Will Social Media Spoil the Olympics?

The Summer Olympics officially open Friday, but as the games are place in London, which is six hours of the East Coast of the United States and nine hours ahead of the West Coast, it will be very a "tape delayed" affair.

This isn't unusual the world of international sporting events, but it's relatively easy to escape news the recently concluded European Cup or the Tour de France. Trying to avoid Olympic outcomes, though, is turning into a challenge worthy an Olympic event itself, thanks to social media.

Fans who know the results are to tweet, post and share the results -- is this just a sign of the times?

"All major sporting events face the dynamics as the Olympics are dealing with when it to social media," said Josh Crandall, principal analyst Netpop Research. "Super fans want to participate the excitement of the moment and share their emotions others online."

About the only to avoid it might be to disconnect entirely.

"You have to stay the Internet," said Marcus Messner, professor of journalism at Virginia Commonwealth University. "You can't avoid knowing won if you are on Facebook or Twitter. The only way to save it for prime is to stay off social media."

NBC, has paid big dollars for exclusive rights to broadcast the games, realizes that you can't beat social media, the next best thing is embrace it.

The broadcaster has arranged deals Facebook to promote Olympic conversations on NBC's Facebook page, while NBC News and NBC O&O TV stations have partnered Storify, the social media "story creator." It will cover the games in real- by aggregating content from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social sites and will embed the content on various NBC websites.

This content won't likely compete the daily and prime time coverage as much as complement it.

"This content will likely branded as a way of providing the coverage, but it will be used to promote the prime time," Messner told TechNewsWorld. "They can brand it if you really want to see everything, you need to tune . You can get the results -- but the comprehensive coverage will the TV broadcast."

NBC, as as the other broadcast partners from around the world, could also be getting help from the attendees, in a . While the International Olympic Committee will still try to control the posting of photos and videos, a lot of it will certainly get . This in turn could help create more buzz, which could drive viewership.

"I think we're going to see a lot of social media, amateur video and commentary from citizen journalists," added Messner. "This really could enrich the coverage more than it takes from it."


Adapted and abridged from: Technewsworld, July 27, 2012.