Social Media Study: Chiefs Fatigue and “Rigged” Conspiracies, Not Taylor Swift, Dominate Super Bowl Chatter

Outside of loyal Kansas City Chiefs and Taylor Swift fans, a new study released today suggests football and pop music followers are growing tired of the team’s run at a historic Super Bowl “three-peat” and the ubiquity of the world’s biggest pop star on the NFL stage. 

A team of faculty from the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University collected data from 92,000 unique social media users starting the day after the Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles advanced to the Super Bowl after winning their respective conference championship games.  Using keyword combinations such as “Chiefs” AND “Super Bowl,” “Taylor Swift” AND “Super Bowl” and “Swift” AND “Super Bowl,” more than 821,000 posts from January 27 to February 2 were examined. The research team of Dr. Jin-A Choi, Dr. Bond Benton, Dr. Yi Luo and Ines Hwang found the following:

• There was 45% more negative sentiment than positive sentiment about the Chiefs.
• Nearly 80% of social media users expressed either frustration, anger or disgust in social media conversations around the Chiefs advancing to their third consecutive Super Bowl. 
• Posts about Taylor Swift’s connection to the Super Bowl declined by 67% over last year’s event.
• A common conspiracy theme, mocked by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during Media Night on February 2, that referees continue to purposefully give Patrick Mahomes the benefit of the doubt on calls that benefit the star quarterback and his team. This opinion was reflected in the data, as a Google Trends Analysis revealed 147.8% more online activity about a “rigged game” than Swift. The NFL Referees Association even felt compelled to release a statement on Tuesday ridiculing the theory. 
• In contrast to the 2024 Super Bowl, team players generated 143% more online Super Bowl searches than Swift.

“This Super Bowl is met with fatigue as the public expressed a mixture of frustration, anger, disgust, and resentment at an astonishing 76% of all social media conversations surrounding Super Bowl LIX and the Chiefs” said Dr. Jin-A Choi, who is the Director of Data Analytics for the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication and an Assistant Professor of Advertising. “The ongoing debates and skepticism regarding officiating bias, perceived rigging, and the alleged controversial calls in favor of the Chiefs fuel fan discontent and conspiracy theories,” she said.

Despite the decline in conversations about Swift, Dr. Yi Luo said the pop star is still driving positive conversation around the game. “Love for Taylor Swift tends to dominate among social discussions with an impressive 72% joyful emotions expressed by social media users,” said. Dr. Luo who is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Media. “Such overwhelming positive emotion serves as a strong testament of Swift’s enduring popularity and her dedicated fan base.”

“This Super Bowl is a reminder that the event is equal parts celebration of the players and teams fans love, but also an opportunity to express animosity towards the teams and players fans do NOT love,” said Dr. Bond Benton, a Professor of Communication. “The energy that a celebrity connection to the game like Swift brings is noteworthy, but it should also be recognized as potentially fleeting,” he said.

The full study, which can be found here, is the 25th from Center of Strategic Communication, which provides social media analytics tools and training for faculty and students for classroom learning and research projects.  

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About the School of Communication and Media: The School of Communication and Media offers a range of dynamic programs in communication and media to a talented and diverse student population of over 2,000. Offering degrees in film and television, social media and public relations, advertising, journalism and digital media, sports communication, communication and media studies, animation and visual effects, and an MA devoted to strategic communication, the School prepares the next generation of communication and media practitioners and leaders. The School houses award-winning student programs that include WMSC Radio, The Montclarion newspaper,  Hawk Communications Agency, the Red Hawk Sports Network, Hawk+ OTT streaming platform, and News Lab, as well as the Center for Cooperative Media, which serves the public by working to grow and strengthen local journalism. Student projects and programs have recently received national recognition from PRSSA’s Bateman Competition, an Edward R Murrow Award, several Marconi Award nominations, and a College Television Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

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