Tenth Blog - RESEARCH REPORT OUTLINE

 THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN DEVELOPMENT OF BLACK CRICKETERS:

THE NUMBERS GAME

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.

THE RATIONALE 

The media has for many years’ made a distinction between white and black South Africans reporting on many matters along the racial lines.  For the purpose of this study, the research looks at how the media have represented both white and black cricketers.

During the time of former South African international cricket captain Hansie Cronje’s cricket corruption scandal into match fixing, the South African white media tried to blame racial quotas as something which led Cronje to the wrong side of the law. Cronje an Afrikaner cricketing hero in the white communities took money from the Indian bookmakers in early 2000.

Nauright (2005:70) reports that race and colour also appeared in the media reports of the scandal. Cronje was originally represented as a clean, pure, white cricketer. On 8 April, The Times of London showed pictures of Cronje in his cricket whites. Herschelle Gibbs, however, a “coloured” or mixed-race South African, was presented in his coloured one-day uniform. This clearly shown how the media represented white cricketers and black cricketers. Despite all the misrepresentation of facts by the white media trying to protect a white from his corrupt activities.

In contrast to the how was built by the media Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert (2016:3120), highlights that, American male basketball players, and especially black male players, have been created as idol objects, so much so that personality, glamour, and so-called bad boy behaviour have become the central features of the sport. By doing so, media representations of the NBA black players as potentially society outlaws, which in turn allows other white dominated sport like ice-hockey to market itself in positive opposition to this bad boy image represented by the NBA which is dominated by black males Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert (2016:3120).

In his conclusion of his article, Nauright (2005:73) argues that there is a clear international media bias that positions white athletes as morally superior and that also allows for their rehabilitation in ways not afforded to athletes of colour.

LITERATURE REVIEW

For the purposes of this study, the literature review will follow a deductive reasoning pattern, linking to the research questions as outlined above.

Representation and identity politics

In understanding representation and identity politics for this research, we need to understand the relationship between sport and politics. According to Germmell (2004), sport is a reflection of the society in which it is practised. Germmel (2004) argues that attitudes to participation, competition and even which sports are played are determined in the main by factors outside sport itself.  

According to Vahed (2001: 320), South Africa was isolated from world cricket in 1970 when British Home Secretary James Callaghan bowed to public pressure and asked English Cricket Board (ECB) to call off South Africa’s cricket tour to England because of the apartheid.  There was rapid change from the late 1980s and particularly after the release of Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners and the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC) in 1990. 

Following negotiations brokered by Steve Tshwete of the ANC and Roelf Meyer of the National Party (NP), the South African Cricket Union (SACU) amalgamated with the South African Cricket Board of Control (SACBOC) in June 1991 (Vahed 2001: 321).

Since re-admission into the International Cricket Council (ICC) on 10 November 1991, South African cricket administration has been under constant social and political pressure to be more inclusive and representative in its sport. Many perceptions are being formulated in the media and in society in general of what constitutes a truly representative South African cricket team.

This research study will focus on what steps are taken especially by the media to educate the black communities in South Africa about cricket as a sport. This research will in addition focus on the development of black sporting talent in South Africa and the role the media plays in the development of black cricket talent in South Africa.  

During the years of isolation from international cricket, white South African cricket administrators invited leading international cricketers and cricket teams to tour the cricket in what was termed “rebel” tours. Black South Africans developed profound misgivings about these “rebel” tours and openly supported touring teams especially teams from the West Indies a black players-dominated team and Sri Lanka an Asian country. The Black South Africans supported these teams even though they opposed the tour politically. They could associate themselves with the West Indies and Sri Lankan teams.

In 1991, the United Cricket Board (UCB), which was the new cricket body in the ´new´ South Africa stated that the cricket development programme it embarked on to develop cricketers in the rural and township areas was not only about developing future stars. It was also about assisting the build through cricket a proud, united and democratic nation (Gavel, 1998). Ten years later, the first black Managing Director (MD) of the UCB Gerald Majola, pronounced that cricket ‘can be used to assist the government in nation-building and reconciliation efforts’. (Natal Mercury 12 Jun 2001).

