The Media And Its Portrayal Of Athletes

Our society is so preoccupied with how people look that it has seeped into every aspect of our culture. Someone’s height, weight, and gender, in our culture seems to dictate what people think of them. Specifically in the sporting world, a person’s physical attributes play a major

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.

In today’s world, men’s sports seem to always be in the spotlight while women’s sports do not draw much attention, as if women who play sports are not taken seriously. This happens on all levels of sports, and I have personally experienced it myself through basketball in high school. While the gym would be full for any of the boys’ games, our games had very little support with almost empty bleachers. When it comes to the professional level, when women’s sports do get covered by the media, most people judge female athletes more on their looks rather than their athletic skill, which is negative and unfair.

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.

For the past years the media have 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 cover 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 about 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 lowers morals which affects the player’s motivation and skill.

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.

It is without a doubt a prestigious certainty that in the present time, media has changed sports. Be that as it may, there was no TV, PCs and the same number of distributed papers before the 1950s as today. Back in those days, sports news was given less enthusiasm to than writing, magazines, silver screen, and so on. Indeed, even now, aside from normally regular TV and radio, there exists a wide assortment of media itself, similar to the web, PC amusements, digests, and so on.

Has the Media’s Portrayal of Women Negatively Affected the Body Image of The Wykeham Collegiate Senior School Girls?

Athletes in today’s society receive far too much attention from various media outlets. They are constantly under the spotlight, and are often judged, about everything they say and do. Although today’s media is quite intrusive and can twist the facts of a story, but often these athletes aid in receiving all this media attention. Since many, if not all, of the athletes have social media accounts, when they make a post or statement, it will be deeply discussed as to what the post meant, who the other people in the picture are, what they are wearing, etc.

This study examines how the gender and race of athletes influence the writing of sports reporters and their evaluations of those athletes. This academic research explains how the genders and races of the reporters also play a role in the ways they talk about athletes. Reporting varies depending on if the athletes are of similar or different races and genders as the reporters. This study is useful to my own because it examines the importance of the background of the reporter and not just the athlete.

Banduras social learning theory speaks to what we learn from others via observation, imitation, or modeling. His theory encompasses our thought process and influences. Some being news media, athletes, and models.

Mass media is a powerful medium that shapes and reflects the beliefs, attitudes, and values of society. Through mass media, we are able to expand our knowledge and understanding of social concepts embodied in sports. Duncan(1992) conducted a study of female presentation in sports which examined male and female athletes presentation. She saw that there was a notable difference in the way commentators referred to men an women athletes. Women were referred to as “girls” or “women” and were also at times identified by their first name. Men on the other hand were never called “boys” but were referred to as “men”, “young-men”, or “young fellas” (Duncan, 1992). The descriptions of of male and female athletes also differed. Commentators often described men using words that communicated strength using words such as “big”, “strong” and “aggressive while using terms that indicated weakness to describe women such as “fatigued”, “panicked” and “vulnerable” (Duncan, 1992). When describing plays by men, commentators used language that indicated power to create imagery. For instance “explode” vs. “go to” and “misfire” vs. “miss”. Women were far more likely to be characterized as failures in comparison to men (Duncan, 1992).