Sport media is no different from any other profession. There is gender bias in this field. Due to sexism, it makes it hard for women to even enter into the career path they desire most. There are many factors when it comes to gender bias, especially in sport media. Women are at a disadvantage in the field of sport media. Before 1978, female reporters were not allowed to interview players in the locker room before and after games (Clapp). It was not until 1978, when a female reporter decided enough was enough. In 1978, Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke sued the New York Yankees for banning her from entering the locker room to interview players during the 1977 World Series (Clapp). This case went to federal court and the judge decided that banning female reporters violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution (Clapp). The Equal Protection Clause demands that the states “must treat an individual in the same manner as others in similar conditions and circumstances” (LII Staff). Since women reporters were not allowed in locker rooms and men were, then this was a direct violation because women and male reporters were in the locker rooms for the same reasons. In the business of sport and as a sport manager, women being treated unfairly in sport media is something that needs to be addressed by fining and suspending those coaches, players and anybody involved with a sport organization who make sexist remarks toward women
Sexism has played its part in many different work environments for quite some time. It especially raises big conversation, and an ongoing problem in the sports industry. Not only does it affect the women who work in the industry, but also homosexuals, and minorities. For so long sexism has been a topic of discussion, but no real attempts at change have been made. If there was more protection for woman and players who work in sports, it could help to get women more involved in the field, establish rules that will protect people from sexism, and diminish some of the controversy between the two opposing sexes.
Male sports receive more recognition than female sports. “Additionally, in a study of four major newspapers--USA Today, the Boston Globe, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Morning news--women-only sports stories totaled just 3.5 percent of all sports stories.” (Collins Live Strong). Has one ever heard of Lisa Leslie, Kerri Walsh, or Chris Evert? Lisa Leslie is a WNBA basketball player. Kerri Walsh is a famous volleyball player for Team USA. Chris Evert is a tennis player. Has anyone heard of David Beckham, Derek Jeter, Eli Manning, Michael Jordan or Lebron James? Those well known names do not need any explanation. However, those female athletes have worked just as hard and have achieved so much for their team that they should receive just as much recognition. Whenever an individual searches through the sports section of a newspaper they are bombarded with news about male sports, but what about female sports? Mckenna Peterson is a twelve year old athlete who plays basketball. While she was reading the Dicks Sporting Goods Magazine, she realized that there were no female athletes featured in the magazine. “McKenna added in her letter that the only women featured in the catalog are sitting in the stands, or dressed as cheerleaders in the coupons” (Murray ABC). Editors of sports magazines need to take a closer look at their content and not be so discriminatory and realize that they could draw in female readers by including female athletes. Currently, it is so hard to imagine that a sports magazine would not feature female athletes along with male athletes. More people would run up to famous male athletes in public than famous female athletes. For example, more people would take notice of Derek Jeter than Jennie Finch if someone saw them in public. People are glued to their TV screens while watching
Authors Marie Hardin and Stacie Shain explain this phenomenon once women get hired, how discouraging it can be in the work place when your peer’s don’t see you as their equal of value what you bring to the news team: “women sports journalists instead often strive to fit in a male-dominated environment, knowing they are often under scrutiny by male sports journalists who may resent their presence as ‘‘quota’’ hires (Kian, 2005). Women sports journalists who may be considered more qualified than male rivals may still find themselves locked into limiting roles ‘‘for the sake of that body’’ and unable to move from it, (Hardin and Shain, 326).” Hearing over and over that it’s hard to become a female sportscaster, then when you are in the job not elevating or moving forward because of your gender is one of the most discriminating things that can happen to a journalist. It’s as if you put in all this work and hustle but still go nowhere.
The sports media in America has a lot of power. How the media portrays athletes and how it is perceived can be polarizing. Sports media depicts athletes based on race. It is becoming a daily occurrence for sports media to portray Caucasians is a positive light and African American in a more negative light. When an African American commits a crime it reinforces the negative stereotype and makes national sports television. But, when a Caucasian athlete commits the same crime the information is difficult to find on a local newspaper. The media’s portrayal can alter the fan’s experience. Which is the case for two current active NFL players. In 2011, USA Today reported Ben Roethlisberger the quarterback of the Pittsburg Steelers was accused of rape
Control Room places an emphasis on an Arab news network’s coverage of the war between Iraq and the United States that began in 2003; the news network is known as Al Jazeera. This news network was founded in 1996, and had been called by the Bush administration “the mouthpiece of Osama bin Laden” (Noujaim, 2004). From what this film had depicted, the viewer can see that Al Jazeera is a news network worthy of attention, and not only because of its controversial topics, but because of the information it releases to the rest of the world that most do not regularly see due to biases within news media outlets. Because it appears clear that biases are imminent within the film, I had become more interested in how and why Al Jazeera had become such a tainted name within the industry and under fire for the information they bring to the masses.
The media should not only report on men’s sports, but women’s sports, too. This way people would be more interested in women's sports, and they would gain popularity. Women need to be talked about more to gain popularity. The opposing side would argue that men should be paid more than women in sports. It has been stated in the article “Chasing Equity: The Triumphs, Challenges, and Opportunities in Sports for Girls and Women” that, “We have noticed in past studies that while a women’s sports story rarely if ever appears when the sport is out of season, stories on the men’s Big Three appear regularly, both when the sport is in-season and when it is out of season”(Staurowsky para 23).