South African sport administrators seek to address inequalities of the past through politically convenient identity politics. In the process, they utilise instruments such as race-based quotas, while ignoring historical class divides that formed a basis for modern day sport formations (Cleophas 2017).

In 2015, Cricket South Africa (CSA) attempted to introduce new transformation numbers, which stipulate that there have to be six players of colour – including three “black Africans” – in any team of 11. The move was met with some resistance from white cricketers mainly from Pretoria and Bloemfontein players. The CSA the board was attempting to address what they perceived to be an imbalance in the demographics of the South African domestic cricket. While the protesting players, on the other hand, argued that the presence of one more black African player often weakened or unbalanced the side. The resistance from white players shows sport in the country is still colonial. 

Media Ethics

Any study of media ethics must begin with the question: What is ethics? To answer this question we can say that ethics is a combination of self-awareness, history, self-criticism and anthropology.

This literature review will look at the media coverage of the development of black cricketers. It is an attempt to explore the ethical consideration of the Sport journalists over the years. South Africa has a history of apartheid and racism; this will play a big part in the ethical considerations of the journalists and broadcasters. The quota system and merit selection is also a constant headache for cricket sport writers and broadcasters. This is also an ethical consideration from the journalists.

A leading cricket correspondent and broadcaster Neil Manthorp emphasised this ethical consideration from journalists by stating, it is easy to understand why the ‘culture of silence’ still exists. Nobody wants quotas to be the subject of conversation when talent should be the discussion point (Business Day, 31 Mar 2015).

Players still need to be selected on merit despite their colour of their skin on all sport codes including codes which were dominated by whites to avoid finishing careers before they even begin.

However, the media frenzy, which followed, the selection of a black player ahead of a white player during the Sydney test match in Australia nearly ended the careers of both players.  Jacques Rudolph a white cricketer from Pretoria and Justin Ontong a coloured middle-order batsman from Cape Town never had good test cricket career after Ontong was selected ahead of Rudolph in a test match in Australia, despite Rudolph a white player being more talented than Ontong a coloured player.

Rudolph went through one of the most traumatic moments of his playing career in Sydney that year. He was named in the test XI on the eve of the match against Australia, but hours later, he was withdrawn from the team because it did not satisfy the UCB's criteria of giving players of colour an opportunity of playing at test level.

The then Sports Minister Ngconde Balfour, questioned the furore following the selection of Ontong. Balfour’s spokesperson Graham posed the question: "If this was any other player but a black player, would we have had this media frenzy?" He added that the controversy was an issue for cricket to deal with, and he lambasted the media for its "negative" reporting about the saga (Cape Argus, 2 Jan 2002).

 ‘Race’ and Sport in South Africa

Since 1994, South Africans have been constantly bombarded with the much-publicised words of Nelson Mandela: “Sport has the power to change the world; it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite like little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there only was despair” (Cleophas; 2019).

However, Oates (2019) argues that, nearly 25 years have passed since South Africa returned to the international playing field, but issues as to why they were banned in the first place, remain. 

Manthata (2018) argues that, history has shown us that given current inequalities within the country particularly in sport in general.  it is foreseeable that when a young aspiring sport person  thinks of South African Cricket, the names of the recent  heroes that more often spoken about are AB De Villiers, Faf Du Plessis , Jacques Kallis, and Dale Steyn and a few of the black names such as Makhaya Ntini, Kagiso Rabada and Temba Bavuma, will come up.

 Manthata (2018) states that commentators and writers in South Africa have conceded that affirmative action has achieved nothing more than "the lowering of standards and the promotion of historically disadvantaged players”. Most quota system programmes in South African cricket have been plagued by problems created by the effort to relieve the guilt and to be politically expedient.

