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Ronnie Molitor

Dr. C

English

16 October 2018

Annotated Bibliography

All sorts of media surrounds the US. In 2019, it is estimated that there will be around

2.77 billion social network users around the globe. All athletes will most likely encounter some

sort of media in there career or will have some type of social media they use in there day to day

lives. My fat question is: How does the media affect athletes?

The Sport Journal. Does the Media Impact Athletic Performance, 2018,

http://thesportjournal.org/article/does-the-media-impact-athletic-performance/. Accessed

09 October 2018

Many athletes performances decrease from distractions. Distractions can cause negative

moods, and cause low mental energy. Distractions can be caused from loved ones, coaches,

decisions, etc, and media. Media can cause anxiety which as anxiety increases, athletic

performance decreases. High levels of stress can cause more anxiety as well. Many athletes

become the prey and the media become the predators. Athletes are forced with having jealousy

come there way as well as expectations, glorification and or criticism with a good performance.

Bad performances just bring on bad or negative judgement and it brings more criticism. Normal

people try and avoid criticism at all cost but champions risk criticism everytime they perform.

Although the media can bring a lot of negativity athletes way, some athletes choose to turn the

negativity into motivation. They try and prove all the discouraging people wrong and show them
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that they are better than what they are getting credit for. Some athletes unfortunately choose to

let the negativity get to them and impact them in a bad way. They let the negativity change their

mood, like depression. They tend to start to lose their focus, and they become very stressed out.

Sometimes depending on the athlete, some athletes resort to using drugs to try and help solve

there problems. Media all around can cause a athlete to lose so much focus on what's really

important and lead them to becoming a lesser athlete of themselves then normal. Some athletes

go as far as hiring a sports psychologist to help them manage everything outside of there actual

sport. These sport psychologist help improve athletes mental toughness, mental preparation and

they help athletes deal with the pressure that the media tends to add to athletes. Sport

psychologists help athletes improve their performance by using psychological principles. They

also help athletes with their mental health. Although media serves as a very negative thing to

athletes most of the time, media can influence athletes in a positive way as well. Media can be

used in a positive way to motivate athletes. For example athletes can be put on a billboard for

doing super good, so if they know this is going to happen they will then be motivated to improve

their skills. I feel this source will be very beneficial in my research because it is one of my main

sources and it also talks about the goods things and negative things that surround media.

Cunningham, Nicole, and Laura F. Bright. “The Tweet Is in Your Court: Measuring Attitude

Towards Athlete Endorsements in Social Media.” International Journal of Integrated

Marketing Communications, vol. 4, no. 2, Fall 2012, pp. 73–87. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d

b=bth&AN=84442827&site=eds-live.

Social media is one of the most popular forms of media used today. Athletes are using

social media to connect to fans but they are also using social media to promote themselves and
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promote their brands. Social media allows fans to feel like athletes are more human just like

them. Social media provides a way for athletes to directly talk to their fans. Social media allows

athletes to see what's going on with other athletes. Athletes are normally looked upon as role

models. As role models social media allows athletes to put out encouraging messages to people

that can relate to them which can then motivate the average person to become a better version of

themselves or even become a better athlete themselves. Twitter is a very direct social media for

athletes and fans. Athletes can put out a tweet thanking their fans, or thanking the organization

they play for or etc. Athletes can help persuade people to pick a certain brand over another one

depending on how popular they are. I feel this will be a good source as well because it talks

about some good ways social media can be used and how athletes can make the most out of

social media.

Brown, Helen. “The Influence of Media Expectations on Athletes: An Explorative Study.” Sport

& Exercise Psychology Review, vol. 10, no. 2, Aug. 2014, pp. 20–22. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d

b=s3h&AN=97467857&site=eds-live.

Athletes all over are forced with expectations. These expectations are beliefs regarding

their future in their career. These expectations can come from a wide range of sources. These

sources include direct experience with the athlete or past beliefs. Research has identified the

outside expectations coming from the media puts unneeded stress on athletes. Although this

source of stress has become pretty big it has become very overlooked throughout the years. It has

been under considered for the influence on behaviour, and the affective responses by athletes.

Some athletes tend to “choke” under pressure, and the media is only adding more pressure to

athletes. Not every athlete is affected by outside expectations, but most are. Some athletes have a
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stronger mental toughness than other athletes allowing them to block out the unnecessary noise

from the media. Athletes already have a lot on their plate being an athlete, they don't need extra

distractions from formed expectations or unwanted opinions from outsiders that dont even

matter. This source should be valuable in my research because it really helps the reader or fans

understand how pressure is put on athletes by the media.

Mae Anderson The Associated Press. “Social Media Helps Athletes Get Sponsors.” Toronto

Star (Canada), 17 Feb. 2018. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d

b=nfh&AN=6FPTS2018021745045452&site=ehost-live.

Social media is a great thing when used the right way. A gold medal used to be the ticket

to endorsements and sponsorships. Nowadays athletes are putting their name out there without

always accomplishing the biggest awards. Social media is allowing athletes to build basically a

resume for themselves online. Obviously the better an athlete does the greater reach for that

athlete. For athletes medals are just that icing on the cake, and no longer have the medals become

the main reason for endorsements. The greater a personality the athlete has the better shot at

endorsements the athlete has. So the image an athlete creates or how well a athlete engages on

social media has become very important. “ Any athlete or celebrity that has an influential social

media footprint certainly can commercialize that.”- Peter Carlisle, who oversees the Olympics

and Action Sports division at the marketing firm Octagon. Having endorsements as an athlete

can be very beneficial. Endorsements can help get your name out there as well as the brand. The

better the brand does the better you do money wise. I feel this is a good source to go along with

my other source that talks about how social media can be beneficial and I can help incorporate

this one with that source and help build the knowledge of how social media affects athletes.
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“LeBron reacts to scrutiny in age of social media, how it affects sports & society | 2018 NBA

FINALS”Youtube, uploaded by Fox Sports Ohio, 2 June 2018,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-d2Oyz1EVs

LeBron James talks about how the game of basketball as well as other sports has been

affected tremendously by social media. He says before social media it took way longer for

something that was negative to get back around to the athlete because it had to go through

multiple people just to get to them. Nowadays with social media there are always people trying

to tear athletes down. At the end of the day you have to take a step back and really look at what

matters because these people don’t even matter at the end of the day. Lebron says if social media

is having to much of an affect on a athlete that they should just delete it if they can't just ignore

the criticism because at the end of the day social media can be very helpful, and beneficial but if

it is too much a distraction it is not worth keeping. This source in my opinion can be very helpful

because Lebron is one of the best basketball players to play the game and a lot of people respect

his opinion and his words.

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