Gender representation and in particular misrepresentation is a key issue within sport and media today as female coverage of sport is overlooked in all forms of mainstream media. This issue is what we, as a group of 3, had to tackle and present to our academic peers in a student led seminar session. The issue derives from the main theme of sport and media and their relationship but could also be said to have direct links to other themes such as sport and (in) equality. Gender representation comes under both media and equality in terms of broader topics because it is the concern of the media to help broadcast more female sport and raise awareness of the inequality which exists to the wide audience it has to target, this doesn’t happen enough currently. Research by Cooky et al. (2013) suggests that female sports coverage on ESPN sport takes up around 3% of coverage time which is a shocking disparity compared to men’s coverage on the same channel. It also found that 0 news stories on WNBA were published out of season across multiple news channels while the NBA had 72 stories. Studying this topic is particularly important to understand historically and culturally why this problem exists as well as to look at the negative ideologies which exist within sports media around the subject of gender representation.
Before I conducted this media analysis about women in sports and sport broadcasting, I hypothesized the obvious - that more male sports would be in the media, and that there would be more male sports broadcasters as well. Through my observations I did find that the sports arena and sports broadcasting sphere are male dominated. However, I also found that although there are not many stories about women, there has been a steady progression and magazines like Sports Illustrated are becoming bold enough to highlight women athletes in a magazine that is targeted towards a male audience. Although women still have a long way to go, they are making some headway into the male-dominated sports arena.
This article talked about the daunting unequal media coverage in sports of male sports teams in comparison to females.They researched the true differentiations of coverage between men and women sports. The actual percentage difference of coverage of male vs female sports discovered in their research truly is unfathomable. Men’s sports receive 96.3% of the airtime, women’s sports 1.6% and gender neutral topics were 2.1%. When you think back about twenty years ago and the coverage of media people tend to think that America is generally trending positively forward, however that is not the case for the coverage of women's athletics. It has actually gone down since then. Although on the scarce occasion that they are feature in the news, more often than not they are conveyed in the stereotypical way: as wives, girlfriends, or mothers. When media is highlighting these aspects instead of their talent, hard work or success it takes away from their image as an athlete and it demonstrating that it is acceptable to do so in society. However if male athlete achieved equal success and he was a father, that
Do sports announcers report the facts instead of their feelings or biases towards one team? Rarely does it seem, as you can hear the excitement in their voices when the team they may favor more scores or makes a good play or the sound of disappointment when a bad call is made. Sports fans are starting to see media bias for or against their teams everywhere. Isn’t the job of a reporter, however, to objectively report the news for the sake of the reader? In the case of sports journalism, I believe this is not true or necessary.
Sports fans usually acknowledge various sports through different mass media outlets. To develop our comprehension of social qualities inserted in sports and to investigate current values and power structures in regards to men and women, it is important to explore the potential impact that media may have in manipulating conventions about gender-appropriate sport conduct. One question that will be answered is, does mass media influence the beliefs about gender-appropriate sport behavior during the broadcast of various sports? To help answer this question three sets of participants are going to be involved. Ranging from 16 to 26 years of age, the sets will include individuals who have ample knowledge regarding various sports, individuals who have no-in-depth knowledge, and finally individuals who are active athletes throughout various levels like high school, college, and professional leagues. These individuals will view interviews, and coverage of different athletes, sports and events present in the Olympics. Following the exposure to the various segments, participants will complete a questionnaire and a survey regarding their experience during the viewing. With an international aspect and various races, cultures, and genders a change in both the representation of genders and the traditional expectations of genders would be present with a change in the
Sexism in sports journalism occasionally deals with the media or male athletes making rude and sexist remarks about a female reporters and athletes. According to the article Media Coverage of Women Athletes (1992), “The media reinforce this stereotype by portraying female athletes as over glamorized, over feminized, and too emotional to deal with success and failure on the playing field (pg. 74).” This quote talks about how the media portrays female athletes as too feminine and emotion to deal with success. This source was not the only source found that thinks sexism in sports journalism is a controversial topic. According to Ponterotto (2012), “The sports media often convey the idea that female attractiveness and sexual desirability are more important than athletic ability (p.15).”
With the rise of feminism, gender inequality has been quite the topic in todays time. With the wanting of equal rights and treatment it has been pointed out as per which all places males have the hegemonic overview and women are the oppressed; one of the areas where its unequal in gender is in sport. This paper will examine and break down the issues regarding sex and gender biases within sports in modern day media and how it can be resolved.
From the three network affiliates they studied, they found that 96.3 percent of the coverage was for men’s sports and women only received 1.6 percent (Messner and Cooky 4). When analyzing the coverage of Sports Center, which is arguably the most popular sports show on television, they found that women still only received just 1.4 percent of their coverage (4). This study also found that 100 percent of the Sports Center programs had a lead story that was about men’s sports (4). Even the most renowned and credible sports show, which only shows sports all year long, does not even provide women’s sports with equal attention. Even more shocking than this was that the study also revealed that reporters devoted more coverage to men’s sports that were out of season than they did women’s sports that were actually in season (4). This can be extremely disrespectful to female athletes when their sport is pushed aside and ignored so that a men’s sport that is not even being played can be covered by the media. These women put all their effort into performing their sport at the highest level, but their media attention gets replaced by men who are in their off-season.
talk about the subject making it a less than reliable source compared to the television. However, because of the advancement of technology news networks have also been able adapted to the newest forms and types of technologies in order to share news. One prime example would be the internet. Thanks to the internet news stations such as Fox News, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, and NBC are able to share news with viewers around the whole world making those tv station an even bigger source of information. But even though all these news sources may be talking about the same sources in reality they are incredibly different from each other when it come to a specific topic. News channels are either considered liberal meaning, “when one believes in a government's action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all.” While on the other hand, other news stations are considered to be conservatives