Analysis of Reporting on Male and Female Athletes in Serbian Media During the Olympic Games in London 2012

Abstract

The main goal of this paper was to find out more about how and to what extent the local media reported on sporting events at the 2012 London Olympics and to determine the difference in reporting on male and female athletes in the local media. The subject of the research are newspaper articles about sports in electronic news editions, which influence the formation of the media image about athletes, and which can contribute to the affirmation or marginalization of women in sports. In this research for collecting data and information about athletes at the Olympic Games, three media sources were used: RTS, KURIR and POLITIKA. The data have been collected since the opening of the Olympic Games until their official closing ceremony and every day was thoroughly processed in all three media sources. The information included information on the gender of the author of the text, the number of photos in the text, the number of words in the text, the gender of the actors who are on the photos, the level of exposure of the actor's bodies in the photos, the emotions in the photos, the angle of the camera, individual and group display of athletes, active or passive on-site and out-of-court conditions. Generally speaking, the findings of this research in the media space of Serbia show that there is still an imbalance in the way men and women athletes are represented, and that in this respect, there is a need for certain changes in this issue.