The Star Football Coverage: Influence on Fans’ Perceptions of the Three Major European Leagues

Lim, Yin Yen (2020) The Star Football Coverage: Influence on Fans’ Perceptions of the Three Major European Leagues. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

Text LIM YIN YEN JOURNALISM.pdf Restricted to Registered users only Download (2MB)

Abstract

Football reporting has been a permanent feature in the sports section of any newspaper in Malaysia, mostly due to the unrivalled popularity of the sport within the country. The study explores the coverage of The Star newspaper on the three major European football league — English Premier League, Spanish La Liga and Italian Serie A, and discover whether any disparity in the coverage has influenced football fans’ perceptions of the aforementioned football leagues. By using the method of content analysis, the researcher discovered that the EPL has received by far the most coverage on The Star newspaper in terms of the number of the stories and photographs. The survey shows that the EPL is the No. 1 ranked European football league by the respondents. Furthermore, majority of the respondents have strong beliefs that the English top division is the most popular, competitive and entertaining European football league compared to La Liga and Serie A due to its overwhelming coverage on the newspapers. By using the uses-andgratifications (U&G) theory, the researcher gathers that respondents read football news stories to fulfill their cognitive and social interactive needs. These football fans will read articles to gain information before or after a match and to instigate discussions with other football enthusiasts. From the expectancy-value theory, the researcher deduces that The Star’s football coverage has a positive valence on the cognitive state of the football fans who read football news stories on a regular basis. In a nutshell, the constant exposure to an extensive coverage of a particular league can led to football fans to strengthen their positive perceptions of that league.