The Media’s Impact on Public Perceptions of CTE in NFL Players: A Study on Scientific Findings and Public Attitudes
Bio
Hello! My name is Elizabeth Bougadis, and I am in my fourth and final year at Toronto Metropolitan University in the Professional Communication Program with a minor in Public Relations. I am passionate about brand management, helping organizations develop their brand identity while managing their reputation through public relations initiatives. I am also interested in content creation, assisting companies to create various forms of content through press releases and social media posts to communicate with the organization’s target audiences. I was able to express this passion as one of the Social Media Leads for this year’s Signify 2024 Showcase, working closely with other creative minds to bring visions to life.
Research Summary
For my research, I focused on investigating the media’s impact on public perceptions of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in National Football League (NFL) players. After conducting thorough research on CTE and looking at cases related to NFL players, I then performed content analysis across social media platforms TikTok and Reddit to investigate how this neurodegenerative disease is framed and the potential implications it may have on public perception and sentiment. I also did a frame analysis on traditional news articles to see how different news outlets take scientific findings and present them to the public. This allowed me to identify reoccurring public sentiments and how specific platforms’ main objective was to elicit controversial public responses while others were to inform individuals and influence public perception grounded in evidence-based reporting.
