Women in sports and media coverage
Women in sports and media coverage
Renowned tennis player Billie Jean King said “Women get the attention when we get into the men's arena, and that's sad.” This has been the case of women in sports.
The sports industry is referred to as one the of most passionate industries where athletes try to give their best to impress and a grab the attention. The sports industry has come to be a major business which includes athletes, teams, clubs, leagues and federations sports agencies, sponsors, investors, and broadcasters. But the undeniable fact is that like every other industry, it is male dominant industry.
This phenomenon is highlighted in an informative documentary by The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota called “Media Coverage and Female Athletes” . The documentary highlights the paucity of coverage given to sports concerning female athletes and the gender discrimination faced by women in sports. According to Tucker Center for Research, while women make for 40 percent of all athletes, they receive only about four percent of media coverage. The eye-opening documentary highlights the amount and type of media coverage given to female athletes as compared to their male counterparts. It speaks about the need for adequate coverage of female participation in sports who put equal amount of time and energy.
The documentary, that has received an Emmy Award, shows that while women athletes work as hard as their male counterparts to excel at sports, they do not receive the due respect and credit for their work and are underrepresented. For example, the title holders of women's Frozen Four, the NCAA women’s Ice Hockey Championship, did not receive any media attention on three occasions. This was primarily because television networks did not want to invest “thousands of dollars” to broadcast the championship match. It is not one only women’s hockey that is being ignored but also the amount of effort and passion been dedicated by the female athletes. In the documentary, Meg Stephenson, who served as the head coach at U of MN Women’s Gymnastics, said that even though the female athletes participating in Olympics received great admiration and support from athlete enthusiasts who were “thrilled” with their accomplishments, the media ignored their contribution to sports.
Mary Jo Kane, Director of Tucker Center, U of MN said that no one is interested in women sports. On the lack of attention received by female athletes, Associate Professor Cheryl Cooky of Purdue University, points out that the amount of coverage on female athletics has “actually declined on female sports” and that media has failed to sustain the attention and interest of viewers on women sports. “Men’s sports are going to seem more exciting,” she says. “They have higher production values, higher-quality coverage, and higher-quality commentary. When you watch women’s sports, and there are fewer camera angles, fewer cuts to shot, fewer instant replays, yeah, it’s going to seem to be a slower game, and it’s going to seem to be less exciting.”
Cooky’s research included taking a tally of stories on local channels and others such as ESPN, a leader in sports media. As a result, she learned that there has been a gradual decline in the coverage of women sports even though these sports have seen great development.
Media representatives have blamed the limited space in newspapers and limited amount of airtime in television, finite amount of resources in terms of reporters and budget among others for the discrimination of coverage.
According to The Nation, around 44 years after the passage of Title IX of the Education, a federal civil rights law prohibiting discrimination on basis of gender in any education program or activity, women and girls in the United States are playing and following sports in “unprecedented numbers”. “The evolution of women’s sports over the last four decades has been dramatic; the media coverage, not so much,” The Nation said.
However, the media cannot be entirely blamed for disparity in their treatment of women and men in sports. According to media articles and various theorists, the root cause of such inequality is the norms of gender roles laid out by society which largely defines sports as a male activity. Women participating in such “male activities” are subject to scrutiny of the society on their sexual orientation.
Cooky stated that during her research on media coverage of female athletics, she came across a notion that mainstream sports media outlets are essentially ‘mediated man-caves’. “It’s a space where men can go and know it’s going to be by, for, and about men,” she said.
She further highlighted that even the four percent coverage that female athletes receive is largely focused on their lifestyle and not their achievements. Additionally, female athletes are highly objectified in media even though there is an amazing journey behind any athlete which needs an exposure but not in objectifying way.
Apart from Tucker Center, other journalists have also highlighted the discrimination of women in sports by media. According to Edward Kian, who served as chairman of Sports Media in the Los Angeles Newspaper group, also shared professor Cooky’s view. He highlighted that the two themes prevalent in media coverage of female athletics. One being that sports media provides minimal coverage of women athletes and sports. The second is that female athletes are described as sex objects in comparison to the coverage given to their male counterparts.
In his research report ‘The Impact of Media on Gender Inequality within Sport’, Eoin J Trolan states that while society creates a divide by portraying sports to be a male activity, media further creates produces and sustains such concepts of masculinity through “underrepresentation, trivialization, and sexualization of women athletes.”
The notion is also well explained in the chapter ‘Stereotyping by Horner’ which speaks about the fictional and non-fictional representation of women as sex objects, defined by a dominant male view of what constitutes sexual attractiveness. This has been a leading reason for women being underrepresented in various industries such as business, politics among others, irrespective of their offering or position of power. In the film industry, some women have voiced the disparity in treatment of men and women in various roles such as film directors, producers script writers and so on. Usually, women in these occupations are perceived as inferior to men. While it is not widely discussed, it is projected that women are less worthy of media attention than men. This is highlighted in the way in which excessive and at times undue attention is paid to some ‘male sports’. In addition, some forms of stereotyping include reinforcement of negative notions. For example, older women may become socially invisible in a way that men do not.
It is not just the sports industry which ignores the female efforts, according to the chapter of “Stereotyping by Horner”. This discrimination on the ground of physical appearance is also frequently linked to age. There have been a number of high profile cases in which news presenters, on reaching middle age have lost their jobs or have been sidelined in one way or another. The sponsored report by New York film academy and authored by Dr. Martha M. Lauzen of the Center for the Study of Women in Television, Film and New Media surveyed 500 films produced between 2007 and 2012. The academy found that the only a one-third of speaking parts were filled by women and about 10% of films were equally balanced in terms of role.
Another issue is in the rewards handed out to women athletes as opposed to their male counterparts. Female players make a fraction of what their male counterparts are making. They are not receiving their due rights including a good pay for their contribution towards sports. A recent article by BBC News highlighted that in the ranking of 100 highest-paid athletes, there was only one woman- renowned tennis champion Serena Williams. The report further states that while the US women's football team received $2 million as reward for their win in the 2015 World Cup as opposed to their male counterparts who were handed $35 million a year earlier. While this disparity has reduced over the years, global sports business is far from becoming a “level playing field for both genders”.
In the end, media is a mirror to the society. While they are tasked with the responsibilities of reporting realities that highlight the issues deep-rooted in the society, they are a business that need to report profits for their survival. The society largely governs the choices made by media. A society that is liberal in its approach to women in sports is one of the key essentials for an improvement in the treatment women receive in media.
The media may not be solely responsible for the poor representation of women in sports, but they have not worked towards changing the preset notions in the society. While the world speaks of equality of sexes in across industries, the media has not actively tried to be an agent of change. The media needs to actively become a voice for those individuals trying to change the perceptions in promoting sports. The change in perspective that women are not the weaker of the two sexes but are an equal and can succeed in sports like their male counterparts is essential.
A change in the ratio of men and women among sports journalists is also one way of tackling these issues. Further these journalists as well as media houses need to be held more responsible for equal representation of female sporting events. As the coverage improve, the popularity of these sports will also improve causing a change in mindset of the society. As a result, a shift in treatment of female athletes and the approach to such sports would also change.
References-
horner's chapter stereotyping
https://www.thenation.com/article/why-dont-people-watch-womens-sports/ (“Why Don’t People Watch Women’s Sports” by Amanda Ottaway- published in The Nation on July 20, 2016)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-41685042 (“100 Women: Is the gender pay gap in sport really closing?” by Valeria Perasso – published on BBC News Service on October 23, 2017)
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