This study examines the use and effect of statistics in online social media posts on X (formerly Twitter) for the top five professional sports leagues in the U.S. (NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, and NHL) during 2023 for changes in engagement, enjoyment, and emotion. This study utilizes machine learning to code 49,455 X posts before employing AI-powered sentiment and emotion analysis tools, in conjunction with more traditional measures of engagement and enjoyment, of 136,401 mentions responding to a randomly sampled subset of 500 of these posts (50 with statistics and 50 without statistics present in each of the five leagues). First, findings revealed discrepancies in frequency of use of statistics across leagues. Next, while posts with statistics increased engagement, they also negatively impacted enjoyment. Finally, analysis revealed posts with statistics yielded more “sad” responses compared to more “joyful” responses to posts without statistics. However, results varied by sports league. Implications for exemplification theory and future sport communication research on the use of statistics in sports media and practical considerations for sports media professionals are discussed.

中文翻译：

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美国职业体育联盟 X 帖子中统计数据对参与度、享受和情感的使用和影响


本研究考察了 2023 年美国排名前五的职业体育联盟（NFL、NBA、MLB、MLS 和 NHL）在 X（前身为 Twitter）上的在线社交媒体帖子中统计数据对参与度、享受和情感变化的使用和影响。这项研究利用机器学习对 49,455 个 X 帖子进行编码，然后采用人工智能驱动的情绪和情感分析工具，结合更传统的参与度和享受度测量方法，对 136,401 次提及做出回应，随机抽样的 500 个帖子子集，其中 50 个帖子有统计数据，五个联赛中的每一个都有统计数据。首先，研究结果揭示了不同联赛使用统计数据的频率存在差异。接下来，虽然带有统计数据的帖子提高了参与度，但它们也对享受产生了负面影响。最后，分析显示，与没有统计数据的帖子相比，有统计数据的帖子产生了更多的 “悲伤 ”的回应。然而，结果因体育联盟而异。讨论了对示例理论和未来体育传播研究的影响、体育媒体中使用统计数据以及体育媒体专业人士的实际考虑。