In February, the third annual Status of Women in the U.S. Media report came out which showed women being vast underrepresented in media making up around 40.3% (only 36.3% for 2013 in newsrooms) of the workforce being women. When they tallied up how many women were staffed at both television and print journalism organizations who were hired as sports journalist, the number falls drastically to a mere 14.6% (Women’s Media Center).
These numbers are troubling, because although they are most likely more than there were 20 years ago, the percentage is lower than 15%. And even so if it is growing, instead of counting women sports journalist by craft, they are measured in the “sexiness,” or “hotness,” which I as a women, only know how annoying it is when I’m doing better than my male counterparts and am only getting credit because of my looks or body shape. This begs me to ask the question, why are there so few women in sports journalism? It can’t be that all these women don’t like sports, look at Robin Roberts, Erin Andrews and Pam Oliver who are all flourishing in as women in sportscasting. But unfortunately, these women are still the exception rather than the norm. I believe that although it’s improving, discrimination is still present within the sports journalism culture against women. I believe that discrimination comes in forms of discouragement, only being allowed to cover women sports and double standards. I believe that the discrimination is both put into place by not only the actual newsroom, but also the audience. I believe it’s hard for men and even some women to accept a woman as someone who is knowledgeable and correct about a lifestyle that was once only ruled by men.
Females covering sports is no ...
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...ccept a woman as someone who is knowledgeable and correct about a lifestyle that was once only ruled by men
Works Cited
"The Women's Media Center: The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2014." Women's Media Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Hardin, Marie, and Stacie Shain. "Feeling Much Smaller Than You Know You Are": The Fragmented Professional Identity Of Female Sports Journalists." Critical Studies In Media Communication 23.4 (2006): 322-338. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Miloch, Kimberly, et al. "The Current State Of Women Print Journalists: An Analysis Of The Status And Careers Of Females In Newspapers Sports Departments." Public Organization Review 5.3 (2005): 219-232. Business Source Complete. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Ricchiardi, Sherry. "Offensive Interference ." American Journalism Review. N.p., Dec.-Jan. 2005. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
In conclusion, black reporters’ role in journalism and the way they were treated by whites changed as they helped the Civil Rights Movement progress. The dearth of African Americans in reporting reminds us of job inequalities today in other workplaces, and of injustice toward women seeking employment and equal pay. The issue of equal rights in journalism also raises the question: Why does our society still have a lower percentage of black people in journalism compared to the whole population? Ultimately, we must agree that people should not be judged by their racial background and that the inequalities of racism can cause differing perspectives to be lost. The evidence strongly suggests that black journalists advanced the Civil Rights Movement through their news reporting and magnanimous determination to overcome discrimination.
Miss Representation is a documentary based on women in the media and how the media has affected women today. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” This quote is from Alice Walker, a female, who realized that they e...
Frankl, Daniel. "Gender Bias in Sports: Separate and Not Equal"" Sports Media's Digest, Jan. 2005..
My research focused on the coverage of Asian Americans in contemporary mass media. The following types of media were researched:
In 1970 only 1 in 27 girls participated in high school sports, today that ratio is 1 in 3. Sports are a very important part of the American society. Within sports, heroes are made, goals are set and dreams are lived. The media makes all these things possible by creating publicity for the rising stars of today. Within society today, the media has downplayed the role of the woman within sports.
Douglas, Susan J. Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media. New York: Random House Publishing, 1994, 278.
One Generation Later, by Huffman, S. Tuggle., C & Rosengard, D.S, explores the relevant discrepancies in media coverage. The authors assert that more boys than girls indulge in sports activities in school. Studies have examined the impact of Title IX on media coverage given to female athletes as opposed to male athletes to determine if there has been a shift away from negative social stereotypes that are traditionally associated with women’s sports participation toward a more socially accepting view of the female athlete.
