The Twitter Following For the Beijing Winter Olympics and the Russian–Chinese Fans’ Alliance: A Social Network Analysis

Tsahi Hayat, Yair Galily, Tal Samuel-Azran

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The current study examines the extent to which mega sport events play a role in connecting people from different countries, using the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as its case study. The analysis examines social connection (on Twitter) between Chinese and Russians and whether these connections are more likely to occur among the followers of the @Beijing2022 Twitter account, if compared with Twitter users in these countries who do not follow this account. The choice of the Russians and the Chinese also stems from their countries’ united front against those Western countries whose diplomats boycotted the games. The analysis reveals that, in cases where two people follow @Beijing2022, the likelihood of there being a connection between them increases by 8%, as compared with those people who do not follow this account, while controlling for other relevant variables. The findings indicate that mega sport events which take place under a boycott have the ability to be enhancers of international social connections.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1230-1245
Number of pages16
JournalAmerican Behavioral Scientist
Volume67
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Sep 2023
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Beijing 2022
  • Sino-Russian relations
  • boycott
  • mega events

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Cultural Studies
  • Education
  • Sociology and Political Science
  • General Social Sciences

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