An Assessment of Sports Reporting In Cameroon, Its Challenges and Prospects
America and the world wanted to put the memory of the Great War behind them and enjoy life. The economy was booming and Americans fell in love with sports.
The 1920s was described as the Age of the Spectators as new and bigger stadiums and gymnasiums were built and the radio became the most favourite medium that provided news about sporting events. Newspapers too increased their coverage of sports and fans were able through the media, to keep up with their favourite teams. Baseball was the most important discipline in America in the 20s and it was during this golden age that sport fans began to emerge.
Inabinett(1994) notes that Grantland Rice wrote about the athletes who made the age golden. He is celebrated as the pioneer in sports writing with a writing style that employed both hyperbole and lyricism to paint vivid images of athletes.
In August 1954, sports journalism in America was changed forever with the birth of the Sports Illustrated Magazine. During its first five years of growth, the magazine was aimed at the American middle class consumer and covered just about middle class consumer and covered just about any sports story it could cover. As years went on, the magazine began to specialise on sports like baseball, football and basketball.
Historically, women have not been extremely involved in sports reportage. According to Njomo, the first female sports reporter in the country on Television was Pamela Messi in 1988, while the much loved Judith Ngale did sports on radio. Others like the late Christiana Nkuo Ufenyi gave a proper account of themselves. In 2004, a female journalist, Magdalene Soppi Kotto was raised to the level of chief of the Sports desk at the national station of the Cameroon Radio Television.