Influence of Sports Reporting by Niger Broadcast Media on Sports Development in Niger State

Influence of Sports Reporting by Niger Broadcast Media on Sports Development in Niger State

CHAPTER ONE

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to determine perceived impact of Niger broadcast media on sports development in Niger State. Specifically, the study was to determine perceived impact of Niger broadcast media on;

provision of sports facilities in Niger State.
sports Personnel development in Niger
funding of sports in Niger State
creation of sports awareness in Niger State.
encouraging people’s participation in sporting activities in Niger
attracting sponsorship for sports competition in Niger

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Conceptual Framework Sports.

Sports are regarded as one of the world’s most powerful communication tools, as a result of its near universal appeal, convening power and its many associations. Ihediwe (1997) defined sports as highly formalized and organized physical activity of high intensity regulated by acceptable rules and regulations and which require maximum physical and mental exertion. Hornby (2001) defined sports as outdoor or indoor game, competition, or activity carried on by rules and needing bodily effort and skill. Ugwueze (2005) defined sports as all organized physical or mental activities with rules and regulations, carried out indoors or outdoors whether at amateur or professional level requiring physical or mental exertion. Douglass (2008) viewed sports as an organized competitive, entertaining and skillful activity, requiring commitment, strategy and fair play in which a winner can be defined by objectives means.

Sports have become globally acknowledgment as a potential tool for national and economic development. Awosika (2003) described sports as a unifying factor in Nigeria and also an essential ingredient for nation building. Nations of the World therefore endeavour to utilize the potentials in sports to enhance the attainment of their respective development activities. Sports in this study, is an individual or group activity pursued for exercise or pleasure, often involving the testing of physical capabilities and taking the form of a competitive game.

Sports Development.

Sports development is a well organized training programme or plan for sports. The Federal Republic of Nigeria Sports Development Policy (1989) defined sports development as the process of continuous improvement of the sport structure, institutions and programmes in order to create a societal condition conducive to physical fitness for all and the effective functioning and self–actualization. The 1989 policy, categorizes sports development under the following components; International sports, Indigenous sports, Stadium management, Federations sports and Institutional sports. Collins (1995) defined sports development as the processes whereby effective opportunities, processes, systems and structures are set up to enable and encourage people in all or particular group or area to take part in sports and recreation or improve their performance to whatever level they desire. Also it is a process of establishment of pyramidal sports development programmes, employment and training of enthusiastic coaches, provision of functional facilities, promotion of public awareness through well organized seminars, conferences, and workshops, as well as training and re – orientation of sports managers who are knowledgeable, experienced and competent (Kabido, 1993; 1996 Kabido, Venkateswarlu and Adeyanu 2002). The authors maintained that one of the determinants of sports development is a well organized training programme or plan for sports.

A well–developed training programme would enable the growing number of athletic talents from the grassroots to achieve and acquire perfection from amateurs to professionals. According to Emiola (1999), to ensure large pool of competitive athletes for future national and international engagements, efforts must be made to develop a strategic training plan that must be used to expose more of the youths to the learning of the basic skills of various sports. Shietima (2005) claimed that development must involve a movement from the old to the new and implies that this is progressive. Sports development is about creating new and better ways of doing things in sports. In Nigeria, sports development had witnessed a lot of metamorphosis from the colonial pre–independence to independence eras (Morakinyo and Aluko 2008). Therefore, in this study, sports development is defined as the process of using media as a system and structure to enable and encourage provision of sports facilities, personnel development, funding of sports, sports awareness, people participation and sports sponsorship in a particular group or area to participate in sports or to improve their performances.

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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Research Design

Descriptive survey research design was used in this study. According to Emaikwu (2011) the design describes and interprets what exists at present. Its scope is very vast and is concerned with conditions or relationships that exist, practices that prevail, beliefs or points of view or attitudes that are held, processes that are going on, influences that are being felt and trends that are developing. Morakinyo and Agu (2009) among others had successfully used this design in similar studies. The design is therefore considered appropriate for studying the perceived impact of Niger broadcast media on sports development in Niger state.

Population for the Study

The population for the study was 146, consisted of all the 21 sports administrators in the 21 local government areas in Niger state, and the hundred and twenty five (125) athletes who were in camp for the 18^th Eko National Sports Festival. (Source: Director of Sports (operations) Niger State Sports Council, 2020).

CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the results and discussions of the findings of the study. The results of the study are presented, according to the research questions and hypotheses.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

The purpose of the study was to determine the perceived impact of Niger broadcast media on sports development in Niger state.

Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The Sports Administrators and Athletes in Niger State formed the population for the study. There were 21 Sports Administrators and 125 Athletes and they were all used for the study. A 25–item questionnaire designed on the 4 point rating scale was the instrument used for data collection for the study. Grand means were used to answer the six research questions posed in the study based on the criterion mean of 2.50.

The results of the study show that media influenced the provision of sports facilities, sports personnel development, sports funding, creation of sports awareness, encouraging people’s participation and attracting sponsorship for sports competition in Niger state. Also the result revealed that there were significant differences between Sports Administrators and Athletes perceptions on the impact of Niger broadcast media on provision of sports facilities, sports personnel development and creation of sports awareness.

Conclusions

Media influenced the provision of sports facilities in Niger state. Although significance differences were found in the perceptions between Sports Administrators and Athletes on items 2 and 3 at .05 level of significant. This answered research question 1.
Media influenced the development of sports personnel in Niger Whereas significant differences were found between Sports Administrators and Athletes perceptions on items 2 at .05 level of significant. This answered research question 2.
Mediainfluenced the funding of sports in Niger This answered question 3.
Media influenced the creation of sports awareness in Niger state. Although significant differences were found in the perceptions between Sports Administrators and Athletes on item 3 and 4 at .05 level of significant. This answered research question 4.
Media influenced the encouragement of people’s participation in Niger This answered research question 5.
Media influenced the attraction of sponsorship for sports competition in Niger state. This answered research question

Recommendations

Based on the findings, discussions and conclusions of the study, the following recommendations were made;

Media should encourage private sector and other stakeholders to provide sports facilities in all parts of the state as one of the major priorities in the promotion and development of sports, in order to facilitate and encourage extensive participation, high standards, safety and improved
Media should encourage sports administrators to intensify the training and re-training of sports personnel, by organizing seminars, workshop and conferences to enable them improve their skills and efficiency in programme implementation in order to encourage sports development.
Media should carried out more campaign to encourage both the private sectorand state sporting bodies to develop collaborative efforts to fund sports in order to promote sports development in Niger
Media should encourage sports administrators to embark on wide creation ofsports awareness in all parts of the state for mass participation, to enhance physical fitness of the citizenry and to build a pool for talent identification and development of
Mediashould encourage sports administrators and other stakeholders to promote people’s participation, since mass participation is involving a good number of people in a wide range of sporting activities for health and socio-economic values. In addition, adequate provision of durable and affordable facilities and equipment should be provided to encourage participation and sports
Media should encourage sports administrators, private sectors and corporatefirms to give financial support, assistance and help to an individual, team or sports in general, in return for publicity of their This help to provide and upgrade sporting facilities, equipment and competition as well as other manpower development which encourage sports development.

References

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