Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

Fans’ Emotional Reactions during a Live Sporting Event: Examination of Twitter during National Football League (NFL) Game

This research focused on understanding and analyzing sports fans’ emotional reactions during a live sporting event through Twitter. Technology and usage of social media arouse in the sports world. One major social media platform that stood out was Twitter and how researchers are transforming Twitter into more ways to interact with fans and gain access to live game stats. Data were collected by gathering tweets generated during the Carolina Panthers—Tennessee Titans football game that was played on November 3, 2019. The game started at 1 p.m., and 100 tweets were collected for each hour during a 3-hour window. A majority of the tweets came from the Carolina Panthers’ official Twitter pages, highlight tweets from ESPN, and Game Center Twitter pages. Tweets were compiled from major plays that occurred throughout the game, such as touchdowns, sacks, field goals, and poor play-calling. Collected tweets were categorized into 4 different emotions (e.g., happiness, sadness, enjoyment, frustration). These tweets were analyzed to examine fans’ positive or negative emotional status during the sporting event. Furthermore, the analysis provided better understanding of what plays cause fans to react more and what main emotions drive them to tweet throughout the live sporting event.