Goodman, Mark. "Chapter 8: The Media Contribution to Racism and Sexism." Mass Media and Society. Mississippi State University, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
In "Where the girls are: Growing Up Female With the Mass Media," Susan Douglas analyses the effects of mass media on women of the nineteen fifties, and more importantly on the teenage girls of the baby boom era. Douglas explains why women have been torn in conflicting directions and are still struggling today to identify themselves and their roles. Douglas recounts and dissects the ambiguous messages imprinted on the feminine psyche via the media. Douglas maintains that feminism is a direct result of the realization that mass media is a deliberate and calculated aggression against women. While the media seemingly begins to acknowledge the power of women, it purposely sets out to redefine women and the qualities by which they should define themselves. The contradictory messages received by women leave women not only in a love/hate relationship with the media, but also in a love/hate relationship with themselves.
Women’s participation in sport is at an all-time high and has almost become equal to men’s, however. Sports media does not fail to show this equality and skews the way we look at these athletes. Through the disciplines of sociology and gender studies, it can be seen that despite the many gains of women in sports since the enactment of Title IX, “traditional” notions of masculinity and femininity still dominate media coverage of males and females in sports, which is observed in Olympic programming and sports news broadcasts. Sociology is a growing discipline and is an important factor in the understanding of different parts of society. Sociology is “a social science that studies human societies, their interactions, and the processes that preserve and change them” (Faris and Form P1).
Female athlete coverage in the media is a complication due to far less coverage than male athletes receive. Statistics show that females already receive less than ten percent of coverage, although this is much more than they received just a short time ago. Shauna Kavanagh said in an article that when she was younger, female sports were never on TV. “All of my sporting heroes were males,” she said. Although strides have been made for female athlete’s, there is still a long ways to go. Kavanagh secondly went on to express that she feels the press does not cover woman athletics imperfectly; they simply don’t publicize them enough. People are still much more interested in ma...
Media plays a large role in affecting peoples thinking, opinions, ideas, etc. In essence media can shape our thinking into negative views and perspectives that are typically not true. Sometimes the media plays as a puppet master to society. Specifically, the inequity of the gender roles within sports causes for a stir in commotion that calls for some attention. In doing so the inadequate misuse of media towards women in sports causes low exposure, amongst many other things. On the other hand their male counterparts are on the other end of the success spectrum. Because of this noticeable difference, it is vital that action is taken place to level out equality within sports. Due to the power of media, it is believed that a change in media coverage
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however what is considered beautiful by some is not considered as beauty when discussing diversity within the media. Society is based on criticism of judging one’s characters body, shape and or race/ethnics background. In the media the society only sees one type that is only focused on perfection to the mind; however within the United States, it is very typical in that the media lacks ethnic representation, cultural identity and gender inequalities. There are no ethnic representation when it comes to the media world and that the media has been trained to believe that the ethnic groups are not valuable. African Americans and Hispanics writers are the minority group when it comes to a social group. According to journalist Prince and Television critic Deggans “CNN , let go one of its most high-profile anchor of color, Soledad O’Brien, replaced her with a white man, Chris Cuomo. Wolf Blitzer gave up one of his hours to another white man, Tapper. Though Zucker met with both National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalist to try and address their concerns, there has been no overt sign from CNN that it is bringing on any more anchors of color, ”(Mirkinson p.1).
Currently there is a long-standing debate dealing with the effects of media. Some believe that the media is just something to indulge or watch and that it has no significant affect on people while others say that has a powerful pull on society as a whole. Research indicates that bias in media articles leads to minorities and women being portrayed in a stereotypical or harsh manner (Hazell and Clarke 3). This leads to African Americans being seen as individuals fit for “lower status occupations,” (Hazel and Clark 7). Black men were also seen as hostile, intimidating figures mainly working as athletes or musicians while women were portrayed as domineering, overly expressive people (Hazel and Clark 9).
Even though progress was made in the appreciation of women’s sport and the crowds women’s sports brought In which mean a rise in ticket sells for women’s sport, but the media coverage is still treating women sports as if we were still in the