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athletes
Athletes now
have a direct and
almost-instant way
to connect with
their fans, without
the filter of the
media.
to let stars speak directly to fans, and TV
made that even easier, but there was always a
filter. There was always something—a re-
porter, an announcer, an interviewer, a
camera—between the player and the fan or
the public.
Social media has changed
all that. Players use the Inter-
net, Twitter, Facebook, their
own Web pages, and other
avenues to reach out direct-
ly to fans. In 2011, NBA su-
perstar Shaquille O’Neal an-
nounced his retirement. He
did not have a press confer-
ence where he stood before
microphones and waited for
questions. Instead, he post-
ed a video on his Twitter
feed. “Nineteen years, I want
to thank you very much,”
he told his millions of followers around the
world. “That’s why I’m telling you first. I’m
about to retire. Love you.”
When an athlete gets in trouble, now his
first move is to respond to criticism on his
Twitter feed or on his Web site, not to wait for
reporters to visit his house. It’s a question of
control: For decades, what an athlete said to
the public was not always in his control. With
social media, it is.