COM3706
ASSIGNMENT 3 2025
DUE: 17 OCTOBER 2025 (MEMO)
, TOPIC
CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SPORTS NEWS COVERAGE IN THE STAR (SOUTH
AFRICA DAILY NEWSPAPER).
Introduction
Sports journalism plays a prominent role in South African media, often shaping
national identity and public discourse. The Star is a leading Gauteng-based daily
newspaper (founded 1887) distributed widely across South Africa. This portfolio
examines how The Star covers sports stories. The objective is to analyze the leading
sports topics, the space allocation to sports versus other news, gender representation
among athletes, and the voices (sources) featured. Framing theory provides the
conceptual lens for this study, as it explains how media emphasize certain aspects of
reality to shape audience perception. My structure of the portfolio follows the
COM3706 requirements: a problem statement, subproblems, literature review,
theoretical framework, research design, findings, discussion, limitations, ethics,
conclusion, and reflection sections. Each section builds on scholarly sources and the
initial content analysis of five issues of The Star.
Research Problem Statement
South Africa’s leading newspapers have been criticized for underrepresenting
women’s sports and privileging male-dominated events. This study investigates how
The Star’s sports section addresses such issues (the problem) by using a mixed-
methods content analysis (method) of five recent issues (scope: The Star,
ASSIGNMENT 3 2025
DUE: 17 OCTOBER 2025 (MEMO)
, TOPIC
CONTENT ANALYSIS OF SPORTS NEWS COVERAGE IN THE STAR (SOUTH
AFRICA DAILY NEWSPAPER).
Introduction
Sports journalism plays a prominent role in South African media, often shaping
national identity and public discourse. The Star is a leading Gauteng-based daily
newspaper (founded 1887) distributed widely across South Africa. This portfolio
examines how The Star covers sports stories. The objective is to analyze the leading
sports topics, the space allocation to sports versus other news, gender representation
among athletes, and the voices (sources) featured. Framing theory provides the
conceptual lens for this study, as it explains how media emphasize certain aspects of
reality to shape audience perception. My structure of the portfolio follows the
COM3706 requirements: a problem statement, subproblems, literature review,
theoretical framework, research design, findings, discussion, limitations, ethics,
conclusion, and reflection sections. Each section builds on scholarly sources and the
initial content analysis of five issues of The Star.
Research Problem Statement
South Africa’s leading newspapers have been criticized for underrepresenting
women’s sports and privileging male-dominated events. This study investigates how
The Star’s sports section addresses such issues (the problem) by using a mixed-
methods content analysis (method) of five recent issues (scope: The Star,
