The agenda setting theory questions how the selection and arrangement of
news affect the public’s perceptions over news events. As Twitter is a new platform
for sport organizations to release news, bypassing traditional agencies, “agenda
setting” bears new meanings. This thesis attempts to determine the agenda set
during the 2015 Toronto Pan Am and Parapan Am Games by examining the
representation of athletes on the Twitter account @TO2015.
Initially, without considering that the news release was the Organizing
Committee itself, the analysis assumed incorrectly that the representation favoured
the Pan Am Games. Without the support from the data, the researcher re-examined
the study and realized that his preoccupations with “equal representation” misled
his categorization of the tweets. Then the researcher reanalyzed the tweets in new
categories. This time the analysis observed the cultural differences of the two
Games, and thus came up with recommendations for more effective Twitter
management.
