Abstract
Despite the influence and power that the media hold and the importance placed on the role that they can assume regarding corruption, little is known about the part the media can play in corruption in sport and any challenges they might face in reporting on it. This study aims to shed light on this unexplored area, by using insights from members of the media based in three Balkan countries, to help uncover the challenges and obstacles faced by sport media. The findings of this study allow for the multifold role of the media in sport corruption to be examined, while uncovering the internally and externally driven obstacles they face, ranging from personal greed to market-based pressures and media’s ostracism by the wider anti-corruption system.
Highlights
It is often argued that it is the duty of the media to report corruption, as they have the power to report and uncover events, and to shape public opinions, affect the social climate and highlight accountability (Akani, 2017). Stapenhurst (2000) and Coronel (2010) claim that the media have a critical triple role in issues of corruption, and as such they must promote good governance and raise public awareness, investigate independently and report instances of corruption when they arise, and even act as a corrective ‘watchdog’ to discourage individuals from being involved in corruption
(Brunetti and Weder, 2003; Duggan and Levitt, 2002). This would entail raising awareness by informing the public of the existence of corruption when it occurs, investigating instances of corruption in order for detailed and accurate information to be provided, and acting as a means of added pressure on the sport environment in order to increase its transparency and promote its integrity. The importance of this threefold role was emphasised repeatedly by the interviewees, who argued that despite the significance the media hold as a key stakeholder of sport, a number of often insuperable challenges exist that obstruct them from performing the role
While press freedom was not an issue raised by the interviewees, press independence was highlighted as a key obstruction to the media’s role in sport corruption
Summary
It is often argued that it is the duty of the media to report corruption, as they have the power to report and uncover events, and to shape public opinions, affect the social climate and highlight accountability (Akani, 2017). Stapenhurst (2000) and Coronel (2010) claim that the media have a critical triple role in issues of corruption, and as such they must promote good governance and raise public awareness, investigate independently and report instances of corruption when they arise, and even act as a corrective ‘watchdog’ to discourage individuals from being involved in corruption. It is due to this blurring of the lines between journalism (in print media) and reporting (on radio and television) that the terms ‘reporter’ and ‘journalist’, and ‘media’ and ‘press’ will be used interchangeably in this study. All these factors draw a picture of the media industry in the Balkan countries; one in which a symbiotic relationship between the industry and sport has developed, providing the media with quick, easy and popular content, and sport with natural advertising. At the same time, the lack of integrity in these countries is often documented (Vogel, 2015), with popular recent sport corruption scandals including matchfixing, illegal betting, bribery and extortion in professional sports and predominately football, as documented by Masters (2015) and Manoli and Antonopoulos (2015)
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