Gender Bias In Sports

Brendan Blankfield

Lit and Comp

2/19/16

Fraser 4/5A

Intro

Lately, there has been meaningful strides made in bridging the gap in equality in gender, sexuality, acceptance of others, but one of the biggest gaps remaining is gender bias in the media, which is magnified in coverage of men’s and women’s sports. In a day and age where all people are supposed to be treated equally, no matter what their age, race, sexuality, gender, etc. is, women, especially in sports, are not treated the same as men. Any person with common sense would agree that men and women should be treated equally. By that measure, the media is nothing short of oppressive, bias, suppressive, greedy, and outright sexist! We need to get rid of this idea that women aren’t as good

In the “Handbook of Sports and Media” published in 2006, Dr. Bryant Jennings has analyzed from from previous studies that during men’s contests, the camera angles and the editing of visuals, were technically sophisticated, stylish, and had high production values. The broadcasters of the games were amongst the most experienced and well respected in the sports industry. The sound quality was crisp, clear, and understandable. This is a stark contrast to the quality of coverage given to women’s

Graphics that appeared on screen were very rare, and many of them were not visually appealing and some were even incorrect, and didn’t pertain to the event being broadcasted. Statistics of female were mentioned less than half as much compared to their male counterparts. There is a clear difference in the quality of broadcasting of men’s and women’s games. It as if men’s sports received coverage by the professionals, and the women’s sports coverage was done by the interns. Yes, companies may focus on putting more effort into covering one game than another, but the media has consistently undervalued importance and minimized effort put into women’s games, especially when contrasted to how they cover men’s events. To add salt in the wound, the issues don’t end with quality control, they extend to event promotions. Television networks also neglect the importance of female sporting event broadcasts by promoting other events on the network later that day, or that week. This suggests to the audience “if this WNBA isn’t entertaining enough, don’t worry, our primetime NBA game we have in 3 days will change that.” If you think about it, when was the last time you ever