“Can You Believe This Was Once a Football School?:” Social Media Fan Discourse Before, During, and After Nebraska’s Record-Setting Volleyball Game

2025/07/07 by Shannon Scovel, Kelli S. Boling · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Media Studies and Communication #Media, Gender, and Advertising #Sports, Gender, and Society

paper · doi:10.1177/21674795251356927

openalex publication_date 2025/07/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

On August 30, 2023, the Nebraska women’s volleyball team played in front of 92,003 fans at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, breaking a record for the highest-attended women’s sporting event. Using hegemony and feminist standpoint theory, this study offers a feminist critical discourse analysis of 1,079 X posts published before, during, and after the game and addresses how fans discussed this landmark moment in women’s sports. This paper also identifies moments of feminist empowerment limited within a sporting system built around male athletes. The findings from this study contribute to understandings of women’s college sports fandom in the digital age.

Citations

• Masculinities in global perspective: hegemony, contestation, and changing structures of power

Discussions

• “Can You Believe This Was Once a Football School?:” Social Media Fan Discourse Before, During, and After Nebraska’s Record-Setting Volleyball Game By Shannon Scovel & Kelli S. Boling Read it at doi.or [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]