An Assessment of the Print Media in the Promotion of Sports Development in Nigeria

Sports development in Nigeria has long suffered from inadequate funding, infrastructure deficits, and limited public mobilisation, raising questions about the contribution of print media to advancing the sports sector. This study assessed the role of print media in promoting sports development in Nigeria. The study was anchored on the Agenda-Setting Theory formulated by McCombs and Shaw, which posits that the media shapes public priorities by determining which issues receive salience and attention. A content analysis design was employed, with Nigerian national newspapers serving as the primary source of data. A purposive sample of 100 sports-related articles and reports was selected from editions spanning a one-year period, using a structured coding sheet as the instrument of analysis. Findings revealed that print media coverage of sports in Nigeria is disproportionately focused on football, particularly European leagues, at the expense of indigenous sports, grassroots development stories, and policy-oriented sports journalism. Coverage of government investment in sports infrastructure, athlete welfare, and sports policy was found to be sparse and largely uncritical. The study concluded that Nigerian print media has not adequately leveraged its agenda-setting capacity to advance a comprehensive national sports development narrative. It was recommended that editors adopt deliberate editorial policies that prioritise indigenous sports and developmental sports journalism, while sports journalists should be trained to engage more critically with sports governance and policy issues.

Keywords: Print media, sports development, agenda-setting, Nigerian newspapers, sports journalism