Reconstruction of the Functions of National Media for the Development of Recreational Sports: Strategies and Guidelines

This research aims to reconstruct the functions of national media for development of recreational sports and present strategies and guidelines. The qualitative approach and data-based theorization method is used in this research. In this method, the functions and strategies of national media are elicited directly from the data obtained through profound interviews with experts in order to develop recreational sports. The statistical population in this study consists of all experts who have academic specialization and executive experience in the field of management of recreational sports and media, selected from the university and recreational sports authorities. Sampling method is snowball and 28 interviews are made with the experts as explained above. Based on the analyses of the interviews, nine functions are found for the national media in development of recreational sports. These include: the educational function, the informatic function, the awareness function, raising information, social coherence, institutionalization, highlighting, social marketing, modernism, and environmental supervision. In general terms, based on the findings of this research, one can state that media can have a prominent role in increasing the participation of people in recreational sports regarding the influence they have in attracting the audience and participating in the process of formation of public thoughts.