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The purpose of this chapter is to assess the social significance of digital technologies for researching and understanding active women's bodies, identities, practices, and politics. In critically surveying the rapidly expanding body of literature on women's social media use for sport and physical activity, the chapter highlights the multidisciplinary nature of much of this work and its feminist and social justice orientation toward understanding the uneven impacts of platformed engagement for women, particularly those who are socially marginalized.

The chapter synthesizes the current literature to identify feminist and sociological approaches to analyzing sporting women's social media use. It draws on the authors' own research as case study illustrations of key developments.

Findings identify opportunities and challenges for women navigating the complexities of social media encounters in their sporting and physical cultural lives, focusing on self-presentation, branding and digital labor, community-building, and activism. It proposes theoretical, methodological, and ethical directions for sociological interventions in this area of study.

Future research should investigate the rapidly evolving digital landscape, issues of social justice and marginalized voices, and the social conditions that sustain gender inequalities in sport and social media spaces.

The chapter contributes original insights on emerging directions in the study of women, sport, and social media. Furthermore, it addresses the challenges for social researchers responding to the uptake of new social media platforms by female athletes and physically active women.

Athletes have leveraged their social platform and reach to advocate for a variety of social causes. Most recently, given the persistent impacts of climate change on sport, the sport sector has been leveraged to engage and educate fans, sport participants, and athletes to promote climate action while consuming sport and in their everyday lives. This chapter conceptualizes the term sport eco-activism and presents a rich history of the early stages of this form of activism and its interaction with sport. Specifically, we provide historical context and examples of how athletes and activist sport organizations (e.g., Surfers Against Sewage, Protect Our Winters) have drawn attention to the impacts of climate change on sport. We also highlight how these entities encourage spectators and participants to change their behaviors and further advocate for collective climate action. In addition, we offer insights on future directions of eco-activism within sport and how such activists can best resonate with their target audiences to create positive change through sport.

Sport is an international activity due to its cultural, economic and social significance in the global economy. This chapter focuses on the international aspect of sport in terms of international sports organizations and the internationalization of sports firms. To do this, this chapter highlights the role of branding, social media and marketing in international sports activities. This includes a discussion of how the Olympics and World Cup have influenced internationalization and the impact of athletes increasingly becoming global celebrities. The impact of new technological innovations is also stressed that shows the increased international relevance of sport.

Instagram is a social media platform that has quickly evolved from a photo-sharing application to a successful marketing tool. It holds various business opportunities, and its rapid growth helps showcase the business offerings. Its innovative use of adverts entices clients, and its visual nature complements the social media marketing strategy. Thus, looking at the dynamic nature and growth of the platform, this chapter outlines the past research trends in the literature of Instagram marketing as the primary objective. This structured review undertakes the study of 76 articles based on defined inclusion and exclusion criteria and analyzes the literature in different contexts. This chapter includes the hybrid review (narrative and framework-based), and findings from the literature highlight a significant influence of Instagram marketing on users. During the brief description of the literature in a different context, the numerous research gaps are outlined with future research directions based on the ADO framework. Lastly, it also presents a broader overview of the managerial and theoretical implications based on the literature of Instagram marketing.

This chapter shows how professional athlete-motherhood is presented by the mainstream media and challenged by self-representation on social media, using arguably one of the most successful professional athletes of all time, Serena Williams, as a case study. We suggest that Williams' use of social media has allowed motherhood to be a part of her entrepreneurial self, accessing sponsorship and endorsements while also normalising struggles and using her platform to raise awareness of what it means to be a ‘working mother’. In comparison, mainstream media presents athlete-motherhood as either the athlete-mother as a transgressor or as the ‘super mum’, a theme where the athlete manages the demands of motherhood with sport and does it all ‘perfectly’. While mainstream media may present these two tensions and speculate on what women's bodies should be able to do, Williams reminds us through her social media that her professional status does not disappear, she is not ‘coming back’ from becoming a mother, it's a part of who she is, thus, showing that motherhood can be part of being a professional athlete and can be celebrated via online self-presentations. We conclude with a call for future work to explore the understanding of the pregnant athlete beyond a case study of a global celebrity athlete to look at the experiences of athlete-mother at other levels of sport and society.