Abstract

In the wide scenario of journalistic phenomena, political journalism and sports journalism share several features: partisanship; mediatization and popularization; celebritization and hybridity. This paper aims to analyse if the contents posted on Twitter by the athletes influence their journalistic coverage, following patways similar to those characterizing contemporary political journalism and its attention for the social media activity of politicians. Through a media content analysis, the paper explains the relationship between the tweets posted by five Italian athletes and their journalistic coverage on three national newspapers. The case studies presented show that Twitter influences newsworthiness especially when the contents posted have both public and private nature, concern news «related to» sport, and come from highly charismatic athletes.