Spencer Peltz, my brother, has published a co-authorship, "Athletes’ Displaced Dissent on Social Media: Triggering Agents, Message Strategies, and User-Generated Responses," in Communication Quarterly from Taylor & Francis.
Here is the abstract:
Organizational dissent is ubiquitous in task-oriented groups, including sports teams and leagues. Yet, how and to whom that dissent is voiced and the responses to dissent can vary extensively. This study investigates how professional athletes enact displaced dissent and how the public reacts via sentiment analysis of Trevor Bauer’s YouTube channel. Findings identified 53 triggering agents that were consistent with those of subordinates in traditional workplaces. A novel triggering agent of external stakeholder management was also identified, which addressed Major League Baseball’s focus and consideration for its public, their interest in baseball, and relationships with athletes. Bauer expressed his dissent via 94 messages, mainly featuring a combination of rhetorically effective strategies and emotional release. Sentiment analysis of commenters’ 1,612 replies revealed rhetorically competent messages were either unassociated with or enhanced negative sentiment, but positive sentiment was created through entertainment (i.e. humor and pressure), inclusion (i.e. coalition building), and shared ideals (i.e. inspiration).
Gregory A. Cranmer, Brandon Boatwright, Jimmy Sanderson, and Angeline Scheinbaum co-authored the article with Peltz, who was the only contributor without a Ph.D. (I know the feeling.) Cranmer is a professor at Clemson University, where he was generously supportive of Peltz, who completed his bachelor's there last year.
Peltz is a digital marketing specialist at Forefront Networks in Austin, Texas.
