Pretend you work for the Athletics Department at FSU (or another university of your choosing). After an incident in which a student-athlete was posting inappropriate content on social media, the Athletics Department has tasked you with the responsibility of developing and communicating a new policy for appropriate, yet still engaging, social media use for student-athletes.
Applying the Case Method Analysis Steps for Developing Policy, develop a policy for appropriate social media use in intercollegiate athletics, as well as a plan to communicate this policy to everyone who needs to know about it (i.e., student-athletes, coaches, etc.).
According to your textbook,
"Building the fan base by retaining current fans and recruiting new ones is core to using social media technologies today, and Athletic Departments have hired whole units of media directors and graphic designers to effectively communicate their messages. However, a double standard has developed in many Athletic Departments related to social media use by athletes. University Athletic Departments have enacted policies to control and limit an athlete’s use of social media, characterizing it as risky to the image and brand of the team. While athletes’ social media use will likely be monitored by Athletic Department personnel for content, preventing athletes from using social media is undoubtedly a concern for their personal freedom. Governing bodies such as the NCAA have hesitated to create policy on this issue, likely because of the difficulty inherent to monitoring it and the legal issues associated with doing so. Coaches have voiced concerns within departments because of the potential competitive impact when an athlete announces an injury on Twitter, or a recruit changes her mind about attending a school because of some off-hand, heated comments. This is why many Athletic Departments and teams have created policy for the use of social media. Importantly, athletes need to be trained about the publicity “fishbowl” that is college athletics, where what they do and say is magnified and of interest to millions. Athletes are being coached to use social media minimally and appropriately and to understand the negative impact it can have for future jobs. Policy that balances the positives and negatives of this issue is required" (MacLean and Hums, 2018, p. 209-210).
For the second case study assignment, students are required to apply the Case Method Analysis Steps for Developing Policy to develop a policy for appropriate social media use in intercollegiate athletics. To complete this assignment, students should be essentially pretending they work for the Athletics Department at FSU (or another university of your choosing) and that they have been tasked with developing policy for appropriate, yet still engaging, social media use for student-athletes.
To develop such a policy for student-athlete social media use, follow these steps:
STEP 1.) Use a search engine (i.e. Google) to look up FSU's (or another university of your choosing) social media policy for student-athletes.
STEP 2.) Briefly outline the do's and don't's of the policy for appropriate social media use for student-athletes.
STEP 3.) Outline what you think some of the pros (provide THREE examples) and cons (provide THREE examples) of the policy are and provide justifications for each of the pros and cons discussed.