INTERNAL ACTIVISM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL LEGITIMACY: A CASE STUDY OF THE NBA’S REACTION TO THE NATIONAL ANTHEM PROTESTS IN SPORTS

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Kelly, C. (2017). INTERNAL ACTIVISM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL LEGITIMACY: A CASE STUDY OF THE NBA’S REACTION TO THE NATIONAL ANTHEM PROTESTS IN SPORTS. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Public relations scholarship, especially in recent years, has witnessed a growing call for studies that investigate how activists engage in public relations. There are still few studies on internal activism, despite its promise for new insights and discoveries, given that internal activists would seem to be more invested in maintaining organizational legitimacy. Therefore, this paper presents a case study analysis that investigates the NBA’s collective reaction to the surrounding issues of protest and racial justice to illuminate how athletes engage in social activism, and how teams and leagues respond to such to activism in public. More specifically, I argue the collective response from the NBA to the anthem protests illuminates how tensions between organizational interests and internal activist publics’ social justice activities can be productively negotiated, fulfilling societal obligations while still maintaining organizational legitimacy.

Details
Author

Kelly, Corey

Title

INTERNAL ACTIVISM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL LEGITIMACY: A CASE STUDY OF THE NBA’S REACTION TO THE NATIONAL ANTHEM PROTESTS IN SPORTS

Physical Description

1 online resource (88 pages) : PDF

Date

2017

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Public relations scholarship, especially in recent years, has witnessed a growing call for studies that investigate how activists engage in public relations. There are still few studies on internal activism, despite its promise for new insights and discoveries, given that internal activists would seem to be more invested in maintaining organizational legitimacy. Therefore, this paper presents a case study analysis that investigates the NBA’s collective reaction to the surrounding issues of protest and racial justice to illuminate how athletes engage in social activism, and how teams and leagues respond to such to activism in public. More specifically, I argue the collective response from the NBA to the anthem protests illuminates how tensions between organizational interests and internal activist publics’ social justice activities can be productively negotiated, fulfilling societal obligations while still maintaining organizational legitimacy.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Communication

Degree

M.A.

Keywords

Internal Activism
Public Relations
Sport

Subject Area

Communication Studies

Advisor(s)

Grano, Daniel

Committee Members

Leeman, Richard
Stokes, Ashli

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2017.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Kelly_uncc_0694N_11453

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:728