Q Choose a Topic A) How and why has the NBA changed it's brand over the last 30-40 years? (Course Concept: Branding and Public Relations) B) How has Social Media affected sports - both athlete's lives and how games are branded (Course Concepts: Public Relations, Social Media and Convergence) C) How do sports leagues deal with public relations nightmares? What strategies do they use? Are they effective? Think Domestic Violence in the NFL or Steroids in the MLB. (Course Concepts: Public Relations) D) How has Colin Kaepernick changed the relationships between media, sports, and politics? (Course Concepts: Going Viral and Politics and Media) D) How have companies like ESPN dealt with the rise of eSports? (Course Concepts: New Forms of Media, Social Media, and Convergence) E) How has Big Data transformed the way clubs evaluate baseball (and other sports) players? (Course Concept: Big Data) F) Investigate how cites and their fans are branded in sports (for example Philadelphia) (Course Concepts: Place Branding and Social Media) G) Your paper should include two outside sources Submit: Requirements for Mini-Research Paper a. Reference page in APA format b. Complete paper should be about 500 - 750 words c. What attracted you to the topic you chose? d. Give some background/a summary of what the topic you chose is. For example - what are eSports? How have they developed? e. Summarize some opinions or takes on the issue you are covering. For example - what kinds of opinions have there been on Kaepernick both positive and negative? d. How do one or more major concepts from the course (Big Data, Social Media, Convergence, Going Viral etc) apply to the topic you chose. This should be the most substantial part of your paper. Go back to a previous week where we covered the course topic related to your paper. How does work you previously did in this course help illuminate the research you conducted? e. What do you think the future holds for the development of the primary issues you investigated? f. Include all works cited in APA format.