Absence of Safeguards and Image Conflict: A Public Opinion Analysis on the Career Transition of Retired Athletes

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Abstract The "Wu Liufang Incident" --a landmark case of a retired athlete transitioning into an "attractive streamer" --exposes core contradictions in their career transitions, including survival pressures, ethical controversies, image conflicts, and systemic safeguards. This study employs computational communication methods through LDA topic modeling and SnowNLP sentiment analysis, combined with a self-built three-dimensional emotion lexicon, to analyze 28,697 valid comments across 23 official media platforms. Key findings include: (1) Temporal-spatial distribution of public discourse and emoji usage; (2) Overall and phased emotional patterns; (3) Core discussion themes. The research reveals a bimodal evolution of public sentiment, predominantly positive with widespread support for athletes' career transitions. Thematic analysis highlights four key issues: "legitimacy of career transitions versus public support", "survival pressures versus inadequate state guarantees", "ethical controversies versus image conflicts" and "internet-sourced satirical expressions". Conclusions indicate public understanding of athletes' challenges while supporting their legitimate career choices, though dissatisfaction with insufficient state support systems remains. These findings provide insights for policy refinement and targeted public opinion guidance.
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Absence of Safeguards and Image Conflict: A Public Opinion Analysis on the Career Transition of Retired Athletes | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Absence of Safeguards and Image Conflict: A Public Opinion Analysis on the Career Transition of Retired Athletes Hanxiao Shi, Qiuling Cheng, Jiali Gao, Huilan Jin This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7482080/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The "Wu Liufang Incident" --a landmark case of a retired athlete transitioning into an "attractive streamer" --exposes core contradictions in their career transitions, including survival pressures, ethical controversies, image conflicts, and systemic safeguards. This study employs computational communication methods through LDA topic modeling and SnowNLP sentiment analysis, combined with a self-built three-dimensional emotion lexicon, to analyze 28,697 valid comments across 23 official media platforms. Key findings include: (1) Temporal-spatial distribution of public discourse and emoji usage; (2) Overall and phased emotional patterns; (3) Core discussion themes. The research reveals a bimodal evolution of public sentiment, predominantly positive with widespread support for athletes' career transitions. Thematic analysis highlights four key issues: "legitimacy of career transitions versus public support", "survival pressures versus inadequate state guarantees", "ethical controversies versus image conflicts" and "internet-sourced satirical expressions". Conclusions indicate public understanding of athletes' challenges while supporting their legitimate career choices, though dissatisfaction with insufficient state support systems remains. These findings provide insights for policy refinement and targeted public opinion guidance. Humanities/Complex networks Social science/Complex networks Humanities/Cultural and media studies Social science/Cultural and media studies Social science/Politics and international relations Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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Athletes","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7482080/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7482080/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe \"Wu Liufang Incident\" --a landmark case of a retired athlete transitioning into an \"attractive streamer\" --exposes core contradictions in their career transitions, including survival pressures, ethical controversies, image conflicts, and systemic safeguards. This study employs computational communication methods through LDA topic modeling and SnowNLP sentiment analysis, combined with a self-built three-dimensional emotion lexicon, to analyze 28,697 valid comments across 23 official media platforms. Key findings include: (1) Temporal-spatial distribution of public discourse and emoji usage; (2) Overall and phased emotional patterns; (3) Core discussion themes. The research reveals a bimodal evolution of public sentiment, predominantly positive with widespread support for athletes' career transitions. Thematic analysis highlights four key issues: \"legitimacy of career transitions versus public support\", \"survival pressures versus inadequate state guarantees\", \"ethical controversies versus image conflicts\" and \"internet-sourced satirical expressions\". Conclusions indicate public understanding of athletes' challenges while supporting their legitimate career choices, though dissatisfaction with insufficient state support systems remains. 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