Online Media: Why Use It? To What Benefit? An Examination of Online Communication Within National Olympic Committees

Abstract

Relationship development is indispensable to sports organizations that are now using online media with increasing interest in building and maintaining relationships with the online publics. Most studies examining online communication are based on content analyses of organizations’ social media profiles. At the same time, only scarce literature approaches the phenomenon from an organizational perspective in that scholars try to assess the degree of online media adoption, these studies are limited by the sample typology thus limiting the generality of their findings. This study investigates online media usage purposes in 17 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and their perceived outcomes through a qualitative approach. Respondents identified various usage purposes like information dissemination, centrality, and control over the narrative, organization, and stakeholder promotion. The most prominent outcomes of such usage are constituency knowledge, stakeholder relations, engagement enhancement and raising awareness of issues. Implications for practitioners and research recommendations were also discussed.