1. “A Content Analysis Of News Coverage of Asian Female Olympic Athletes”
International Review for the Sociology of Sport (2009), Chia-Chen Yu
“A Content Analysis Of News Coverage of Asian Female Olympic Athletes”
By Chloe Evans, Bethan Smith, Heidi Smith and Molly Zoglowek

2. What the study set out to do
Gain understanding of how the media covers Asian female Olympic athletes
To see if sports writers emphasise feminine characteristics in news coverage when reporting Asian female Olympic athletes
They had three research questions
Why types of individual sports and priori topics are frequently included in the news articles about Asian female Olympic athletes?
Do sports writers cover more stories in gender-appropriate sports than gender-inappropriate sports even though athletes in gender-inappropriate sports receive more medals?
Are there any differences among the reporting about gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate sports when the subjects are Asian female Olympic athletes? Do sport writers emphasize feminine characteristics on certain sports?

3. What did it find out and how?
Methodology/Approach Content analysis is an appropriate data collection method for this study. The researcher first identified possible variables based on theory, rationales, and previous studies related to media coverage of athletes. The researcher selected 45 sample news articles to make sure universal variables were identified in addition to the ones developed from the literature review. They then developed a coding scheme that included a codebook and a coding form with 15 major categories of content areas. To determine the content validity of the coding form, the researcher reviewed 15 major categories and ensured that these categories matched the research questions and the variables about media coverage of athletes that had been identified in the literature review. The researcher then went on the use the coding system to analyse the news content from the sample news articles, in order to sort news topics into the appropriate categories. Findings Found that the coverage of Asian female Olympic athletes is generally positive, especially with regards to their psychological characteristics, physical/athletic strength, their achievement in sports and the meaning of their achievement to the athlete’s nation.

4. What different research can be done
> Compare to how the media portray female athletes in different countries > Look at how male Asian Olympics athletes are portrayed compared with how female Asian Olympics athletes are portrayed to see if there are any major gender differences in how they are portrayed