The Sportswriter as Development Journalist: Covering African Football

Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, Vol. 31, No. 2, Routledge, 2010

27 Pages Posted: 11 Sep 2010 Last revised: 14 Jun 2012

See all articles by Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Richard J. Peltz-Steele

University of Massachusetts School of Law at Dartmouth

Date Written: September 11, 2010

Abstract

Football is Africa’s game, but performance in world competition reveals the sport as metaphor for African development: promise stymied by political corruption, infrastructure deficiency, and neo-colonial exploitation. The media-sport complex has perpetuated this cycle. Development journalism contrarily posits media as a force for good. Where objectivity dominates traditional news, development journalism stresses nation-building. But emphasizing news, development journalism overlooks the powerful role of sport in African life. Through meta-analysis, this article compares the values and practices of development journalism and of sportswriting. The article concludes that sportswriters are well positioned to act as development journalists. As mediator of hallowed football, the sportswriter can capitalize on the promise of sport to effect nation-building and development in Africa, and so, as Alan Chalkley entreated 40 years ago, to “punch that hole in the vicious cycle.”

Keywords: Sportswriter, Sports, Writing, Journalism, Africa, Development, Football, Soccer

JEL Classification: F02, F22, H77, I31, J61, J71, L83, N37, N47, O19, O29, Z10

Suggested Citation

Peltz-Steele, Richard J., The Sportswriter as Development Journalist: Covering African Football (September 11, 2010). Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, Vol. 31, No. 2, Routledge, 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1675483

Richard J. Peltz-Steele (Contact Author)

University of Massachusetts School of Law at Dartmouth ( email )

333 Faunce Corner Road
North Dartmouth, MA 02747-1252
United States
15089851102 (Phone)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
47
Abstract Views
1,181
PlumX Metrics