Gaining Primacy in the Digital Network: Using Social Network Analysis to Examine Sports Journalists' Coverage of the Penn State Football Scandal via Twitter

This study explored the social network that developed amongst sports journalists as the Penn State football scandal evolved. The results suggest that Twitter is an essential domain for sports journalists to occupy when reporting sports stories. Further as sports journalists gain prominence in Twitter networks, they gain exposure to large audiences, thereby obtaining a prime agenda-setting position. Twitter has become a vital tool in sports journalists' repertoire and cannot be ignored.