Profil Ruangan Sukan Dalam Akhbar Utusan Malaysia Dan Berita Harian Profile of Sports Columns in Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian

Abstract

Newspaper industry views sport section as a strategy in improving readership and circulation. Therefore, sports journalism practice is very important to give strength and quality of newspaper’s sports section in Malaysia. This study focuses on the profile of sports section of Malay language newspapers with the attention to six areas; types of sports information and news, types of sports, advertisement, layouts, the used of photos and illustrations, level of sports coverage, sports sources as well as the importance of sports section toward the publication of newspaper. Content analysis method was used to study the newspaper sports column in Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian, while the media economics theory is used as a framework for this study. The finding shows the imbalance of information published in the newspaper sports section. International sports and international athletes were given more coverage and more spaces by Malaysian newspaper compared to local sports and local athletes. It shows the news value of proximity is not the main element in sports coverage and placement of sports news in sports section. This study also found that advertisements have considerable influence on the newspaper sports section. Newspaper organisation would sacrifice space of sports section to advertisement to ensure highest advertising revenues. This situation creates constraints on the sports news and information for publication and shows that placement of news and articles of sports in the sports sections in Malaysian newspaper is based on the media economics fundamentals which focus on newspaper market and advertising revenue.

Industri akhbar memandang bahagian sukan sebagai strategi dalam meningkatkan pembaca dan edaran. Oleh itu, amalan kewartawanan sukan sangat penting untuk memberi kekuatan dan kualiti bahagian sukan surat khabar di Malaysia. Kajian ini memfokuskan kepada profil bahagian sukan surat khabar berbahasa Melayu dengan memberi perhatian kepada enam bidang; jenis maklumat dan berita sukan, jenis sukan, iklan, susun atur, penggunaan foto dan ilustrasi, tahap liputan sukan, sumber sukan serta kepentingan bahagian sukan terhadap penerbitan surat khabar. Kaedah analisis kandungan digunakan untuk mengkaji ruangan sukan akhbar di Utusan Malaysia dan Berita Harian, sementara teori ekonomi media digunakan sebagai kerangka kajian ini. Hasil kajian menunjukkan ketidakseimbangan maklumat yang disiarkan di bahagian sukan surat khabar. Atlet sukan dan antarabangsa diberi liputan lebih banyak dan lebih banyak ruang oleh akhbar Malaysia berbanding sukan tempatan dan atlet tempatan. Ini menunjukkan nilai berita jarak dekat bukanlah elemen utama dalam liputan sukan dan penempatan berita sukan di bahagian sukan. Kajian ini juga mendapati bahawa iklan mempunyai pengaruh yang besar pada bahagian sukan surat khabar. Organisasi surat khabar akan mengorbankan ruang bahagian sukan untuk iklan untuk memastikan pendapatan iklan tertinggi. Situasi ini menimbulkan kekangan pada berita sukan dan maklumat untuk diterbitkan dan menunjukkan bahawa penempatan berita dan artikel sukan di bahagian sukan di surat khabar Malaysia adalah berdasarkan asas ekonomi media yang menumpukan pada pasaran surat khabar dan pendapatan iklan.