Journals Information
Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 4(6), pp. 500 - 507
DOI: 10.13189/sa.2016.040609
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Profile of Sports Section and Sports Journalism Practice in Malaysian National Newspaper: Focus on Malay Language Print Media
Sarimah Ismail 1,*, Hamedi Mohd Adnan 2
1 Faculty of Sports Science and Recreation, MARA University of Technology (UiTM), Malaysia
2 Department of Media Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, Malaysia
ABSTRACT
Sports and society have a close relationship because they have elements of popular entertainment and leisure. Media is capable of translating popular sports information through the content of sports section or sports pages. Most of newspapers in Malaysia have its own sport sections. Newspaper industry views sport pages as a strategy and value added in the newspaper setting for improving readership and circulation of their publications. Thus, the study shows the practice of sports journalism is very important to give strength to the newspaper sports section in Malaysia. This study focuses on sports journalism of the Malay language newspaper in Malaysia with a focus on the profile of the sports section, the perception of sports editor toward sports section and, sports journalism practices, as well as factor and the importance of the publication of the newspaper sports section. Content analysis method was used to study the newspaper sports section from the two leading media organizations, namely Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian. The media economic theory was used as the framework of study. The results show the prevailing imbalance of information published in the newspaper sports column. The news of international sports and overseas athletes are given more space than local sports news in the Malaysian newspaper sports section. Advertisements are also found to have considerable influence on the newspaper sports section. The element of contiguity or proximity (events that occur close to the reader) is not a priority element in sports news. The study also found that in order to ensure the survival of newspapers through newspaper advertising revenues, the media would give priority to advertising space. The results reveal that sports section need to sacrifice space to advertisements, and this creates constraints on the sports news and information for publication. Qualitative findings showed that sports editors and journalists in Malaysia do not have an ethical sports journalism guidelines or codes of practice as being practiced in the West. Thus, the daily practice of ethics and practice are based on their own judgments and their professionalism as a media reporter. The study found that all newspaper editors believed that a sports section is a must in a newspaper due to its attraction and followers, which is capable of generating advertising revenue and increasing newspaper circulation. This study also shows that placement of news and articles of sport in the sport sections are based on the media economic fundamentals which focus on newspaper market and advertising revenue. Newspapers sport section has also succumbed to the modern theory of journalism as a result of the competition of the sports information through the advent of the new media.
KEYWORDS
Profile, Sports Section, Sports Journalism Practice, Readership, Media Economic
Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Sarimah Ismail , Hamedi Mohd Adnan , "Profile of Sports Section and Sports Journalism Practice in Malaysian National Newspaper: Focus on Malay Language Print Media," Sociology and Anthropology, Vol. 4, No. 6, pp. 500 - 507, 2016. DOI: 10.13189/sa.2016.040609.
(b). APA Format:
Sarimah Ismail , Hamedi Mohd Adnan (2016). Profile of Sports Section and Sports Journalism Practice in Malaysian National Newspaper: Focus on Malay Language Print Media. Sociology and Anthropology, 4(6), 500 - 507. DOI: 10.13189/sa.2016.040609.