{"id":211174,"date":"2025-02-05T10:16:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T15:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/?p=211174"},"modified":"2025-02-13T18:26:35","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T23:26:35","slug":"social-media-study-chiefs-fatigue-and-rigged-conspiracies-not-taylor-swift-dominate-super-bowl-chatter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/2025\/02\/05\/social-media-study-chiefs-fatigue-and-rigged-conspiracies-not-taylor-swift-dominate-super-bowl-chatter\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media Study: Chiefs Fatigue and &#8220;Rigged&#8221; Conspiracies, Not Taylor Swift, Dominate Super Bowl Chatter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Outside of loyal Kansas City Chiefs and Taylor Swift fans, a new study released today suggests football and pop music followers are growing tired of the team\u2019s run at a historic Super Bowl \u201cthree-peat\u201d and the ubiquity of the world\u2019s biggest pop star on the NFL stage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A team of faculty from the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/stratcomm\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University collected data from 92,000 unique social media users starting the day after the Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles advanced to the Super Bowl after winning their respective conference championship games.\u00a0 Using keyword combinations such as &#8220;Chiefs&#8221; AND &#8220;Super Bowl,&#8221; \u201cTaylor Swift\u201d AND \u201cSuper Bowl\u201d and \u201cSwift\u201d AND \u201cSuper Bowl,\u201d more than 821,000 posts from January 27 to February 2 were examined. The research team of Dr. Jin-A Choi, Dr. Bond Benton, Dr. Yi Luo and Ines Hwang found the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was 45% more negative sentiment than positive sentiment about the Chiefs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nearly 80% of social media users expressed either frustration, anger or disgust in social media conversations around the Chiefs advancing to their third consecutive Super Bowl.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Posts about Taylor Swift&#8217;s connection to the Super Bowl declined by 67% over last year&#8217;s event.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A common conspiracy theme, mocked by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during Media Night on February 2, that referees continue to purposefully give Patrick Mahomes the benefit of the doubt on calls that benefit the star quarterback and his team. This opinion was reflected in the data, as a Google Trends Analysis revealed\u00a0147.8% more online activity about a &#8220;rigged game&#8221; than Swift. The NFL Referees Association even felt compelled to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/tompelissero\/status\/1886862347031269734?s=51\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">release a statement on Tuesday ridiculing the theory<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In contrast to the 2024 Super Bowl, team players generated\u00a0143% more online Super Bowl searches than Swift.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThis Super Bowl is met with fatigue as the public expressed a mixture of frustration, anger, disgust, and resentment at an astonishing 76% of all social media conversations surrounding Super Bowl LIX and the Chiefs\u201d said Dr. Jin-A Choi, who is the Director of Data Analytics for the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication and an Assistant Professor of Advertising. \u201cThe ongoing debates and skepticism regarding officiating bias, perceived rigging, and the alleged controversial calls in favor of the Chiefs fuel fan discontent and conspiracy theories,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite the decline in conversations about Swift, Dr. Yi Luo said the pop star is still driving positive conversation around the game. &#8220;Love for Taylor Swift tends to dominate among social discussions with an impressive 72% joyful emotions expressed by social media users,\u201d said. Dr. Luo who is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Media. \u201cSuch overwhelming positive emotion serves as a strong testament of Swift\u2019s enduring popularity and her dedicated fan base.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;This Super Bowl is a reminder that the event is equal parts celebration of the players and teams fans love, but also an opportunity to express animosity towards the teams and players fans do NOT love,&#8221; said Dr. Bond Benton, a Professor of Communication. &#8220;The energy that a celebrity connection to the game like Swift brings is noteworthy, but it should also be recognized as potentially fleeting,&#8221; he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The full study, which can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2025\/02\/Montclair-2025-Super-Bowl-Study.pdf\">here<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, is the 25th from Center of Strategic Communication, which provides social media analytics tools and training for faculty and students for classroom learning and research projects.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">###<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>About the School of Communication and Media:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0The School of Communication and Media offers a range of dynamic programs in communication and media to a talented and diverse student population of over 2,000. Offering degrees in film and television, social media and public relations, advertising, journalism and digital media, sports communication, communication and media studies, animation and visual effects, and an MA devoted to strategic communication, the School prepares the next generation of communication and media practitioners and leaders. The School houses award-winning student programs that include\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/wmscradio.com\/\"><b>WMSC Radio<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/themontclarion.org\/\"><b>The Montclarion<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0newspaper,\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hawkcomms.com\/\"><b>Hawk Communications<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0Agency, the\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/montclairathletics.com\/sports\/2020\/4\/18\/red-hawk-sports-network.aspx\"><b>Red Hawk Sports Network<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/streamstak.com\/hawkplus\/\"><b>Hawk+<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0OTT streaming platform, and\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/montclairnewslab.tv\/\"><b>News Lab<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, as well as the\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/centerforcooperativemedia.org\/\"><b>Center for Cooperative Media<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which serves the public by working to grow and strengthen local journalism. Student projects and programs have recently received national recognition from PRSSA\u2019s Bateman Competition, an Edward R Murrow Award, several Marconi Award nominations, and a College Television Award from the Academy of Television Arts &amp; Sciences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">###<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>I\u2019m a ______, tell me more\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Journalist:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0Contact the\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/university-communications\/media-relations\/\"><b>Media Relations<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0team for more information or to schedule an interview.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Prospective Student \/ Parent:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Learn more about the\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/\"><b>School of Communication and Media<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0or take the first step in\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/apply-to-montclair-state\/\"><b>applying to become a Red Hawk<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Outside of loyal Kansas City Chiefs and Taylor Swift fans, a new study released today suggests football and pop music followers are growing tired of the team\u2019s run at a historic Super Bowl \u201cthree-peat\u201d and the ubiquity of the world\u2019s biggest pop star on the NFL stage.\u00a0 A team of faculty from the Joetta Di [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":211176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-of-communication-and-media-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211174"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211187,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211174\/revisions\/211187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/college-of-communication-and-media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}