The White Paper on Sport (1997:12) articulates that the concept of sport is for every South African and it is based on the values of equity and access, which can only be realised through a concerted effort of integrated programmes that will include people from disadvantaged communities. Indeed, in terms of the transformation in South African cricket, at the heart of Cricket South Africa values and operation, is the goal of contributing through cricket to transformation, reconstruction and nation building in society.

In evaluating the cricket landscape since readmission into International Cricket Council, Oates cites Willie Basson, a sports ministry panel member overseeing racial change in sport who states that “[the processes to change the face of sport over the past 20 years have been largely ineffective”(The Guardian: 2019).

Arizona State University’s South African Humphrey Fellow Sebenzile Nkambule further argues that, economics can be the reason for the lack of inclusion in cricket and rugby. Nkambule agrues that, these are all sports that are more expensive to play and prepare for.

To clarify the point, Nkambule makes some comparison between football and cricket. According to Nkambule the beauty of soccer is that you can create a ball out of anything. However, with equipment costs and player fees, rugby and cricket are on the costly side. Because of this, many mixed raced and black South Africans simply cannot afford to play those games (Oates; 2019).

Selecting Research Design

A qualitative research design will be used for this proposed research. Research following a qualitative approach is exploratory and seeks to explain ‘how’ and ‘why’ a particular phenomenon, or behaviour, operates as it does in a particular context. This design will be used to analyse the nature of coverage of the South African sport media in their reporting and broadcasting about the black talent in cricket over the years. This research design will be used in an attempt to explain the role the media has played in the transformation of South African cricket.

Strauss and Corbin (1999:17) defines the qualitative research methodology as “any kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of quantification” but produces finding arrived at from real-world setting where the “phenomena of interest unfolds naturally” not manipulated by the researcher (Patton 2000:39).  Qualitative research contributes to the way in which human conditions are understood in different contexts. Qualitative research study further contributes to the understanding of living conditions of a community or a society. Furthermore, qualitative research occurs in natural setting. It can be used to study everyday life occurrences and natural traditions or customs of a community under research through interviews and observation data collection techniques amongst others.

Qualitative research it is exploratory in its nature its helps  researchers to gain a deep meaning of a certain phenomenon in a society by asking probing questions. Accordingly, qualitative research is an explanatory research because it focuses on the why questions. For an example, qualitative research can be used to develop an explanation about why there are lack of goals scored by South African born strikers playing in the professional soccer league in South African and why international strikers playing in the professional league in South Africa score more goals.  

The research design and approach

The researcher paradigm/worldview on this phenomenon is that the South African media has not really played a great role in the decolonizing of South African cricket. Despite having black journalists reporting on cricket in the country.

Until today, cricket is still seeing largely as a white sport despite South Africa producing talented black African cricket stars like Kagiso Rabada and Temba Bavuma, Lungi Ngidi and Makhaya Ntini. After 30 years, of international cricket South Africa cannot field a team, which has more than three players of African origin in the population of more than 80% of the country.

The media as a public sphere plays an important part in any democratic society, to highlight any social injustice, however,  in three decades of representation in international cricket, South Africa is still been represented by less than 10% of black cricketers. Has the media generated enough coverage to assist the cricket fraternity to fast track the development of black cricketers in their coverage in print, broadcast and latterly online?

The researcher will use qualitative approach because this research design requires detailed observation, explanation and assumes. Past, current and future newspaper reports will be analysed and observed. The researcher will attempt to study the whole situation in order to evaluate the coverage and ensure that the conclusion and findings take account of all the related factors. The researcher will be the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. As this research involves the print, broadcast and online analysis of coverage qualitative research is appropriate because it is descriptive. The researcher is interested in process, meaning, and understanding gained through the coverage of the transformation of cricket in the country.

 The purpose of this proposed research is to understand phenomena in detail of the role the media has played in cricket transformation, the researcher needs methods for discovery of common articles or a pattern of how the media in general perceive transformation in cricket.

Advantages of this study design are that this study design will:

1.      Provides depth and detail.

2.      Through open-ended questions, the study design creates openness and will encourage respondents to expand on their responses.

