Social Media Brings Light To The Dark Secrets Behind Professional Sports

For as many good things that social media helps to celebrate, it has also become instrumental in helping to expose the lack of morality among some of the owners and leaders of professional sports.

By now, anyone who has even the smallest connection with social media has heard about the disturbing case of Donald Sterling, the disgraced owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. Interactive discussions and online discussion formats are brimming with a myriad of conversations that all have at their nexus the issues that his racist comments have brought to the forefront. From the status of race relations in society today and the issue of first amendment rights to the discussion of drawing the line between personal and professional behavior and the effect this fallout will have on one of the world's most popular businesses, these open forums have not stopped exploding on this topic, nor should it.

Social media has become such a ubiquitous part of everyday life that many people are no longer aware that the television show that first aired the audio tapes where Mr. Sterling made clear his racist attitudes got its start (and still does the bulk of its work) online. Its business model was created as a place where people could post real time commentary about what was happening in social media. Originally their targets were admittedly lowbrow, focusing on celebrities and being not much of a step above paparazzi, but their crossover success, including being the source on record for breaking what is arguably the biggest sports-related story of the year, shows just how important social media that hosts interactive discussion with real time commentary has become. One of the newest websites that is leading this cyber-activism is Tawkers.com.

What sets this social media site apart from many other websites is that it allows people to become part of the community and to host the open forums. The advantage to this situation is that it allows for an almost immediate response to what is going on in the world, not just by having a place where people can post anonymous commentary, but where a discussion can happen about the latest events and the effects that it is going to have on people. It's as easy as A, B, C. Something happens that two people think needs to be discussed on social media, they start a "tawk" and send out notifications through the website letting people know when it will be, and at the appointed time the real time commentary allows everyone to join in. Finally the internet has the opportunity to rise to a level of morality and purpose.

For more information on the new wave of social media and Tawkers.com, visit: www.tawkers.com


Jack Terry is a well-known blogger and writer who covers social media and its effect on cleaning up corruption.