Storyline: A reader responds to Frank Fear’s article on media coverage of women’s sports. Written by by Jinyoung Lim, student, Department of International Sports Leisure, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Republic of Korea.
No doubt there’s discrimination against women in sport.
Courtesy: Purdue.edu
I asked my cousin to play soccer the other day and her response was: “Isn’t that a boys sport?” I was absolutely speechless and disappointed. After teaching my little cousin there are no barriers in sport, I did some research of my own about the media coverage of women sport.
It has been quite a while since sport tried to eliminate sexual discrimination in sport. 40 years ago in the U.S. a law called “Title IX” was introduced in education. Since then, women’s sport has grown fairly rapidly, not only in U.S., but all over the world. While the participation rate has grown, and is still growing, there’s still a lot of discrimination in women sport media coverage.
Courtesy: change.org
According to The Women’s Media Center, for the period 1999 to 2013 over 60% of all media coverage was about men’s sports and only about 35% was on women’s sports. Nyad, Cooky, Hextrum, and Messener did research on the portion of women’s sport in media. In the U.S. for a period of 20 years men’s sports dominated sports media coverage (about 96%), including games, news, highlights, etc. Only 1.6% of sport media coverage was about women’s sport. And it’s declining.
Yes, it’s decreasing. In 1999 the rate was 2.2% and that was the last time women’s sport coverage was over 2%. That outrageous rate is not limited in TV. Only 3.5% of all sport coverage in newspapers is on women’s sport.
However, there are some positive aspects in media coverage of women’s sport: the Olympics. At 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics NBC’s broadcasts covered 47.5% on men’s sport and 37.6% on women’s sport. And the 2012 London Summer Olympics was the first time ever that women’s sport coverage was greater than it was for men’s sport coverage.
The positive amount of women’s sport coverage in the Olympics may seem like a huge improvement, but the increased coverage rate in the Olympics was only temporary. After the 2012 London Olympics, media coverage went back to it’s normal rate.
Courtesy: tptmn.org
Many people think the lack of women’s sport media coverage is due to the lack of popularity of women’s sport. However, it is more of a Chicken and Egg matter. We are not sure whether women’s sports are less popular due to limited media coverage or women’s sport media coverage is low because women’s sports are less popular than men’s sports.
The former interpretation may have more validity, at least according to a poll in England. According to the poll, 64% answered that they are interested in women’s sport and 69% of those responding were men. And 65% of the respondents said that they watch and follow at least one women’s sport. The survey also included a question on whether people think media should cover more women’s sports. The answer was “yes.” At least in England, it seems like a lot of people are interested in women’s sport and lot of them are men.
However, one thing does come in to mind: it’s the difference in physicality between women and men. Many people view women’s sport as slow and with less contact. Fast and physical sports are important to many people, and it’s what they like when watching sports.
Courtesy: debate.org
More coverage of women’s sports might lead to financial consolidation of women’s sport: due to producing more sport stars it can lead to inflating the overall income in women’s sport. That kind of improvement will eventually have an effect on the development of the whole sports industry.
Covering more women’s sport would not only produce positive effects on sport, but also on the media itself. By covering more women’s sports. the media will be able to better satisfy consumer needs.
The media should be more resolute on investing on covering women’s sport. It will be to the media’s financial and social advantage.
