Covenant Journal of Communication (CJOC) Vol. 5 No. 2, Dec. 2018 An Open Access Journal, Available Online Local Versus Foreign: How Audience Preference and Media Coverage Shape Soccer in Nigeria Mumini Alao Department of Mass Communication University of Lagos Lagos, Nigeria. mail: [email protected] Abstract: This study juxtaposes foreign and domestic soccer narratives in the media to determine the level of influence each exerts on Nigerian fans. Respondents from four stadiums in Nigeria responded to questionnaire items while soccer administrators and sports media practitioners answered in-depth interview questions on this juxtaposition and the criterion of influence. Findings show the dominance of foreign content; jointly influenced by both the media and audience. Foreign soccer stories with a mean score of 4.63 featured prominently on the cover pages of sports newspapers compared to 3.29 for local stories while most fans (88.9%; n=1878) preferred foreign content. Results also show that commercial considerations influenced the agenda setting credential of sports media practitioners. Recommendations on how domestic soccer could attract more followership in Nigeria were made. Keywords: Audience, preference, media coverage, domestic soccer, foreign soccer, gate-keeping, agenda setting, Nigeria. 1 Mumini Alao CJOC (2018) 5(2) 1-23 Introduction appraise the impact the media The prevalence of foreign content in actually generate. the Nigerian media space is an on- The mechanistic perspective of going discourse among scholars in media effect sees the audience Nigeria especially within the members as passive and reactive; context of cultural imperialism. focuses on short-term, immediate Akinfeleye and Amobi (2011) assert and measurable changes in that the media are potent social thoughts, attitudes, or behaviors and systems that transmit cultural assumes a direct influence on the heritage from one generation to the audiences. Research in some climes, next. Unimpressively, however, the including that of Nigeria, has shown media in Nigeria have been accused that the audience is not always a of undermining this social docile group of people that the responsibility performance by media could manipulate at will allowing the dominance of foreign (Klapper, 1960). Nevertheless, the content. The perceived neglect of hypodermic needle hypothesis that traditional media functions by media influence is immediate and journalists has prompted Akinfeleye heavily impacting on the audience – (2003) to question whether Nigerian comparable to what happens when a reporters operate as fourth estate of soldier fires a bullet on an attacker the realm or wreck! is still popular. While this is so in In the 1960s and 70s, media certain areas of mass scholars and social scientists communication such as advertising believed that the media had the and propaganda, there are not power to sway huge audiences. But enough studies to confirm the extent as of late, the situation has become of such direct media impact on the complex, following the sports audience in Nigeria. In this phenomenon known as media study, media influence is convergence wherein both the operationalized ad the power of the media and their audiences are in the media to make the audience behave same marketplace of information in a particular way while media deluge where supply exceeds impact describes a cause-effect demand. To understand the highly relationship with the audience with complex processes through which a very few intervening variables media effect takes place, researchers (Akinfeleye, 2003; Morah & usually isolate elements in the Omojola, 2014; communication process: 2011; Folayan, 2016; Odiboh, et al. communicator, channel and 2017). message in order to properly 2 Mumini Alao CJOC (2018) 5(2) 1-23 The Nigerian sport media has DSTV-SuperSport has several played a prominent role in nurturing sports channels and it has been and promoting Nigerian soccer. joined on the pay-tv segment by Apart from reporting the exploits of StarTimes sports channels and teams and players, it has also been KweseSport. On the internet, the the major custodian of the sport‟s number of Nigerian websites and history. In the 1960s and 1970s in blogs (Okorie, N., Loto, G. & Nigeria, foreign club soccer was Omojola, O. 2018) dedicated to largely unknown to Nigerian fans. sports is growing every day. Local clubs such as IICC FC, Research Questions Stationery Stories FC, Mighty Jets This article investigates how media FC, Rangers International FC and coverage of soccer has affected the national team - The Green audience preference for the sport. Eagles - (as they were known then) The following are the research drew spectators that filled stadiums questions: to the brim. Support for local club To what extent does media sides and the national team was like coverage influence audience religion; the passion was high. But preference for domestic and from the 1980s when media technology advanced rapidly, fans foreign soccer? gained more access to modern mass To what extent does audience media – TV, radio, newspapers, and preference influence