Promoting sports through the local media

Abstract

Sports Media is viewed as the medium which has a significant influence on sports. Consequently the need arises to understand what factors such medium is contributing in the promotion of Sports. This is the rationale behind this study, which is intended to analyse the positive and negative attitudes of teenagers in view of the different sports disciplines, and what is the level of the exposure inflicted on such people through the local Media. The study also includes the resulting impacts that Sports Media has on inspiring teenagers to become engaged in a wider variety of sports disciplines, and also to kindle lifelong participation. The study is divided into different sections mainly; literature review, questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaires involved 195 female and 255 male teenagers attending Form 3 in eleven different secondary schools, while interviews were carried out with 22 well known local sports people and 2 sports journalists. Results of this study reinforce the belief that Sports Media is the main promoter of particular sports disciplines, namely football, basketball, horse racing and waterpolo. The promotion of any other sports disciplines is regarded to be of secondary importance if not negligible, since minimal coverage is designated to them. In actual fact, the exposure to a wider variety of sports disciplines through the local sports programmes would help the teenagers to develop a much more positive attitude towards participation in other less popular disciplines. Further results show that Sports Media transmit significant values, which can be easily perceived by the teenagers so as to enhance healthy physical and mental growth. The study intends to highlight these elements in order to intensify the exposure of sports through Sports Media and encourage lifelong participation.