sport has often had an important role in times of crisis, but the covid-19 pandemic is another matter. sport was heavily affected world-wide on all levels. in sweden, gathering people for endurance events conflicted with the covid-19 restrictions. some events were cancelled, but many tried to adapt. What adaptation strategies to covid-19 have swedish event organizers used? What role have digital tools played in their adaptation? What economic impacts did these events experience? We argue that the challenges posed by covid-19 have accelerated the digitization of endurance events and highlighted the tensions between commercial and non-commercial actors in sports due to the differences in financial structure and eligibility for economic support. We thereby contribute to the growing research on how sport events in general have been impacted by the covid-19 pandemic, and specifically in the context of sweden's somewhat exceptional response to the pandemic.

The study analyzes and explains the impact of social media influencers on stable cultures in Sweden and Norway, contributing to the understanding of the complex relationship between equestrian sports and social media—a relationship that is important for the welfare of horses. Since equestrianism is one of the most popular sports in Sweden and Norway, influencers' social media communication greatly impacts followers' perception of the human-animal relationship. Despite the popularity of equestrian sports, studies thereof are rare, and research combining equestrian sports and social media is almost non-existent, making this study important and relevant. The analysis focuses on the six biggest equestrian influencers in Sweden and Norway and their social media accounts. Goffman's (1967) micro-sociological perspectives, alongside previous research on social media, are used to discuss knowledge exchange, co-creation of authenticity and intimacy and sponsorship and advertisement. The influencers mainly focus their communication on horse-related issues, and their (and their followers) love of horses create the intimacy needed as a base for other messages (perceived knowledge and advertisement). The intimacy and authenticity are strengthened in the interaction between followers and influencers, and the latter receive positive feedback for their way of handling their horses' lives. The expressive order of stable culture(s) is seldom questioned and the acceptance of this order is likely to make the commercial endorsements less visible and more convincing.

The aim of this study is to analyze and increase the understanding of how young equestrians, in a sport school context, perceive, construct, negotiate and manage identities on social media. This article presents how a specific group of young athletes (equestrians) use social network sites (SNS), such as Facebook and Instagram, in relation to their everyday lives as students attending upper secondary schools with an equestrian sports profile. Social media is increasingly important for young people's perceptions, constructions, and managing of identities. Using a multifaceted theoretical framework, including Erving Goffman's dramaturgical perspective, we will explore how young equestrians perceive the content on SNS and analyze how they act and create content in relation to existing norms and cultures. Equestrianism is one of the largest sports in Sweden and several upper secondary schools in Sweden offer programs with an equestrian profile. Studies on sport schools evince a focus on elite sport and competition, which affects norms and ideologies at these schools. Through focus group interviews with 25 students, we show that the situation is complex and contradictory. The results indicate that young riders have identified an online stable culture where high performance equestrianism is the norm. Our study shows that the educational environment is not the only factor affecting the students, but that social media is also a part of the young athletes' constructions of identity. The image of the employable 'super equestrian' who is attractive, wears the 'right clothes', is successful, and acts 'professionally' is the most desirable representation online. The young equestrians are critical of what is communicated on SNS in relation to horses and riding, and they are uncertain of how to position themselves in relation to this communication.

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Alone is an American reality television series on the History Channel. The show features 10 contestants who are vying to outlast each other while living off the land. Notably, there is no camera crew, and the contestants must film themselves everyday; the production team creates a weekly program that marks the journey of each individual. This study sought to understand the degree to which participants are able to shape their public identities through the video footage they shot and that was subsequently edited in Alone’s cutting room. The research team employed an explorative case study methodology, which allowed them to watch hours of publicly available official video clips from the History Channel’s Alone YouTube channel. The analysis was driven by theory (Goffman’s The Presentation of Self conceptual framework) and an inductive thematic analysis, which took place in a cyclical fashion through interpretation meetings at the end of each of the six series that were watched. The findings first showed that the contestants were performing to multiple audiences, such as their families, the public, the producers, and even God. Second, the boundary between the frontstage and the backstage was highly blurred. Third, the contestants were able to continue shaping and “repairing” their identities through their own social media outlets after the program. Finally, the theme of gendered approaches to living outdoors shone through in ways that were very complex, overlapping, and non-binary. There is an undeniably strong “impression management tension” between the selves that participants wanted to project and the narratives that were constructed by the Alone program’s producers.