Trends in Newspaper Coverage of Football in Kenyan Media

Abstract

This study set out to study the trends in the coverage of football in the Kenyan newspapers between 1980-2005. The purpose of this study was to compare the coverage given to Kenyan football and English football for the purpose of outlining the trends in the coverage of this very popular sport especially in the light the huge popularity of the English game among Kenyans and lack of interest by the same fans in local Kenyan football.

The Daily Nation and its Sunday edition, the Sunday Nation were purposively selected for the study it is the largest selling publication with the highest circulation in Kenya and can therefore adequately represent the country's newspapers. The Nation was also purposively sampled for this study because it has the capacity and means to provide better coverage of football than any of the other newspapers

A sample of 100 editions of both the Daily Nation and the Sunday Nation was selected for study through random sampling. Data was collected from 573 articles (text and pictures) classified under two categories: Kenyan football and English Football and counted for frequency of publication. Two trained assistants were employed for data collection and the reliability between them was 0.82 The findings from this study showed that although Kenyan football dominated coverage in the period between 1980-1990, the coverage of English football increased steadily from 1991-2005. This increase in the coverage of English football is in a way a reflection of the popularity of the English game among Kenyans.

This popularity gained by English football among Kenyan fans may also have been a reflection of the falling standards of the Kenyan game. The study recommended more research into why more Kenyans are more attracted to English football than Kenyan football even though the difference in skills and technique of the players is not so big. Because football and television are so closely linked, this study also underscored the need for more research into the role of television and football or just sport in general in Kenya.