KUALA LUMPUR – With the Youth and Sports Ministry planning to initiate an athlete media training programme, questions have arisen within the sports fraternity regarding the initiative’s efficiency.
According to minister Hannah Yeoh, her ministry, in collaboration with the National Sports Council (NSC), will kick off the initiative next month with a team of professionals.
The goal is to equip athletes with the necessary skills to confidently engage with the media.
Speaking to Scoop, sports analyst Mohd Sadek Mustaffa commended the government’s initiative while urging national sports associations (NSAs) to actively contribute to preparing their athletes for media interactions.
“It’s a great initiative by the sports ministry as it will boost the athletes’ communication skills and build their confidence when they handle the media. Many of our local athletes tend to stutter a lot when they face the media, and sometimes their answers don’t relate to the questions asked.
“The only way for this change is through proper media training. However, I don’t think that the ministry and the NSC should entirely shoulder this initiative, as NSAs should play their part as well.
“I believe that the NSAs should be conducting these initiatives instead of relying on the government, as at the end of the day, the athletes fall under the NSA, not under the sports ministry.
“I hope the Olympic Council of Malaysia can spearhead the NSAs and instruct them to run their own media training programmes for the athletes instead of adding a burden to the government,” said Sadek.
Sadek, a senior sports science lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Mara, also said that NSAs could collaborate with the mass communication faculties in local universities to provide proper media training for their athletes.
“There’s always a way for the NSAs to play their part, and one of the best ways is to collaborate with mass comm faculties, and they will be more than willing to help.
“NSAs can probably send their athletes to universities during their summer camps, and the lecturers can teach them the ways to speak to the media, such as coming up with productive answers,” Sadek added.
Meanwhile, Sportswriters’ Association of Malaysia (SAM) president Norismadi Abd Manap echoed a similar sentiment and said that his association was ready to help the sports ministry if the government required its expertise to train its athletes.
“All athletes should be taught how to handle the media, including young and upcoming athletes. Aside from boosting the athletes’ confidence, proper media training for the athletes will also give a good image to the NSAs as well.
“We at SAM have also done our part by coming up with a few media training modules in the past and presented our idea to the NSC so that it can be implemented for the athletes during their centralised training, but the initiative did not materialise.
“Our modules are based on three factors: training athletes to comprehend the media’s questions and training them to construct their answers without giving confusing responses, educating the athletes on their ethics and their limitations when they speak to the media.
“And also teaching the athletes the importance of interacting with the media and enlightening them on the roles and purpose of the media. This is because some athletes tend to think that the media is not important and that the media just likes to create controversies. We will be ready to help the sports ministry if they approach us for our expertise again,” Norismadi added.
Aside from media training, the sports ministry also plans to implement additional awareness programmes aimed at educating athletes on banned substances to prevent their involvement in doping cases in the future.
The ministry said that athletes should not use a lack of awareness as an excuse for consuming prohibited substances and stressed the importance of athletes taking responsibility for managing their bodies. – January 14, 2024