3.      a detailed picture can be built up about how the media have or have not played a role in the transformation of cricket.

Disadvantages are that

1.      Only cricket correspondents will be studied: because of time and budget will not allow for bigger sample size of other society linked to cricket.

2.      White and black journalists will have different opinions which could be based on race and this could be difficult for the researcher to generalise the findings.

3.      The race issue could also make it difficult to make systematic comparisons: for example, respondents give widely differing responses that are highly subjective based on their race.

 

Research Methodology 

The research methodology for this proposal will be founded on the qualitative research methodology. The overall purpose of this study is to explore and analysis the role of the print media through information sharing and education in the development and education of black cricketers in South Africa through qualitative content analysis.

The researcher ontological view on the study is that print media has not done enough in their coverage, reporting and representation of black cricket in South Africa particularly South Africa’s black cricket talent to promote the black cricketers talent in the last five years. The recent South African cricket team which represents the country regularly in Test cricket has only three black players, Kagiso Rabada, Temba Bavuma and Lungi Ngigi, although the team had coloured players, Dane Pietersen, Beuran Hendricks and one of Indian decent Kash Maharajah. Black Africans still represent 80% population of the country, this needs to be reflected in South African sport and the coverage of South African black talent. 

There is one main qualitative research question that researcher will like to investigate for this research. This question is looking at print media reports in the last five years. The question is has South African sport journalists done enough to advance the sporting talent of cricketers in townships and rural areas?  The research question call for the exploration of the coverage of cricket development for black cricketers in the townships and rural areas by the South African sport journalists. The qualitative approach that the researcher intends to use to investigate the research question is case study approach.

The standardized open-ended interview will used for this research because of the natural of the research and the interviewee professions. A structured interview is needed because participants will be asked identical questions, but the questions will be worded so that responses are open-ended.

For this proposal, the researcher will focus on mainly newspaper articles, and therefore the researchers units of analysis will be newspaper articles and columns. The target population for this research will be South African sport journalists and South African cricket correspondents. The work of these target population is readily accessible and available through their written articles.

Interviews

The standardized open-ended interview will used for this research because of the natural of the research and the interviewee professions. A structured interview is needed because participants will be asked identical questions, but the questions will be worded so that responses are open-ended.

The researcher will conduct these interviews telephonically as this could be the most cost effective and time saving method to successfully complete these interviews. A local sport journalist for the Pretoria community newspaper Rekord will be used as a pilot test. This will done to assist the researcher in determining if there are flaws, limitations, or other weaknesses within the interview design and will allow the researcher  to make necessary revisions prior to the implementation of the study.

The interviewees will be able to choose their own terms when answering questions. Carefully consideration will be taken to make the questions as natural as possible. The researcher will ask one question at a time to avoid confusing the respondents.  The researcher will also avoid asking the “why” questions and all questions will be clearly worded.

Criterion sampling technique will be used to sample the respondents through available newspaper articles and sport columns in the newspapers and online articles from the chosen newspapers. The criteria that needs to be met to be considered for the research are that the writers should have being writing on cricket for the last five years and/or a former cricketer who has being writing on cricket for the last five years. The respondents should be useful for identifying and understanding cases that are information rich.

Guest, Bunce, and Johnson (2006) suggests, “Saturation often occurs around 12 participants in homogeneous groups, to avoid reaching saturation a minimum of 12 participants and a maximum of 15 participants will be used for the research”. “Saturation is when you are no longer learning very much from additional interviewee” (Latham, 2013).

Careful consideration will be taken to choose both black and white respondents as the research deals with a sensitive race issues. Ethically the researcher is obliged to choose black and white respondents to avoid bias responses.

Observations

Because the researcher has prior knowledge of the coverage on transformation in cricket, a structured observation will be used. Furthermore, the researcher will be a non-participant while observing the participants. Participants newspaper articles, blog and newspaper columns will be mainly observed from the already produced work of participants. Observations will also assist the researcher to directly see what respondents do rather than rely on what they say.  

