• 한국체육학회지인문사회과학편
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.303-320
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• 2017

This paper seeks to better understand the focal issues and persons related to Rio Olympic soccer games through social data science and analytics. This study collected its data from online news articles and comments specific to KOR during the Olympic football games. In order to investigate the public interests for each game and target persons, this study performed the co-occurrence words analysis. Then after, the study applied the NodeXL software to perform its visualization of the results. Through this application and process, the study found several major issues during the Rio Olympic men's football game including the following: the match between KOR and PIJ, KOR player Heungmin Son, commentator Young-Pyo Lee, sportscaster Woo-Jong Jo. The study also showed the general public opinion expressed positive words towards the South Korean national football team during the Rio Olympics, though there existed negative words as well. Furthermore the study revealed positive attitude towards the commentators and casters. In conclusion, the way to increase the public's interest in big sporting events can be achieved by providing the following: contents that include various professional sports analysis, a capable domain expert with thorough preparation, a commentator and/or caster with artistic sense as well as well-spoken, explanatory power and so on. Multidisciplinary research combined with sports science, social science, information technology and media can contribute to a wide range of theoretical studies and practical developments within the sports industry.