Public Discourse on Doping Scandals in Sport
A Multi-Method Analysis of YouTube Comments in the Digital Public Sphere
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13049563 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nastasya Mamonova (National Research University Higher School of Economics), Oxana Mikhaylova (0000-0002-0236-6992, National Research University Higher School of Economics, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Communication & Sport (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2167-4795 • E-ISSN: 2167-4809 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/21674795261433589 |
| OpenAlex | W7134969235 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 21 |
This article investigates how publics interpret and debate doping scandals in sport within YouTube’s communicative environment. It draws on theories of deviant behavior, labeling, moral panic, the digital public sphere, and McLuhan’s insight that media formats shape meaning. The study conceptualizes YouTube comments as a site where narratives of fairness, responsibility, and institutional trust are constructed. The empirical material comprises 1,304 comments under three types of sport-related videos: a news report, a documentary, and an athlete interview. A multimethod design integrates automated text and sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and network analysis. The findings reveal a predominantly neutral, analytical tone and low levels of meaningful interaction despite high formal connectivity, alongside a fragmented discourse in which politicized, scandal-oriented narratives overshadow medical and technical interpretations of doping. The article’s primary contribution is theoretical: it introduces fragmented rationality, which refines public sphere theory for digital environments, and routinized deviance, which extends moral panic theory to explain discursive fatigue under continuous scandals. It also offers a methodological contribution by combining computational text analysis, network modeling, and qualitative interpretation to understand audience fragmentation on digital platforms
Agency (philosophy · Digital media · Discourse analysis · Interpretation (philosophy · Moral panic · Narrative · Online discussion · Perspective (graphical · Public sphere · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Doping in Sports · Sports, Gender, and Society
Social Network Analysis
Content Analysis
The Platform Society
Social Media and Sport Studies (2014–2023)
Retracted
The Reality of the Mass Media
Is there still hope for clean sport? Exploring how the Russian doping scandal has impacted North American sport culture and identity using an ethnographic content analysis
Online sports fans communities
Understanding Sporting Social Media Brand Communities, Place and Social Capital
Text Analysis in R
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |