A Strategic Content Analysis of Media Reporting on Sports in Nigeria: A Case Study of National Newspapers.

Abstract

Sport and media has a long history of interconnectedness. This union has resulted to a marriage laced with tremendous benefits for both media and sport. As a result of their commercialization, sport and media has continued to grow globally. Inspite of the contributions of the symbiotic relationship between media and sport in Nigeria to national economy, the mutuality has not received attention from researchers. Thus, the study is out to ascertain the status of newspaper reporting on sport in Nigeria with a view of using it to drive national sport development. The study used six (6) national newspapers in Nigeria spread across the 12 months of 2012 (January-December). The content analysis of the frequency of news items and photographs on education, business, health politics and sports were carried out. The total of 17,676 news and photographs were collated. The results showed that sport received more patronage from newspapers outlets in Nigeria that any sector of the national economy.

Keywords: Disport, Diversion, Amusement, Missionaries, Public Consciousness, meltdown, attraction.