Houston Professional Sport Team Response to Hurricane Harvey: A Twitter Content Analysis.

This article analyzes how six Houston professional sport teams used Twitter to communicate with fans before, during, and after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, focusing on their social media responses to this extreme weather event. Using a content analysis of 692 tweets from the Houston Astros (MLB), Houston Dash (NWSL), Houston Dynamo (MLS), Houston Rockets (NBA), Houston Texans (NFL), and Scrap Yard Dawgs (National Pro Fastpitch), the study applied and expanded upon Inoue and Havard’s (2015) disaster response activity codes to include new categories such as bonding and information. Results showed that emotional support, particularly bonding messages uniting the community, was the most frequent tweet type, followed by informational tweets, with all teams voluntarily engaging in crisis communication despite no obligation to do so. The study highlights the important role professional sport teams can play in providing emotional, social, and informational support via social media during natural disasters, filling a gap in literature on sport organizations’ direct crisis communication on platforms like Twitter.