Disseminating the Olympic values on Facebook and Twitter during Rio 2016: content, influencers and engagement
Keywords:
Olympic Games, Rio 2016, Social Media, Digital Methods, Facebook, TwitterAbstract
This paper analyses the activity generated by the main Olympic actors and users’ participation on Facebook and Twitter during Rio 2016 through techniques and computational procedures called Digital Methods based on big data. This research is based on the analysis of 38,037 Facebook posts diffused by the main Olympic actors, which generated a total of 144.3 million interactions on behalf of the users, and the analysis of 43.3 million tweets, which were retrieved and stored due to their likeness to the official Rio 2016 event hashtags. It examines the strategies employed by the Olympic Family via social media, and the complex interaction between the various actors involved. This analysis contributes to discover whether Facebook and Twitter have capacity to create realities independently of the traditional mass media during a global event such as the Olympic Games, and the need for a more comprehensive and strategic approach to the opportunities presented by social media in the context of the Olympic Movement.