SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACTS OF MEGA-SPORT EVENTS IN SAUDI ARABIA CASE STUDY OF SAUDI DAKAR RALLY

This study investigates the determinants of the perceived social impact of a sports event by analyzing data obtained from the community including sports enthusiasts in general and Dakar Rally fans of the 2020 Dakar Rally. To achieve the objectives of the research, the researchers used the descriptive approach due to its relevance to the nature of the research. The research sample was chosen randomly and included (600) people. The platform was tested by creating a database of 600 tweets from Dakar_SaudiArabia2020.Through the search, tweets were sorted by algorithms designed for this method. Also, tweets were classified into three categories (positive, neutral, and negative), and both the good and the weak were considered as negative opinions despite what is carried by the positive or negative tendencies towards the 2020 Dakar Rally.The Results show that a sports event achieves a higher level of social impact for regional attendees if they feel a greater sense of social companionship at the event and/or perceive a higher level of social responsibility of the event because of the geographical diversity and the interest to encouraging, motivating, and loving this type of sports. and the Saudi Dakar Rally is popular and accepted by those interested in such competitions, such as male local attendees observing a high level of social impact are likely to back the event