Conversations with Women Sports Journalists

An Examination of Women’s Sports Coverage on the Twitter Accounts of Local Television Sports Broadcasters

“…With career advancement more likely for both male and female broadcasters who cover the higher profile male sports, it is understandable that both genders would wish to report more frequently on more popular men's sports. Negotiating between their fragmented identities has resulted in a scenario in which female sports broadcasters have seemingly both their social identity and the women's sports that they have identified as a hindrance to their career (Cramer, 1994;Hardin & Shain, 2005b), and instead focused on their professional identity. This adds to the literature on females in sports broadcasting, as perhaps the difficulties in obtaining (and keeping) a job in the male-dominated field have left female sports broadcasters with little choice but to conform to the previous norms.…”

“…Despite these opportunities that women have on social media to increase women's sports coverage, further examination reveals that they may not have a desire to help with coverage. In 1992, interviews with female sports journalists revealed that covering women's sports was seen as a hindrance to their career, as it allowed little room for advancement due to the low profile of the events covered (Cramer, 1994). One journalist went as far as to say, ''If you want to succeed in sportswriting, you don't want to cover women's sports'' (Cramer, 1994, p. 169).…”

“…While these broadcasters may want to help increase the amount of women's sports coverage, the beat hierarchy and lack of career advancement possibilities within a newsroom may make this possibility difficult. Covering women's sports is seen as a less important assignment (Cramer, 1994;Hardin & Shain, 2005b;Kian, 2007), and thus female sportscasters may see reporting on women's sports as a detriment to their career.…”

Promoting women’s soccer through social media: how the US federation used Twitter for the 2011 World Cup

“…22 Women's sports coverage The amount of women's sports coverage is 'at best sporadic and at worst nonexistent' in traditional mass media. 23 First, in print, Boutilier and SanGiovanni,24 and Lumpkin and Williams, 25 who both looked at Sports Illustrated, 'the most widely read sports magazine in the United States ', 26 found that the magazine rarely included coverage of women's sports. It could be argued that Sports Illustrated targets a male audience, which would explain these findings.…”

“I Don’t Feel Like I’m up against aWallof Men”: Negotiating Difference, Identity and the Glass Ceiling in Sports Information

“…Sports communication environments also normalize sporting spaces as those where male authority is automatically presumed. For example, female sports journalists have reported feeling pigeonholed into covering women's sports and are routinely excluded from covering high profile men's sports such as football or men's basketball (Cramer, 1994;Miloch, Pedersen, Smucker, & Whisenant, 2005). A similar process happens in athletic departments where female sports information directors routinely work with what Suggs (2005) calls lower-tier sports, including women's teams.…”