Factors influencing sports content in Ugandan newspapers : a study of New Vision and Daily Monitor’s coverage of international and local sports

Abstract

There are many factors which influence sports content in the media. This study explored factors that influence sports content in the media with a particular interest in newspapers. The study used a case of New Vision and Daily Monitor newspapers which are the two leading English dailies in Uganda. The study was grounded on a Critical Political Economy theoretical framework which explored the literature that explained the economics of media. The study explores why there is more of international sports content, especially football, at the expense of the local sports content and probably other sections of the newspaper. Key Informant Interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect data for the study which was later analysed, interpreted and presented in graphs and tables showing numbers of sports-related articles. The study also relied on a manual count and comparison of articles in the two newspapers between the years 2001 and 2011. The results show that there are many factors which influence sports content, some of which include influence from advertisers, interference from regulators and demand from the readers. Though there is an increase in sports content, it is not that significant except for football, tennis and cricket.