The Study Of Players' Photographic Self-Presentation On Social Media

Nowadays,new media impact the development of sports communication profoundly in the digital era.And social media has been extensivly applied into sports communication and became a favorable tool for sports groups.For example,sports journalists use social media for their daily work;sports fans obtain information and participate in discussions on social media;and sports organizations use social media to publicize and promote themselves.As to athletes,social media is also a very important platform to perform themselves.In the age of picture-reading,images are the most intuitional and clear tool to reflect things,and they can be easily understood by observers.In fact we cannot avoid the impacts of pictures.Athletes usually upload photos on social media to present themselves.The purpose of this study is to discuss how football players with high social media influence use photos or pictures to perform "self-presentation" on social media.This study selects three football players,Cristiano Ronaldo,Lionel Messi,and Neymar who ranked top ten on the list of the world's 100 most famous athletes promoted by ESPN for three years from 2016 to 2018 with one of the the criteria of the influence on social media.Therefore the objects of this study are the 421 photos of the three football players on their frequently used social media-Instagram.Using Erving Goffman's "self-presentation" and "impression management",and the theory of visual semiotics to analyse the photographic texts three football players present on social media.With the help of qualitative analysis software Nvivo12,this study anaylised 421 photos presented by 3players on Instagram from November 2017 to April 2018.One of the result of this study is that,firstly,all the three players present four images on Instagram: "The match participant","The brand marketer"," The behind-the-scenes reporter" and "The fan of other sports";secondly,they performs differently on front-and-back-stage photographicly to meet the public's expectations;thirdly,on the front stage,most photos are about treaning and competing which present players' professional identity and the three footballers also present their business images;while on the back stage,they enjoy sharing family and personal life.Another significant result is that three players present their images in symbolic ways.They basically use iconic and indicative image symbols,metaphorical and metonymic image symbols and symbolic image symbols to represent their different images.They mainly use intuitive iconic and indicative symbols to present the images of “The match participants” “ The brand sponsors” and “The social member”.Therefore,their identity of competitive ability,professional ethics and important group members are highly stressed.Futhermore,a few metaphorical,metonymic and symbolic symbols are also used to express the deeper connotation of professional image,such as the professional spirit that is not afraid of failure or the national spirit that fights for the national honor.The main finding is that a social factor influnece the mode of players social media self-presentation.That is the social identity regulates players behaviors.The development of social individuals is mainly influenced by three kinds of social identities: the social identity of individual career,the social identity of related members and the social identity of individual spirit.According to the requirements of social identity construction,the three football players all carry out "self-presentation" in the form of social media pictures,showing their social identity as the most fundamental individual career as a professional player,the image as a member of social relations and the identity characteristics of independent spiritual individuals.In general,the most influential athletes' "self-presentation" on social media images is constructed on the basis of the requirements of social identity.The successfull cases of the three football players are the reference for Chinese athletes.It requirs that athletes should conduct social media self-presentation and impression management under the norms of social identity.The social identity of professional ability and professional ethics should be presented highlighted in intuitive image symbols.Secondly,the number of three different social identities presented on social media should be balanced,which should focus on presenting athletes' individual social identities,and at the same time,maintaining social relations and personal images is also important.