When studies are done with results comparing men's verse women's sports coverage I always develop a scenario in my head in which women's sports would be close to even with men's sports concerning both television and print media. It's hard to find that perfect situation when an even number of college basketball games are being televised for both men and women. College sports is the only place where females will get an even amount of media coverage and the sports would go down to women's basketball and softball. So, what event if any will have such an effect on the media where there will be more regular season women's game on TV? Will a network like ESPN ever spend an equal amount of highlights on women's sports as they do men?
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Media Coverage
When it comes to media coverage of sporting events, men's games are the dominate focus on all major networks year around. Women's collegiate sports are covered on television way more than any of the women's professional sports which only included the WNBA for the most part. In the article by Kian (2008), it examined media coverage for a few of the larger newspapers and online sports publications. The study focused on men's and women's college basketball and the results were very one-sided. "More than three-quarters (76.4%) of the articles focused on men’s basketball, whereas 23% pertained to women’s basketball. A total of three articles, or less than 1% of the overall population of articles, focused on both men and women. A little more than half (51%) of the articles were published in the two newspapers, whereas 49% were posted on the two Internet sites" (p.227), this shows that a very high percentage is focused more on men's college basketball than women's but this shouldn't come to any surprise for people.
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I believe there is a reason that there is more men athletics shown than women athletics. To be honest, I find it more enjoyable to watch men sports. In a sport such as basketball that is played by both genders, basketball is more enjoyable to watch when it is men playing. They play much more physically, and it is more even matched. For example, Brittney Griner is bigger than every other female in college basketball. That is not normally the case in men's basketball. While there are athletes that are bigger than others at their positions, the smaller one is never dwarfed over like girls are to Griner. Even just the dunks are more enjoyable to watch in a men's basketball game. Yes it is nice to see a woman dunk, but men her size can throw it down twice as hard.
ReplyDeleteTyler Schaefer
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DeleteI would like to address the point of trying to make a professional career as an athlete for women. At a young age many boys want to grow up and play in the NBA or NFL but when asking little girls it is not the same story. The problem may sit in the aspect that professional women athlete do not get paid as much as men do and therefore is not a practical dream or career. An online article by Donna Lopiano reveals the problem in women’s sports. “Television carriage is also a critical ingredient for the success of professional women's sports and competitive professional sport salaries and purses. If women's pro sports cannot tap into big advertising dollars, athlete salaries and purses will continue to be depressed and the financial success of women's pro leagues and tours will be more difficult to achieve” (Lopiano 2008). The problem may be bigger than what people may think it is. Simply put the more coverage women get the more money they receive and its just one step closer to equality between men and women’s sports.
ReplyDeleteBy: Nathan Latta
Lopiano, D. (n.d.). Media Coverage of Women's Sports is Important. Retrieved from Sports Management. 2008.
Resources: http://www.sportsmanagementresources.com/library/media-coverage-womens-sports
I think there will always be some type of problem between the differences in how men and women are perceived in the sport media and in competition. It's difficult to point out the real reason women are lacked in the media coverage in sports but I can think of one logical reason, money. Money is the reason for all changes in sport whether that be the realignment of conferences to make conferences larger so more money can be spread around or how the television networks gain rights for millions and millions of dollars to broadcast sporting events for that conference or team. My point is that people want to make money and for now men make a substantial amount of money for networks than women.
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