1. Gender in Televised Sports
News and Highlights Shows,
Michael Messner, Cheryl Cooky

2. 5th wave of a longitudinal study
1989
1993
1999
2004
2009
Quantity and Quality of Airtime News and Highlights Shows

3. To Determine: Differences between Men’s and Women’s Sports
Longitudinal: Track Changes
Longitudinal can be applied to a variety of research projects
Imagine our survey project

4. Description of the Study
Analyzed three two-week segments (a total of 6 weeks) of televised coverage
ESPN’s Sports Center
What is ESPN, by the way
Analyzed ticker coverage

5. Three Two Wek Segments of Televised Coverage
Three local network Los Angeles stations
Coverage: How many minutes are female sports displayed
Coverage: How many minutes are male sports dsplayed
How often are women displayed
What ways are they displayed

6. ESPN Sports Center Thrre weeks of one hour 11pm SportsCenter
This is the big time sports coverage in the USA

7. Ticker
This rolling thing at the bottom of the screen that says small news bits
Used similar data tracking measures as above

8. Findings
Not Encouraging

9. Sports News: Coverage Declines
1989: Very low coverage
1999: Increase in coverage
: Decrease in coverage
1.6% of total airtime

10. Three Afiliates and Their Styles
Used to be a difference in the amount of coverage
One network used to show 8.9%
Now all networks share around %

11. ESPN SportsCenter SportsCenter: 1999: 2.2% 2004: 2.1% 2009: 1.4%
Page 440 in your textbook

12. The Ticker Affiliates: 4.6%, nearly triple their women’s coverage
SporcsCenter: 2.7
Also nearly double
Still a decline from before

13. Men Always Lead Lead stories tend to be longest
Highest production value
Most amount of money spent
100% of all lead stories feature men’s sports

14. Coverage Pg 441 Men’s Basketball, Football, Baseball Men’s Golf: 5.6%
71.7% of all coverage
Men’s Golf: 5.6%
Nineteen other men’s sports: 18%
Female basketball: 1.5%
Four other female sports
Golf, Tennis, Soccer, Softball
<1%

15. When in Season, Big Three are Given Coverage
Pg 441
Pg 442

16. Comparison of Men and Women’s Basketball
Because there are no big baseball leagues for women
No big football leagues for women
Only basketball

17. Comparison of Men and Women’s Basketball
NBA is where coverage happens
Pg 442, table 39.2
Women’s sports received scant coverage, even when in season
Significant ticker coverage when in season
Marginalized

18. March Madness A big month for basketball
News shows ignored entirely women’s college basketball
ESPN gave them “token” coverage
Again, coverage went to the ticker

19. March Madness So do they have no time to cover women’s sports?
Apparently not
Stupid coverage
Shaquille O’Neil vs a 93 year old woman
A giant burger with 5000 calories
When women are covered, it’s in sexy ways

20. Shifting Portrayals of Women
It used to be that women were more ridiculed
Women’s Bungee Jumping as a sport
Weightlifting Granny
That has been eliminated
There are rare moments of respectful game coverage

21. Shifting Portrayals Sexualized Gag Stories Unfolding bra story
24 seconds of coverage in a 2 week period with no other mention of women’s sports

22. Shifting Portrayals Fights, Scandals, Assaults
“Women’s sports …deemed newsworthy when the angle involved physical violence, rule breaking, or economic problems.”
Women as Girlfriends or Wives
Portrayed as athletes, yes, but emphasizes their relationship to men, usually male athletes

23. Shifting Portrayals Negative depictions of men
Sometimes men are sexualized also
Difference is “embeddedness”

24. Analysis and Interpretation of Findings
People used to see women’s sports as beginning to explode
People thought, now that more people are playing sports, and female sports are more popular, there will be more coverage
That has been proven incorrect
Again, 40% of female athletes nowadays, 1-2% of coverage

25. Why the Silence? There IS coverage It occurs on websites and elsewhere
But TV remain extreley important source of information

26. SO LONG AS TV COVERAGE DOES NOT COVER WOMEN’S SPORTS…
IT REINFORCES THE IDEA THAT SPORTS ARE NOT FOR WOMEN
SOCIAL PROBLEM?

27. Why? Must understand production of TV coverage
Producers + commentators + everyone else
They say, “we need to give what the market demands”

28. Tigher Budgets, Narrowed Focus?
New media:
Fewer money for traditional mass media
News sources are competing against new forms of information
Twitter, Facebook, etc
Newspapers “play it safe” and decide their staff should cover big time show teams
However, ESPN is the most highly rated cable channel
They do not have a problem with money
Their ignorance must be due to other factors

29. Pitching Sports and Highlights to Men
Assumption: Men are who are watching, and need their fix
Men think women are wive, mothers, or sexual objects
However, a large number of audiences are women

30. Packaging Women Athletes for Men
2009: Most obviously sexist portrayals have disappeared
Good, BUT this coincidences with a decrease in news coverage
They no longer really portray them at all

31. Women’s Sports History
Happened in March
Really respectful
However, placed inbetween regular SportsCenter and ESPN Commercial Breaks
“It’s something else, separate”
Narrated by a man

32. Effects If portrayed for men
Then what about lesbian or other unattractive female athletes

33. Commentators Very very few women commentators
Sometimes sideline reporter

34. Audience Building This isn’t simply response to demand
“Dynamic Reciprcal Relationship”
They give out certain coverage, fans demand more of same coverage
Men “need a fix”
And will oppose or marginalize female sports coverage
Ensure that there will be more coverage for men

35. How can Change Occur? This trend: 20 years No sign that it will change
Need outside pressure

36. Change in Mass Media More female sports commentators
Women won’t disrespect female athletes
Women commentators will also (probably) want more female sports coverage

37. Sports Organizatins
University departments could improve presentation of women’s sports
And resources to them
Sports fans could complain to producers
Give more demand

38. Conclusion
“Overall we find the results of this study to be discouraging. Clearly, change has happened, but not in the direction of increased coverage of women’s sports. In recent years, sports news and highlights shows have evidenced a retrenchment, expressed through a narrowed focus on a few commercially central men’s sports.”