The legitimacy of engaging in race-related social media messaging: college sport communicators’ perceptions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess American college sport communicators’ (CSCs) perceptions and justifications regarding their decisions to post race-related content on behalf of their athletic department via social media. Design/methodology/approach Interweaving institutional theory, the model of rhetorical legitimation (Harmon et al., 2015) and whiteness, this study explored CSCs’ (N = 163) responses to three open-ended survey questions via abductive analysis. In doing so, the authors discern how CSC rhetoric functions to maintain or disrupt whiteness in college athletics. Findings Findings suggest that CSCs engage in interfield (e.g. desire to disrupt whiteness in college athletics), intrafield (e.g. want to maintain whiteness in college athletics) and between-level rhetoric. The incongruence across coded responses in terms of perceived role suggests instability in the NCAA organizational field, which may be indicative of field-level change. In practice, these sentiments may manifest as some CSCs choosing to address racial inclusion on social media, which in turn can yield a more inclusive institutional field. However, disengagement from creating race-related content functionally operates to privilege and uphold whiteness within college athletics. Originality/value This work examines legitimacy and whiteness in sport organization’s social media advocacy efforts through rhetorical legitimation. This framework addresses gaps in research by centering social media messaging in institutional work. Furthermore, this work extends conversations of the institutionalization of whiteness in college athletics to external messaging and sport marketing.