Trend Story

Social Media monitoring athletes on the rise:

1. How does the writer use personal accounts and anecdotes to enrich the story?
Isaiah Thomas and Reggie Moore story
UDiligence monitors student-athletes’ posts and Tweets and notifies the university as well as the athlete when it finds objectionable content.

“We have athletes install an app on their Twitter accounts and Facebook page and when something harmful is said the system automatically notifies the athlete and either a head coach or media director,” Long said.

According to Long, UDiligence works as a computer system that uses a pre-set word list, and whenever one of those words is used in a post or tweet, the athlete and university are notified.

Texas A&M was one of the first clients of Udiligence.

2. What evidence does the writer provide to demonstrate the subject's story is part of a larger trend or problem?
While colleges have long monitored their athletes’ comments, the rise of social media – and Twitter and Facebook in particular – have raised new concerns for major college sports programs. Several universities have hired a private company to monitor the social media websites of their athletes.“We protect them from potentially harmful statements they make that could affect them for life after college,” said Kevin Long, CEO of UDiligence, which has worked with Nebraska, Texas A&M, and Louisville, among others.