A study of the “Breakthrough of Localized Influence” in regional sports events: agenda, emotion, and cultural identity

The rapid development of social media has profoundly transformed how cultural and sports events are disseminated, enabling regional sports events to overcome geographical constraints and attract nationwide attention--a phenomenon referred to as “breakout” (chū quān). Such events, rich in local cultural symbols, have become important vehicles for spreading regional culture and fostering local identity. This study explores the dynamics and differentiated pathways underlying this phenomenon. We collected comprehensive data on the “Jiangsu City Football League” (“Su Chao”), a phenomenal regional sports event in China, including 222,027 posts and comments from Weibo and 743,794 video titles and comments from TikTok. Using a mixed-method framework that integrates LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) topic modelling, social network analysis, and sentiment analysis, we examined the agenda networks (i.e., cognitive associative structures formed by co-occurring issue attributes) constructed by official media, opinion leaders, and the public, as well as the structural associations among them. We further propose a triple linkage pathway of “agenda network construction - emotional resonance stimulation - cultural identity reinforcement”: agenda network construction provides the cognitive framework, emotional resonance injects affective energy, and cultural identity reflects deeper social outcomes; the three dimensions co-evolve. The results suggest that: (1) the agenda networks of Weibo and TikTok are oriented around different cores--Weibo focuses on “cultural honour,” while TikTok emphasizes “commercial confrontation-fusion”; (2) transmission pathways diverge across platforms--Weibo exhibits hierarchical collaboration (a top-down, orderly flow pattern from official media to opinion leaders to the public), whereas TikTok suggests competitive public reconstruction (the public’s active deconstruction and re-creation of established agenda frameworks); (3) breakout depends on the triple linkage pathway, manifesting as a gradual pathway on Weibo and a carnival-like pathway on TikTok. This study offers a new theoretical framework for understanding complex communication of regional sports events in social media ecosystems and provides practical guidance for coordinating cross-platform strategies.