media now the Internet. Contents on coverage of domestic and foreign foreign soccer have since gained soccer? popularity. Today, it appears local What influence does media type soccer has been pushed to the (print, broadcast or online) have background as the Nigerian media face the accusation of killing on audience preference for domestic football (Izamoje, 2018). domestic or foreign football? How do soccer managers and As of January 2017, there were media practitioners perceive the three dominant national daily sports influence of the media on newspapers in circulation in Nigeria audience preference for domestic - Complete Sports, Sporting Sun and and foreign soccer? Sporting Life. Quite a few exist as Literature Review weekly newspapers dedicated to Media coverage refers primarily to reporting specific foreign club-sides the contents of the mass media. such as Manchester United and FC More broadly, it is a term used to Barcelona. On radio, Brila FM has describe the attention journalists four sports radio stations spread give to particular subjects or issues across the country. On television, 3 Mumini Alao CJOC (2018) 5(2) 1-23 in the media. Thus, a newspaper items) and frequency (the number of may be described as giving more times the particular item or subject- coverage to football than basketball. matter is published (covered). Two types of media coverage are Media coverage of an issue may often found in the media literature: also be positive or negative in terms Placed media coverage which is of the impression it has or creates content published by media users on the audience. such as a public relations firm or The Agenda Setting Theory has individuals hired for the purpose; excellent expository constructs that and earned media coverage which explain how journalists impact is content produced by journalists or media audience in the process of a free contribution submitted by selecting stories for publication. The members of the public that the mass theory states that the mass media media outlet may accept to publish may not be so effective in telling its (endvawnow.org, 2017). audience what to think, but the mass Placed media coverage often comes media is very effective in telling its in form of advertisements, opinion audience what to think about. pieces (op-eds), pitched interviews, Although various independent editorials, press releases, and media scholars have developed variations information kits. In most cases, this of the theory, Maxwell McCombs type of coverage is paid for. On the and Bernard Shaw (1993) that other hand, earned media coverage actually coined the term „agenda is usually free and is published by setting‟ and did most of the journalists using their professional pioneering research on the subject- judgement. However, publicists do matter. Agenda-setting is the influence such professional creation of public awareness and judgement through various methods concern of salient issues by the such as getting reporters and editors news media. Two basic assumptions interested in a particular subject, of the theory are: giving journalists fresh information - The press and the media do not that the media audience would value reflect reality; they filter and and adding a „spin‟ to issues in a shape it; manner that could make journalists - Media concentration on a few report the story. issues and subjects leads the Media coverage may be measured public to perceive those issues as in terms of volume (length of the more important than other issues. report on air or in print), For example, in sports journalism, prominence (the positioning of the by placing stories about foreign item relative to other published soccer clubs and foreign soccer on their front pages and making 4 Mumini Alao CJOC (2018) 5(2) 1-23 dominant broadcast items, McCombs, began to notice that journalists wittingly or unwittingly whenever a news story that tell their audiences that foreign conceivably could have been a football soccer and players are more major one was played down, its important and these audiences see it impact on the public seemed to as so. significantly dissipate. They, Since 1972 when Maxwell therefore, began a series of studies McCombs and Bernard Shaw to establish an epistemological basis published their first series of articles in this regard (Lowery & De Fleur, on Agenda Setting in the Public 1988). McCombs and his team were Opinion Quarterly, hundreds of able to define the concept of agenda studies have been carried out and setting with a set of parameters. In various concepts and meta-theories spite of the variations and developed. Rogers and Dearing perspectives by critics, the (1993) have identified three types of taxonomy created from these studies agenda setting: remains the reference point in - Public agenda setting, in which explicating and applying the theory the public agenda is the (McCombs & Shaw, 1972). dependent variable (the Blair (1988) and Pechmann (2001) traditional hypothesis). have also conceptualized media - Media agenda setting, in which scheduling as an important schema the media agenda is treated as in media coverage.