Twitter continues to be "dominated by a subject that has been one of its strengths in the face of competition from bigger Internet fish such as Facebook: sports," according to Neil Best of NEWSDAY. That has been "mostly positive for leagues, teams and media companies, who leverage the site to keep fans engaged, and for Twitter itself as a platform for GIFs, videos and live streaming that are a nice fit for the games people play." NBC President of Olympics Production & Programming Jim Bell said, "Twitter serves, whether it’s a media event or politics or sports, as a very capable second screen when your feeds are populated with the right things. It can also end up devolving quickly into garbage and insults.” Even in the heated political year of '16, the first and fourth "most-discussed Twitter topics were the Olympics and the UEFA Euro Championships in soccer." Twitter Head of Sports Content Partnerships Laura Froelich said that the site "always has been a natural fit for sports." She said that Twitter also "works for a world in which fans are spread far and wide outside a team’s home area." Froelich: "Thanks to Twitter, players have the opportunity to become global brands." Froelich added that Twitter’s NFL, NBA and PGA Tour partnerships "are global." For example, several advertisers in Mexico and Brazil "sponsor streaming" of "TNF." Often the attitudes about social media sharing, and oversharing, "differ along generational lines." Basketball HOFer Reggie Miller said, "There's no way I would've been able to deal with it in today's landscape if I was an athlete. I could not have done social media" (NEWSDAY, 4/2).
ANTI-SOCIAL: Nationals CF Adam Eaton said that he "stays away from Twitter because he has 'gotten crushed' for sharing his opinions before." Eaton: "For me, it’s not worth it to speak your mind as an athlete because you do get burned. Even if 95 percent of the country agrees with you, there’s that five percent that doesn’t. And if a media personality picks it up and disagrees with you, you’re in trouble" (WASHINGTON POST, 4/1).
