Gender Biases in Sport Media

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Gender Biases in Sport Media
Introduction
In today’s society, it is nearly impossible to imagine our lives without the media. Television, radio, social media, and other types of media are a big influence on our lives and we all use them on a daily basis. They give us our news, provide us with entertainment, and we base a lot of our views and beliefs off of what we see and hear in the media. The media have plenty of positive aspects; however, with the major influence they have on individuals, the media can have many downsides. One of these downsides would be the media’s ability to create negative perceptions for the viewers. An example of this problem with the media is the coverage of men’s and women’s sports. Both professional and college sports are all over the media. They show up in television, magazines, advertisements, and many other places. Although it is good that sports get this great amount of attention, the problem with the sport media is that women’s sports do not receive equivalent coverage that men’s sports do. Sport media focuses almost completely on men’s sports and women’s sports do not get the equal attention that they deserve, and even when female athletes are covered in the media, they are almost always feminized and gender marked. Sport media holds numerous gender biases against women’s sports and this creates negative perceptions of them in our society. Female athletes need to receive the equal treatment from the media that they deserve.
Television Coverage
Since the enactment of Title IX in 1972, women have shown great improvement in their involvement in sports. More women are participating in sports than ever before and the numbers continue to rise. Although women’s sports have become increasingly popular an...

... middle of paper ...

...ky, Cheryl. “Gender in Televised Sports: News and Highlights Shows 1989-2009.” Center
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Messner, Michael; Duncan, Margaret, Carlisle; Cooky, Cheryl. “Silence, Sports Bras, and Wrestling Porn: Women in Televised Sports News and Highlights Shows.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues 27.1 (2003): 38-51. Sociological Abstracts. Web. 17 Feb 2014.
Messner, Michael; Duncan, Margaret; Jensen, Kerry. “Separating the Men from the Girls: The Gendered Language of Televised Sports.” Gender and Society 7.1 (1993): 121-137. JSTOR. Web. 12 Feb 2014.
Riggles, Kile. “Gender Biases in Sport Media.” www.surveymonkey.com. Web. 27 Mar 2014.
Theberge, Nancy; Cronk, Alan. “Work Routines in Newspaper Sports Departments and the Coverage of Women's Sports.” Sociology of Sport Journal 3.3 (1986): 195-203 Sociological Abstracts. Web. 7 Apr 2014.

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