“Perjurers, Rapists, and Zealots are Ending Abortion”: Sports Journalists’ Symbolic Annihilation of Women Athletes on Social Media During the National Loss of Abortion Rights

Abstract

As athlete activism increases and social justice movements gain support and legitimacy, sports journalists have used Twitter (now the social platform X) to discuss off-field issues such as the gender pay gap, Black Lives Matter, and #MeToo. This content analysis examines 880 tweets from sports journalists who tweeted about Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022. Findings contribute to scholarship on the prevalence of sports journalists’ opinions when posting on social media and add to the literature on the symbolic annihilation of women athletes. The analysis also found that sports journalists working for large or elite news organizations were largely absent from the Roe v. Wade conversation on X and that the relationship between the role of the media professional (editors, reporters, broadcasters, and writers) and opinion posting was moderated by their influencer score.