Second Blog - The problem Statement

THE PROBLEM STATEMENT

The purpose of this study is to explore and describe the role of the media in the development of black cricketers in South Africa through qualitative content analysis.

The project aims to explore and describe the role of the media in the development of black cricketers in South Africa within the contexts of decolonizing sport and equal opportunities for South African black cricketers through a qualitative content analysis.  This is in order to understand what the media can do to assist the administrators to fast track cricket development in South Africa.

 

The context and background of the research problem

The media as a public sphere plays an important part in any democratic society, to highlight any social injustice. In the three decades of representation in international cricket, South Africa is still been represented by less than 10% of black cricketers. The study seeks to investigate whether or not media has generated enough coverage to assist the cricket fraternity to fast track the development of black cricketers in print, broadcast and latterly online coverage.

South Africa despite being a democratic state, and having a good number of black sport journalists and broadcasters covering cricket, there is still only nine black players who had represented the country at Test cricket level in 108 players. Those players are Makhaya Ntini, Mfuneko Ngam, Monde Zondeki, Thami Tsolekile, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Temba Bavuma, Kagiso Rabada, Andile Phehlukwayo and Lungi Ngidi. This does not even represent 10% of the total number of players who have represented the country from a population of more than 80% of the total number of the country’s population. Questions that need to be asked as to what the role of the media in all of this is. The study further investigates the amount of pressure, if any, that the media puts to the administrators to have more black players representing South Africa.

In late 2018, former South African cricketer and Coach Mike Procter said there is no longer a need for the country to employ a quota system (News24 01 October 2018). In an interview with Wisden Cricket Monthly, Procter said: “I’ve mixed feelings, really. I can totally understand that the injustices Of the past are trying to be rectified but I am not a total believer in having to pick guys because of their colour, to be honest. I think we have passed that stage. (News24 01 October 2018)”.

Drawing on Procter’s argument selection ought to be motivated by measures such as form, ability, and so on. However, the reality is that by the same year only nine black cricketers represented South Africa in Test cricket and no new caps were awarded to a black cricketer after 2018.

To further counter Procter’s argument, the nine black players who have represented the country shows that talent is not an issue, the country has enough talented black players to represent the country. The issue is what the research aims to explore the knowledge of the sport, to decolonise the sport, and to create awareness of the sport through media.

Wrote South African sport journalist Mark Gleeson (Reuters 1 January 2020) writes that fulfilling the quota requirements while fielding a competitive team has long been a sensitive issue but after a poor 2019, returning to winning ways looks to be the immediate priority of the four selectors, two of whom are black.

Luke Alfred in the Mail & Guardian suggested that school background plays a key role in the development of a cricketer. In 2016, the Mail & Guardian reported that, although the elite (all-boys’ and private) schools tend to dominate selection for Test matches, 35 co-educational state schools account for 42 Proteas (South African cricket international team) caps overall. The most recent black African Protea selections attended private schools, Temba Bavuma (St David’s), Kagiso Rabada (St Stithians) and Aaron Phangiso (CBC Pretoria) (Mail & Gaurdian, 29 April 2016).

The two players who attended school where they grew-up were Mfuneko Ngam who attended school at Douglas Mbopha High School in Motherwell and Thandi Tshabalala who attended school Thotagauta Secondary School in Welkom. However, the two never went on to have successful cricketer careers. While Bavuma and Rabada are prominent members of the South African Test Team.

Research questions

When analysing the role the both print and broadcast or electronic media played in their attempts to have a truly representative South African cricket team, one could very well question the collective efforts of the media in their attempt to unify the country within the South African sport and political context.

In response to the contextualisation above, and to attend to the main research problem, the following four research questions are formulated. These research questions concretise and delimit the specific focus of this proposed research further. The research questions worded below represent the main focal points of the study’s purpose, its methodological and empirical enquiry.

RQ1: Per media reports, has South African Sport Journalists done enough to advance the sporting talent of cricketers in townships and rural areas?

RQ2: As weighed against media ethics and the politics of identity/representation, in what ways was the coverage over the years of South African black cricketers unethical?

RQ3: In what ways did/do obstructive institutional forces (like inactive regulatory bodies) contribute to failed media accountability in a post-truth media economy?

RQ4: In what ways should media (information) ethics be revised and/or elaborated upon to help discern the lines of ethical conduct for sport journalists?

 

The objectives of the study

In social research, the three most common and useful purposes that Babbie and Mouton (2012:81) opine are exploration, description and explanation. This proposed research will simultaneously have two objectives: to describe and to explore.

In the first instance the research questions worded above call for the description of the situation surrounding the total coverage of cricketer development for black cricketers in the townships and rural areas by the South African sport journalists. The descriptive objective will manifest as per media reports in print broadcast and online media surrounding the coverage and development of these cricketers.  The information shared via various media will be analysed and described. It is conceded, however, that this brings with it various implications for research limitations and considerations. Alongside the description of the research phenomena, an exploratory objective will also be applied.

Explorative research seeks to examine a new interest in terms of its nature and extent. This objective is especially apt for persistent phenomena (Babbie & Mouton 2001:81; Du Plooy, 2009:51; Wagner et al 2012:19). The proposed research will delve into an issue that is simultaneously persistent (insofar as the issue of media ethics being present in the coverage in print, broadcast and online almost since its genesis) and new (in terms of the ways it has come to a head in the coverage of the development of black cricketers). This objective is specifically suited.

Apart from adding to the existing body of knowledge around the sport cricket, the study seeks to improve media coverage of the sport hell-bent of fast tracking transformation.