Gender Stereotyping in Televised Media Sport Coverage

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research,  Oct, 1999  by Nathalie Koivula

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The use of first and last names of athletes also differed to some extent for men and women, as displayed in Table VI. Both first and last names were used most often in combination for both men and women athletes. However, the use of first name was higher for women than for men. Men were referred to by their last name almost twice as often than women.

Qualitative analyses

A general found in the coverage of men and women athletes was related to their accomplishments, and gave the impression that the performance of women athletes was less important and less interesting than the performance of their male counterparts. For example, the coverage of the national championship of cross-country skiing contains a 1 minute, 28 seconds-long description of a tough and exciting race between several excellent male competitors, with visual and verbal coverage, including interviews with the athletes and verbal statistics on earlier wins. This was followed by a 7-second verbal notice with no visual coverage in which only the woman gold medalist of the 30-kilometer race was identified. The statistic provided was that this was the winner's fourth national gold medal. A similar example occurred in a World Cup race in orienteering, in which there was visual and verbal coverage of the three medalists in the men's race, each of whom were named. This was followed by a short verbal notice that there w as "a double Swedish victory for the ladies by NN and NN." The opposite, a verbal and visual coverage of women, followed by a short verbal note regarding men, was infrequent.

Some of the coverage of women's sports also appeared to have lower production values, including technical quality and less information. A 1-minute report from the national championship finals in ice hockey with women athletes involved footage using only one camera angle. The camera was positioned in such a way that a full view of the playing area was not possible. Further, the coverage showed only two of the three goals made in the game, and only two players of the winning team were identified. Visual statistics were not used and only minimal verbal statistics were provided.

Another approach for reporting sports events was to include women athletes as a way of extending the suspense of the men's competition. An example is the reporting from a World Cup orienteering competition (orienteering is a sport in which the goal is to find the fastest route across unknown country to different checkpoints, using a map and a compass). The first 94 seconds was produced and framed in such a way that the viewers were likely to feel they were privileged to be watching an exhilarating event of almost historic importance. Comments included, "This is the encountering everybody has been waiting for," "two world stars ... the World Cup number one and the World Champion," "a duel" and "only one minute and 25 seconds apart," together with portrayals of the two main competitors. This was followed by a 46-second segment on the women athletes in which it was described that the leader was 2 minutes ahead of the second runner, who failed and missed on an easy checkpoint, and that four other runners caught up with her and the lead athlete. The reporting of the men's event resumed with the words, "The clock is ticking in the men's race," and it continued for 83 seconds, adding drama to the event where the final result was uncertain until the very end.