Cognitive and environmental factors of self-confidence of national athletes during mass media interviews

Sports related issues gain a lot of publicity as well as open the gate for a forum in the media. The public will have the advantage of being informed about the sports activities around their locality through the media. It is also the responsibility of the media to create a platform for the public to interact with sportsmen and sportswomen through publishing interesting stories. This fact is explained by Norman (2011) that foreign athletes are well prepared and positive when facing the media during interviews but this was not so when our national athletes talk to the media. Malaysian athletes have low self confidence in communication. Athletes find it difficult to answer questions posed by the mass media because they lack general knowledge (Vincent & Yahya, 2009). The general objective of this study is to know the relationship between cognitive and environmental factor towards self-confidence of national athletes during mass media interviews. Apart from that, it specifically focuses on the relationship between cognitive factor and self-confidence of national athletes during mass media interviews; the relationship between environmental factor and self-confidence of national athletes during mass media interviews. Cognitive factor was focused on perception and knowledge of national athletes that leads to self-confidence during mass media interviews. Nevertheless, Environmental factor were emphasised on physical and social environment. Thus, four hypotheses were tested. A quantitative method was applied in this study. The sample of this study consisted of 300 national athletes based on National Sports Council. The sampling methods were convenient sampling and purposive sampling. The location was mainly focused at Bukit Jalil Sport Complex. The study was supported based on the Social Cognitive Theory. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. Descriptive statistic and inferential statistic were used in this study. The correlation result for cognitive factor showed that there is a positive relationship between perception and self-confidence during mass media interviews (0.702) and also there is a positive relationship between knowledge and self-confidence during mass media interviews (0.939). Besides that, the correlation result for environmental factor proved that there is a positive relationship between physical and self-confidence during mass media interviews (0.908) and also there is a positive relationship between social and self-confidence during mass media interviews (0.845). Eventually the results revealed that there is positive relationship between cognitive and environment factors towards self-confidence of national athletes during mass media interviews. Today, the media are lurking all around the sports arena. Thus, it is important for athletes to be prepared cognitively and environmentally as these factors contribute in enhancing their selfconfidence during mass media interviews.

Text 124372.pdf Download (969kB) Official URL or Download Paper: https://ethesis.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/18773

Actions (login required)

View Item