COOU UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ EXPOSURE TO ONLINE REPORTS ON MESSI’S 2023 BALLON D’OR VICTORY AND THEIR PERCEPTION OF RONALDO’S REACTION TO THE REPORTS

Abstract

Sports is one of the activities that bind people of different races together. During the 2022 world cup, many countries participated and records of the players were kept. In October, 2023, the winner of the Ballon d’or was announced to be Lionel Messi. That announcement triggered some reactions especially on the internet more especially the reaction from Christiano Ronaldo who happened to be one of Messi’s sports rivals. Audience perception of Ronaldo’s reaction is the main thrust of this research. The objectives of the study are to find out respondents’ extent of exposure to online reports about Messi’s Ballon D’Or victory, their level of knowledge about Ronaldo’s reaction and their perception of the reaction. Anchored on Uses and gratifications, and social cognitive theories, the work used survey research method to source data from a population of 15, 786 students of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam campus. Taro Yamane’s formula was used to get a sample size of 390 and purposive sampling technique was used to distribute the copies of the questionnaire to the respondents. Findings revealed a high level of awareness of reports on Messi’s Ballon D’Or victory and that the respondents are highly aware of Ronaldo’s reaction to the reports under study though greater majority of them perceive Ronaldo’s reaction as a sign of envy on his own part. It was recommended that FIFA should make honest effort to ensure that their decisions are worthwhile so as to avoid such reactions that may discredit the body in the future.