes on social media, Browning and Sanderson give an althernate option: educate. Noting previous research stating that most schools only monitor social media usage as it happens, Browning and Sanderson state that major universities should be more proactive. By educating student athletes and teaching them how to manage the messages they send and receive on social media, these proactive universities would be fixing the problem before it even occured. Browning states, "Twitter can be a really constructive, positive tool but we need to train and educate our student athletes instead of putting all this money towards being watchdogs." Ed McLaughlin of Virginia Commonwealth and Patrick Chung of Florida Atlantic are noted as two athletic directors who understand the proactive nature of social media with their athletes. Both directors meet with their teams to discuss the dangers of careless tweeting and misuse of said media. Noting these dangers McLaughlin stated, "we tell them all the time when you put something online, it is forever." Chung states similar concerns noting a "virtual tattoo" that when you post something, it is there forever.
Sarah Kulhanek was kind enough to give a fan perspective on the matter. As someone who works for the basketball team at Michigan and an avid sports lover and fan, she provided some great insight to what everyday sports fans think.
Sarah touches on both the positives and negatives of athletes and Twitter usage. She notes that the interactions and conversation from athlete-to-fan and athlete-to-athlete are more legitimate and fun to see as a fan. She also states that athletes who tweet too much "clog her feed" and they're annoying to see. But on the positive side, she enjoys seeing athletes like Spike Albrecht, Mitch McGary, Nik Stauskas, Devin Gardner, and Shane Morris use Twitter as a force for good and often promoting great causes and positive attitudes about their respective sports. Sarah noted that she believes institutions and athletic departments should be able to monitor student athletes' Twitter usage "to an extent" stating that branding is a big component of athletic teams and she would understand why the university wouldn't want a bad representation. But on the other hand, athletes have the right to say what they want. Sarah proposed a solution in which she thinks the athletic department should highly educate their athletes and encourage them to stay off of social media during tournaments, big games, and additionally when the team may be going through a rough time (ex: transition between coaches).
Where does U of M Stand?
The last tweet, sent out by former Bloomsburg University baseball player Joey Casselberry, actually got him kicked off of the team. In an article regarding the incident, Casselberry was quoted stating, "an example that one stupid tweet can ruin someone's life and I couldn't be more sorry about my actions last night." Bloomsburg University announced their decision to dismiss Casselberry from the team on Twitter after discussing the matter with the athlete himself, the coach, and the school.
Outlook on the Future
The University of Michigan has seldom found themselves in the spotlight for misuse of social media (only a few minor instances). Described in a 2012 article, "University of Michigan Athletes Sign Social Media Policy in Bid to Avoid Controversy as Twitter Incidents Multiply," the policy and reasons behind it are detailed. The University earned itself a secondary violation from the NCAA prior to the 2012 season when a football player tweeted at a recruit, something that is forbidden by the NCAA. Afterwards, the athletic department developed a policy for all student athletes to sign, a social media usage agreement. The same set of guidelines are distributed to every team and athlete, which highly advises students to not post when they're emotional, use foul language, or tweet during class. If these rules are not followed, the athlete could face repercussions, or even suspension depending on the case. The atheltic department's compliance office even posted a list of "Do's and Don'ts" of social media on their website.
Hub Humphrey, student athlete and mens gymnast, gave some of his thoughts from an athlete perspective. Hub was very informative and emphasized the education the athletic department, compliance department, coaches, and staff give to the athletes. Hub states that at the beginning of every year the team is given a talk about their social media use and told what to do and what not to do, much like the list above. He even stated that if coaches and staff notice that some tweets are pushing the envelope, they will sit down with the team and gently remind them of their social media presence and role as a student athlete. Additionally, the gymnastics team specifically uses social media for publicity and to keep their fans involved with their meets.
Hub said the team even uses their secret weapon Sam Mikulak to generate even more publicity and presence on Twitter. Hub definitely recognized the pros and cons of student athletes using Twitter but seemed to think the athletic department should be able to monitor athletes' tweets to an extent. As long as the athletes are educated and tweets are lightly monitored, there shouldn't be an issue and athletes should be able to use the social media tool freely.
The same article regarding Michigan's social media policy points out that unlike other schools, Michigan does not hire third parties to come in and highly monitor athletes' tweets. The athletic department does, however, use applications such as Tweetdeck and others to monitor as they please. The University does hire companies to come in and educate athletes on how to responsibly use Twitter in a manner that will reflect positively on themselves, their university, and their team. Dave Ablauf, part of the Athletic Communications Staff at U of M, is quoted in the article stating, "We teach them about the value of a brand; of their brand, their team brand and their athletic department brand. We tell them don't put anything on social media that you wouldn't want your family reading on the front page of a newspaper." Further emphasizing the importance of education over restriction, former Head Football Coach Brady Hoke, who was coach at the time of the Twitter violation, feels that banning athletes doesn't engender responsibility, stating: "There's a maturity that goes along with it. You've got kids...growing up who aren't coached on the use of Twitter. We try to educate our guys all the time."
In order to get a perspective from inside the athletic department, Zach Eisendrath was kind enough to give some thoughts on what he believes institutions overall should be doing with Twitter and how U of M fits into the picture.
Zach was very informative and had a lot to say about the good and bad of athletes using social media and Twitter. He noted the power that athletes have with so many followers. People like Devin Gardner visiting Mott Children's Hospital and tweeting about it afterwards will generate a lot of positive outlook on himself and The University of Michigan. On the flip side, if athletes tweet a generalized statement about having a bad day, their hundreds or thousands of followers may not understand the context and be quick to jump to conclusions. Additionally, Zach emphasized education and how they try to teach the athletes to use Twitter responsibly and not to post anything they wouldn't want their parents to see (similar to what Dave Ablauf stated).
As social media and Twitter continue to evolve in the coming years, the way in which schools and institutions regulate student athletes' usage may need to expand. Though the NCAA has no official policy on how universities should handle media usage as of now, it would not be surprising to see something of the sort in the future. Additionally, regulation may come with the evolving nature of student athlete unionization. If sometime in the future, student athletes do become paid employees, it would seem that the schools would be able to put stricter rules on how their employees use Twitter and other media sources. For now, it seems that many schools are focusing on education over restriction and allowing their athletes to learn how to be responsible with what they say. However, as media is constantly changing, the rules and policies that go along with it must also change.