Roxane Coche and Nathan Carpenter author an analysis of World Cup 2026 social media conversations
Roxane Coche, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Media Production, Management, and Technology associate professor and department chair, and Nathan Carpenter, UFCJC Atlas Social Media Listening Lab director, were two of nearly 100 contributors to “World Cup Analysis 2026: Mega events, media and the politics of sport.”
The analysis, published in the aftermath of the 2026 World Cup tournament, offers accessible, scholarly perspectives across media and communication, marketing, sociology, political science and related fields, while presenting new research findings and theoretical insights through the lens of sport.
Coche and Carpenter were the authors of Beyond the backlash: Online conversations surrounding the 2026 World Cup. In the article, they looked at the impact of social media posts and digital media stories on the events happening from June 1- July 20. They found that sometimes social media platforms are accused of rewarding divisive content or controversies, however, the 2026 FIFA World Cup experiences told a different story.
According to the authors, “The Atlas Lab used Talkwalker to track World-Cup-related public social media posts and digital media stories A search query with 42 terms across 12 languages identified 31.2 million mentions, most of them from X (25.8 million), followed by Reddit (1.5 million), online news (1.5 million), YouTube (512,500), public Facebook pages (406,900), blogs (389,400), online forums (308,900), public Instagram pages (258,800) and Bluesky (237,100). Other online media and social sources accounted for an additional 300,000 mentions”
They found that together these posts and stories generated 3.6 billion engagements (likes, reactions, comments, shares) and had the collective capacity to generate 11 trillion impressions.
“The scale of these conversations reinforces why social media have become such an important lens through which to understand modern mega-events. Online platforms function as a virtual stadium where celebrations, frustrations, debates and memories are shared in real time across national and linguistic boundaries,” they write.
They add, “Interestingly, despite social media’s tendency to amplify controversy, the overall tone of that discussion remained remarkably positive. Overall, only 12.5% of mentions expressed negative emotions such as fear, anger, or sadness, while nearly three times as many (36.6%) expressed positive emotions including joy, excitement and happiness.”
Future mega-events will likely face increasing challenges as calls for transparency grow and technology continues to multiply communication methods
“The 2026 FIFA World Cup demonstrates that sport retains a remarkable ability to generate joy, community and collective celebration on a global scale—even in digital environments often criticized for rewarding outrage. Beyond the backlash, the dominant story remained soccer itself.”
The report is freely available to download and may be archived in institutional repositories and library collections.
Category: Atlas Lab News, College News
Tagged: MPMT Nathan Carpenter Roxane Coche Social Media
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