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X as a proxy for tackle safety culture? Sentiment analysis of social media posts on red-carded and yellow-carded tackles during the 2019 Rugby World Cup
Alexander, Firdows Tucker, Ross Jones, Ben Hendricks, Sharief
Alexander, Firdows
Tucker, Ross
Jones, Ben
Hendricks, Sharief
Abstract
Objectives: This study analysed the overall sentiment of attitudes, opinions, views and emotions expressed in posts on X related to red-carded and yellow-carded tackles during the 2019 Rugby World Cup (RWC).
Methods: Sentiment analysis was conducted on posts on X about red or yellow cards issued at the 2019 RWC. Posts were classified as ‘agree’, ‘disagree’ and ‘neutral’. The frequency of posts, red cards, yellow cards, all injuries, tackle injuries and total number of tackles per match were also synced to the 45-match playing schedule.
Results: Five tackle-related red cards were issued during the 2019 RWC, and 15 tackle-related yellow cards, with 337 and 302 posts identified for each card decision, respectively. For red cards, 42% of posts (n=158/377) agreed with the referee’s decision, 19% (n=71/377) disagreed and 40% were neutral. For yellow cards, 24% (n=73/302) agreed with the referee’s decision, 33% (n=99/302) disagreed and 43% were neutral.
Conclusions: For red cards, posts were 2.2 times more likely to agree with the referee’s decision than disagree. Posts that agreed with a red card decision were also more likely to be shared (reposted) than posts that disagreed with a red card decision. In contrast, sentiments expressed for yellow card decisions were mixed. This may be related to interpreting the degree of danger and whether mitigation is applied. Within the ecosystem of rugby, sharing sentiments on social media plays a powerful role in creating a positive player welfare narrative.
Keywords
Rugby union, concussion, Rugby World Cup, red card, yellow card, tackles, X, Twitter, Culture
Date
2023
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
9
Issue
4
Page Range
1-9
Article Number
ACU Department
Collections
Files
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.