Abstract

This paper analyzes the NBA's communications efforts from June 4 to July 30, 2020 as it prepared for an unprecedented season restart in the early days of a global pandemic. While scholars have examined the media's framing of the NBA in this period, there is a gap in the literature when looking at the official NBA communications strategy of the organization itself. As the first study to use risk communication theory in a sports scenario while also employing corporate social advocacy as the second theoretical basis of analysis, this qualitative study is a thematic and textual analysis of 14 NBA press releases and three existing video interviews of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Findings show that risk communication theory holds up in a sports context as the NBA employed effective use of widely accepted risk communication criteria. The study also puts forth a basis for CSA in sports communication regarding social justice.

Degree

College and Department

Fine Arts and Communications; Communications

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/