For this research, the researcher will focus on mainly newspaper articles, and therefore the researchers units of analysis will be newspaper articles and columns. The target population for this research will be South African sport journalists and South African cricket correspondents. The work of these target population is readily accessible and available through their written articles.

The method of constructed sampling which will focus on the weeks were mostly selection of black players was an issue in the media will be used. This sampling technique is more efficient than simple random sampling. An example of such sampling will be the week of the selection of Temba Bavuma for his first Test cap in relation to the selection of Steven Cook who made his Test debut in the same Test series as Temba Bavuma.

 Document Review

Sport news articles will be coded by thematic content analysis. The data will be analysed through extensive document review. The researcher will group and filter from newspaper articles a list of common perceptions in the reporting on the transformation in South African cricket will be drawn and analysed. This will be done in order to arrive at the conclusion of the role of the South African print media in transformation. Groups will include those who are for transformation and those who are against transformation in South African cricket. 

Document review involves indirect participation of the respondents; however, that although the goal of the research is to generate new knowledge, this can never take precedence over the rights and interests of individuals directly or indirectly participating in a research study.

DATA ANALYSIS PLAN

The data collection will be mainly done on three leading South African newspapers (The Star, The Sunday Times and Mail & Guardian) analysing the coverage of cricket representation from 2015 to 2020.

While conducting interviews through emails to a maximum of 12 interviewees, the researcher will send the email questionnaires to the 12 interviewees in the first week of the data collection. Depending to the availability and accessibility of the interviewees, the researcher will then receive the responses in the third week of data collection.

Document review was then resume on the second week of data collection by firstly gathering all relevant articles from the three newspapers (The Star, The Sunday Times and Mail & Guardian). Pressreader is used to gather the articles from 2015 to 2020. Only cricket transformation articles will be analysed particularly articles which reports on team selection of the South African national cricket team. Selection of black players, the quota system and transformation in the sport will be the key words to be analysed.

Document Review of the three newspapers will characterize the third week of data collection. The researcher will conduct document review from 2015 to 2016 in the third week of data collection. 2015 in particular had a one of the most controversial stories in South African Cricket World Cup history, when talented and reliable seamer Vernon Philander was selected to play the tournament semi-final against New Zealand in Auckland while the in-form white seamer Kyle Abbott sat out. Reports followed suggesting that political interference had shaped the decision, with then-CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat believed to have made the call after receiving his own instructions from above. While in 2016 black Test batsman Temba Bavuma made a Test century against England which many saw as a stepping stone for black cricketers in the country.

The fourth week of data collection will continue with document review. The researcher will conduct document review from 2017 to 2018 of the three selected newspapers. The researcher will also begin to receive responses from interviewees for analysing the responses in relation to interviewees’ views on cricket transformation, selection and representation in cricket.

Week 5 of data collection will commence with a conclusion of a document review. The researcher will conduct document review from 2019 to 2020 of the selected newspapers. The researcher will also analyses the responses in relation to interviewees’ views on cricket transformation, selection and representation in cricket.

In the sixth week of data collection, the researcher will conduct Observations on any other recent coverage and reporting by the selected newspapers on black cricket, transformation and representation. Afterwards the researcher will prepare to analyse and present findings of the data collection.

  Data Collection Plan

Activity	Responsible Person	Timeframe
Draft and send email questionnaires to interviewees	Researcher	2 Days
Gather relevant Articles using Pressreader for Document Review	Researcher	1 Week
Conduct Document Review on the three newspapers from 2015-2016	Researcher	1 Week
Conduct Document Review on the three newspapers from 2017-2018 and receive responses from interviewees	Researcher	1 Week
Conduct Document Review on the three newspapers from 2019-2020 and analyse responses from interviewees	Researcher	1 Week
Conduct Observations on any recent coverage and reporting by the selected newspapers on black cricket and transformation		1 Week
Prepare Research findings	Researcher	2 Weeks

 

DISCUSSION OF OVERALL RESEARCH FINDINGS

The media as a public sphere plays an important part in any democratic society, to highlight any social injustice, however,  in three decades of representation in international cricket, South Africa is still been represented by less than 10% of black cricketers. Has the media generated enough coverage to assist the cricket fraternity to fast track the development of black cricketers in their coverage in print, broadcast and latterly online?

