Sports Media And Its Impact On Society

Gender classification is a predominant topic within today’s sports and is most broadly understood through the portrayals of sports media. Through overt and covert ways, sports media has continued to promote a masculine representation of sports (Millington & Wilson, 2010; Messener, Duncan, & Jensen, 1993). By understanding the way in which sports media portrays sports, one can recognize how masculinity has dominated the world of sports. With the aid of two unique studies of sports media, this paper will critique the way in which media has effected the gendered depiction of sports.

While participation of women in sports has increased, the media representation of women in sports remains problematic. Even the most talented elite female athletes like Michelle Kwan and Monica Seles are portrayed in a sexual fashion, as a way of deemphasizing their athleticism and neutralizing any possible threat they might seem to pose to male viewers. Very few male athletes are portrayed in such an objectified manner; they are portrayed as competitors first and foremost, not as personalities. Also, the media coverage of athletes is disproportionately focused on male athletes. The coverage of female athletes tends to stress individualized female sports where women can be sexualized like tennis and figure skating, versus competitive team sports like basketball and soccer.

For the past years the media has had a big effect on society. Many people rely on the media for news or sports coverage but they don’t realize that the media may influence people’s beliefs or way of behaving. The media covers sports in order to provide information to the fans but they also can create fake news to spark controversy in sports. The world of sports is largely affected by the media as they are a big topic to talk about throughout all kinds of media. Although the media can provide information of sports to fans, it can also create positive and negative conditions for the athletes. The media’s portrayal of sports creates rivalries between teams and players which increases competitiveness, damages professional relationships, and

THESIS: The media must take significant strides towards reforming the way they portray sports to change the current system of altering the ideals of athletes and diminishing the prestige of modern sports.

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

Within sport, as throughout society, gender differences exist. The socially constructed phenomenon of gender dictates a dichotomous system whereby females are feminine and males are masculine. Focusing on females specifically, society determines the feminine traits and roles ascribed to this gender. Being domesticated, slender, passive and heterosexual are a part of the desirable appearance that society has formed surrounding femininity (Wolf, 1991). On the other side of the dichotomy is the masculine realm that sport plays into. Sport is fuelled by muscle, power and aggressiveness, which are behaviours and images associated to masculinity. Sport therefore, defies all existing female gender ideals. It would be assumed that females have no place within this institution due to the gender clash. However, female athletes do exist, and many are very successful. For this to work, sport has established and reinforced the social constructions of gender that exist in society. Female athletes are viewed as inferior and are pushed into gender appropriate sports. Furthermore, they are often labeled as masculine until they can prove otherwise, and so great attempts are made to reassert femininity. The stigma associated to being masculine or homosexual for female athletes is so great that many have become irrationally fearful of this label. The sexualisation of the female body and overt displays of heterosexuality are used in

Current society is built upon stereotypes and constructions that are predetermined by previous generations’ views. One of the most recognised historical constructions is the patriarchal theory, that the female is subservient to the male. However, this construction of gender power is slowly equalising, with the rise of feminist groups in the latter part of the 20th century giving reason for this occurring. Nevertheless, gender battles are still occurring, particularly in the sporting industry, which remains male dominated. Female sport has been given much notoriety over their uproar in the past decade, but is finding in a male controlled industry it is difficult for women to receive help from governing bodies. Female sport is

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.

Touching upon different media theories such as the social identity theory, the feminism theory and the communication accommodation theory, allows for a methodical means of comprehending the occurrences, behaviors and positions explained in past research, in particular the difficulties that women working in the sports media industry face (Baiocchi-Wagner & Behm-Morawitz, 2010; Turner & West, 2010; Baxter & Braithewaite, 2008; Desmarais & Bruce, 2010). Looking at and trying to understand the perceived credibility of women sports journalists by audiences and colleagues, is important in determining whether or not there is a strong enough bias against them that would contribute to their presence in the field (Ordman and Zillman, 1994; O’Keefe, 2002;

The purpose of this article is to share the findings of a study done on gender boundaries in sports media, relating specifically to two broadcasters. The article has a pretty good premise, however; the study was only done on 2 people from one network and there really wasn’t any statistical data to reference. The researcher basically identified the differences between the male and female researchers and how they present themselves on social media. The woman discussed more personal matters like fashion and non-sports related celebrities, while the male focused mainly on sports-related commentary and analysis. Their observation hinted that her presence in Sports media may have been tainted due to backlash from the audiences. This conclusion was

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.

One way in which female sport is ‘negated’ is the way in which females are sometimes referred to by the media as “girls” no matter their age and are also constantly described in terms of their physical appearance and the way in which their emotions and their emotional responses are highlighted more than in male sports. One other way in which the media influence gender participation in sport is by the use of images of athletes which could be seen as a form of propaganda. As the ‘Learn’ handout states, “Dominant masculine images are highly compatible with sport”7. The majority of images in the sports sections of papers are of males, partly because the papers occasionally turn a blind eye to female achievement or simply put it in a small box in the corner of a page but also because they believe seeing more images of male athletes in papers is what the public want. Subsequently, females across the nation have fewer role models to look up to from the female world meaning they will be less motivated to actively participate in a sport because they have very few or even no idols to look up to.

As we are in the 21-century, sport appears to be everywhere. Across the world a million TV, broadcast, news about all the sport events such as the 2000 SYDNEY GAMES, the OLYMPIC GAMES, the WORLD CUP. We are constantly investigated by media in the form of advertisements, newspaper, online news which telling us what is going on around the world. Media has strongly affected on society’s perception. All among the information and misleading information portrayed by the media, there is an imbalance gender between male and female are present in the FIFA WORLD CUP 2015. The issue of imbalance gender between male and female in media report is very important because it shows the unequal between men and women. This following essay will analayse the positive and negative of this issue and also discuss why imbalance between female and male in media report has grown into an issue.

This study reveals much about the attitudes that persist in society today regarding sport and gender. Early on, sport was created to serve men, evolving as a celebration of maleness, valuing strength, power, and competition. It idealized, promoted, and rewarded successful, elite athletes, established “the dream” as a professional career in sports, and viewed mass participation in sport as a tool to weed out the weak (Hill, 1993). In contrast, women’s sports originated to “address the expressed need for healthful exercise” (Huckaby, 1994). Unlike the competitive warrior mode

In today’s society, it is nearly impossible to imagine our lives without the media. Television, radio, social media, and other types of media are a big influence on our lives and we all use them on a daily basis. They give us our news, provide us with entertainment, and we base a lot of our views and beliefs off of what we see and hear in the media. The media have plenty of positive aspects; however, with the major influence they have on individuals, the media can have many downsides. One of these downsides would be the media’s ability to create negative perceptions for the viewers. An example of this problem with the media is the coverage of men’s and women’s sports. Both professional and college