GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

This mixed-methods study examines how athletes manage their self-presentation on Instagram. The study combines a qualitative analysis of former NFL player Taylor Lewan’s Instagram feed with a quantitative content analysis of the social media pages of 64 athletes representing 17 different sports. Quantitative data was collected by students in the spring 2024 SOCI 4338 Sport, Culture, and Society class using a shared codebook to classify social media posts made on Instagram between April 2023 through March 2024. Codes included: sport, advertising, family, advocacy, leisure, fashion, and others. The research reported here examines the relationship between the gender of an athlete and their posts and the relationship between the type of sport and the content of their Instagram posts. Quantitative analysis tests two hypotheses: 1) male athletes will have more advertising posts than female athletes, and 2) athletes in strength sports will have more sports-related posts.