The researcher will use qualitative approach because this research design requires detailed observation, explanation and assumes. Past, current and future newspaper reports will be analysed and observed. The researcher will attempt to study the whole situation in order to evaluate the coverage and ensure that the conclusion and findings take account of all the related factors. The researcher will be the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. As this research involves the print, broadcast and online analysis of coverage qualitative research is appropriate because it is descriptive. The researcher is interested in process, meaning, and understanding gained through the coverage of the transformation of cricket in the country.

The purpose of this proposed research design is to understand phenomena in detail of the role the media has played in cricket transformation, the researcher needs methods for discovery of common articles or a pattern of how the media in general perceive transformation in cricket.

The researcher will using this study design needs to carefully consider ethical considerations    such as respect for privacy, establishment of honest and open interactions, and avoiding misrepresentations of facts. Some important ethical concerns that should be taken into account while carrying out this study design are secrecy, confidentiality and informed consent of the participants particularly during data collection.

Advantages of this Research Proposal:

1.      Provides depth and detail.

2. Through open-ended questions, the study design creates openness and will encourage respondents to expand on their responses.

3.      a detailed picture can be built up about how the media have or have not played a role in the transformation of cricket.

Disadvantages are that

1.      Only cricket correspondents will be studied: because of time and budget will not allow for bigger sample size of other society linked to cricket.

2.      White and black journalists will have different opinions which could be based on race and this could be difficult for the researcher to generalise the findings.

3.      The race issue could also make it difficult to make systematic comparisons: for example, respondents give widely differing responses that are highly subjective based on their race.

LIST OF RESOURCES

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Booth,D. 1998. The race game: Sport and Politics in South Africa. Abingdon: Frank Cass. 

4    Cleophas, F. 2019. The Rugby World Cup is reminding South Africans that sport, like society, is still divided. Quartz Africa. 20 October. [O]. Available. https://qz.com/africa/1731639/rugby-world-cup-reminds-south-africa-its-still-divided-on-race/ Accessed 18 April 2020

Desai,A. The race to transform: Sport in post-apartheid South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC. 

Du Plooy, GM. 2009. Communication research: techniques, methods and applications. Juta: Cape Town

Fanon, F.2008. Black skin, white masks. London: Pluto. 

Gemmel, J.2004. The politics of South African cricket. London: Routledge. 

Gleeson, M. 2020. Racial quotas for test team clouds South Africa selection. Reuters. 01 January. [O]. Available: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cricket-test-zaf-eng-preview/racial-quotas-for-test-team-clouds-south-africa-selection-idUKKBN1Z01VS Accessed 8 April 2020

News 24. 2018. Mike Procter: No need for quotas in SA cricket. Sport 24, 01 October. [O]. Available: https://www.sport24.co.za/Cricket/Proteas/mike-procter-no-need-for-quotas-in-sa-cricket-20181001 Accessed on 7 April 2020

Manthata, L. 2018. Race and Sport in South Africa: The politics of Social Exclusion: Transformation of Cricket in Gauteng Cricket. Doctoral thesis. Johannesburg: Wits University.  

1Manthorp, N. 2015. Selection controversy is occupational hazard for Protea captain. Business Day. 31 March: 19

Oates, K. 2019. South Africa’s sports lack progress in the post-apartheid era. Global Sport Matters, 16 April. [O]. Available: https://globalsportmatters.com/culture/2019/04/16/south-africas-sports-lack-progress-in-the-post-apartheid-era/ Accessed 7 April 2020

    Vahed, G.2001. ‘What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?’: Transformation in South African cricket, 1999-2000. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 36 (3): 319-336. 

   Wagner, C, Kawulich, B & Garner, M. 2012. Doing social research: A global context. McGraw Hill Higher Education: London.