In recent years, the NFL has had a significant impact in American culture because it is one of the most watched sports in the country. In light of tragic events in the United States, NFL players have been taking a knee during the national anthem. This kneel movement started last year with quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Many players are believed to be kneeling to protest President Trump, who has gotten involved in this anthem issue. In our research, we decided to focus our attention on just the players and not involve Trump.
In between September 1 – September 15, when the NFL season was just beginning, the kneeling ordeal was already gaining traction. As shown by the latest activity below, it reached its height on September 3.
#BoycottNFL Cleveland police, EMS unions won’t hold flag for NFL’s Browns after players kneel for anthem | Fox News https://t.co/f8iN8Knpja
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 3, 2017
James Woods’ tweet was the most retweeted tweet in our research. The hashtag in the beginning of his tweet was the most used hashtag on Twitter, according to Sysosmos. People around the United States are outraged that NFL players, who are role models to many young kids across the nation, are setting an example that kneeling during the anthem in an acceptable action.
Also, geographically, it is not surprising that the most attention is in the United States. The United States makes up over 93% of the mentions on Twitter, but in countries such as Canada and the UK there are also mentions of this issue deeming it a global concern.
Lastly, we looked at a word cloud and a buzzgraph to see what words were being mentioned and which were connected with each other. We quickly realized there was a Browns game where players took a knee on Fox by looking at the buzz graph. Plus, the mentions of “joke,” “cowardly,” and “losers” were used in the mentions of this event.
Although, it is not a trending Twitter topic anymore it is still an alarming issue in our country that gains global attention every Sunday.
Jake Silverman, Julie Miner, and Hannah Clary
This is such a great hashtag. I love the conversations surrounding it because in my opinion, athletes are in charge of their own bodies and the field and games are where they have the strongest voice. I think they have the complete responsibility to exercise their voice in this way. I also find the buzz graph interesting that the president took this movement very personally, but the flag or patriotism is not among the biggest conversation.
I thought this was super interesting, given that the buzzwords/clouds would probably be different if we’re looking at a handle like #TakeaKnee, etc. It just goes to show how partisan our media can be! I appreciated that you guys looked at a different hashtag around the same issue.
Relevant topic to choose for sure! It is really interesting to hear both sides of the argument about whether or not players should kneel during the national anthem. I think this will continue to be an ongoing argument and we will never come to one clear consensus about it.
Nice job!
I think it was a great decision to take Trump out of your research on the topic because he really did seem to completely change the direction of the original message. This research gives great insight into the issues that are so deeply rooted in our country that Americans themselves fail or even deny recognizing. Great work!
Great topic to choose for this post. I actually tailored this week’s post to this issue, specifically surrounding the #TakeAKnee hashtag. This issue has been rampant in the media ever since the season started, and even prior to that with Colin Kaepernick. It’d be interesting to see the peak in tweets since the season began surrounding this topic. I bet it has skyrocketed. Great job!