What sport can reveal about the darker side of online culture, and why DCU is studying it

When people think about problems in sport, they usually think about what happens on the pitch. Increasingly, though, some of the most serious issues are happening online.
Abuse, hate, harassment, and discrimination on social media are becoming a bigger part of modern sport, affecting athletes, organisations, and wider public debate. A couple of weeks
ago, DCU hosted two conferences exploring exactly that issue: the Sports and Discrimination Conference and the International Association of Communication and Sport Conference, with
almost 300 participants attending across both events.

While the events were research-focused, the issue itself is far from niche. Online harms in sport sit at the intersection of social media, discrimination, politics, culture, and business. In
other words, this is not just a sports story. It is a story about the internet, power, public behaviour, and the kind of digital spaces people now operate in every day.

Dr Gary Sinclair, Lead of International Network for Online Harms in Sport, said the issue has grown dramatically in scale.
“The main theme of interest this year was online harms in sport, an area where DCU leads research on,” he said. “This is such an important issue in sport now because the scale of it has
dramatically increased, it impacts all stakeholders in sport and has significant implications across society, politically, culturally, socially and even economically when we consider sport
as a business.”

That is what makes the topic more relevant than it might first appear. The same digital culture that shapes sport also shapes politics, student life, media, and everyday online interaction.
Sport just happens to be one of the clearest places where these tensions become visible. Dr Sinclair said DCU’s work stands out because it combines large-scale social media data
analysis with broader social and lived perspectives.

“We blend large-scale social media data analysis with expertise from a range of different fields that capture the theoretical and experiential aspects of online harms in sport,” he said.
The conferences also brought together more than just academics. Researchers were joined by people working across sporting organisations, policy, and industry, helping connect academic
discussion with real-world responses.

“Events like this are really important as they not only bring together leading academics on this topic from around the world, in what is a burgeoning topic, they also bring together
people from sporting organisations, policy, and industry,” Dr Sinclair said. “This is really important for bringing theory to practice.”

That may be the biggest takeaway from the week at DCU. Online harms in sport are no longer something that can be dismissed as “just social media.” They are becoming a serious
issue with consequences that reach far beyond sport itself.

Looking ahead, Dr Sinclair said he hopes the conferences will encourage stronger collaboration across sectors.
“What I hope comes next from these conferences is more coherent integration between industry, public organisations and academia,” he said.
For students, that is the real significance of events like these. They show how universities are not only places where issues are studied after the fact, but also places helping shape how
emerging problems are understood and addressed in real time.

This angle is better because it gives students a reason to care: it ties the story to social media, online culture, discrimination, and real-world impact, not just a conference happening in a building.

Author: Lucas Spicer – International Business Student