Lorenz AP Research Project
Blog #1-
December 1st: Context and Methodology
Sports have always been a big part of my life, and a main reason I chose the research I am doing. As a recently signed athlete to play college soccer at William & Mary, I knew that I wanted to learn more about the NCAA and overall the college athletic life. In AP Seminar last year I looked into researching the NCAA's Name Image and Likeness Policy, and how it positively influenced athletes ability to promote themselves and compensate off of their image.
Throughout my research on this topic I discovered the importance of social media as a platform for many NCAA athletes to profit and promote themselves. From prior research and the personal impact the NCAA has on me I realized that I wanted to dig deeper into the representation of NCAA student athletes on social media.
Process to Research Question and Hypothesis
My initial Guiding Research Question was:
How does the representation differ between professional male and female athletes differ on Instagram?​
Sub Questiones:
-
How does gender influence sports media?
-
Are there gender inequalities currently within the NCAA
Final Question:
-
How does the representation of NCAA D1 athletes differ between females and males represented on the Power 5 Conferences Instagram accounts?
Key Search Terms:
-
Sports Media
-
Gender Bias
-
Self-presentation
-
Repersentation
-
NCAA Conferences
-
College Athletics
-
Title IX
-
Gender Inequality
-
NCAA Exploitation
Hypothesis:
There will be more representation of male college athletes than female college athletes on the NCAA Power Five conferences' Instagram accounts.
Methodology
In order to understand whether there is a difference or not in the representation of NCAA male and female athletes, I have chosen to use a content analysis methodology method.
For each Instagram account, I will look at the most recent posts from July 1, 2021- June 30, 2022( this timeline is for relevancy) and take a random sample of 100 posts from each account.
I will stratify my random sample with the timeline of the the academic calendar/year the schools follow in these schools. Months of the year will be organized into three groups, from which four groups will be randomly selected for each part of the year. Every Instagram will be a still post(image) the Conference Instagram has shared during that period and will be chosen for the study.
To limit differences between the posts of the conferences, all posts containing videos and Instagram stories will be avoided during the sampling process.
To determine if there is inequality between male and female athletes represented in the Instagram posts, I will use the sample proportion test or Chi-Square Test to determine also if there is statistical significance.
​
The terms I chose to code were obtained based on the source, "#Gramming Gender: The Cognizance of Equality on Instagram Accounts of Prominent NCAA Athletic Departments"
The terms I will code for are listed to the left.
I was led to my methodology by reading these main studies:
-
#Gramming Gender: The Cognizance of Equality on Instagram Accounts of Prominent NCAA Athletic Departments
-
"Self-Presentation of Male and Female Athletes on Instagram: A continuation of gender roles found in advertisements?."
-
"A quantitative analysis of photographs and articles on espnW: Positive progress for female athletes."
​