Hi guys,

I was just wondering if anybody could help me out in any way they could? I am currently in the third year of my Sports Journalism course at Uni and I have come round to the wonder that is the dissertation ha. Therefore, I'm at the point of doing reading etc, research into what I want to do, and then submitting a question. As a massive rugby league fan, I wanted to focus on RL, as I was guessing that not many would look at our sport.

I originally wanted to look into the impact Sky have had on rugby league as a sport on the whole, but found it difficult on making it relate to the journalism aspect of my degree.

The question I was looking at is: "Is a disproportion of media coverage preventing rugby league from become a national sport?". So basically I was just seeing if anybody else on here had done something similar and could offer advice on whether this could be a viable topic or point me in the direction of research that I can take a look at.

Cheers in advance people!

I've done a master course, albeit not in journalism, but I don't think that your question is appropriate, in its current structure. Setting the right question is vital.

"Is a disproportion of media coverage preventing rugby league from become a national sport?".

i.e. It suggests that there is already a "disproportion of media coverage" so unless you have solid evidence to support that then the starting point is flawed (I imagine you could write a thesis just to determine whether there is or isn't). Then I imagine you'd need to pick a specific area of the media (TV, radio, press, interweb etc) and assess the impact of each of these, and how coverage relates to participation / attendance.

The you'd need to define what makes something a "national sport", as your starting premise suggests that RL isn't already a "national sport". Again you'd need to define whether you're looking at participation or attendance, numbers vs turnover, professional vs amateur clubs numbers etc.

I think its a workable proposition, but needs greater clarity to look at one or two specific areas, as currently its too broad, but talk it through with your thesis supervisor.

As above, from your question is this what you meant to propose?
'Does the disproprtionate media coverage of rugby league prevent it from being a nationally recognised (or followed) professional sport?
As you probably already know RL is played at amateur level in pretty much every county in England already competing in league & cup competitions but clearly not at a semi professional/professional level.
gl