“I Can’t Stand Women’s Sports”: The Perception of Women’s Sports by Polish Sports Journalists

Abstract

This article analyzes the opinions of Polish male ( n = 18) and female ( n = 18) sports journalists on the representation of women’s sports in media coverage. The surveyed journalists represented journalists from national television stations, radio stations, and press and Internet media. Some of them were working simultaneously in various mass media outlets. In-depth interviews were conducted in various locations in Poland in 2018. An analysis of the journalists’ views from 36 semi-structured interviews indicated a general consensus among the surveyed sports journalists, both male and female, on the inferior status of women’s sports and women’s sports coverage, a negation of need to realign the inequitable coverage of women’s sports and the perception that sports are a neutral institution with respect to gender. The investigated female sports journalists presented more negative and straightforward views on women’s sports than their male colleagues. This article also indicates the minority status of female sports journalists in Poland and their process of socialization in the profession; it discusses the first male socializing agents that introduced and influenced the female journalists with respect to sports as factors that may be responsible for the journalists’ biased belief in the subordinate nature of women’s sports in general and their secondary position in sports media.

Social Media and the Olympics: A Chance for Improving Gender Equality

“…In previous studies, sports journalist were described as misogynist and reluctant to cover female athletes claiming they are not responsible for the improvement of gender equality (Knoppers and Elling, 2004 ; Organista et al, 2021 ). In other studies, journalists who claimed fair agenda were contradicted by the actual content analysis (Billings, 2009 ; Xu, 2019 ).…”

“…The main findings show that personal influence had a significant influence on the provided content. However, unlike the news media (Organista et al, 2021 ), the media personnel identified themselves with the Olympic values and commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment. Consequently, it resulted in fairer portrayal of female athletes.…”

“…To some extent, this has been caused by the patriarchal environment and hegemonic values in sports newsrooms (Hardin and Shain, 2005 ). Previous research revealed that journalists are influenced by their personal attitudes to female sport (Organista et al, 2021 ) and gender distribution of produced news is based on those attitudes (Billings, 2009 ). Furthermore, they justify women's underrepresentation by their masculine audience assumptions (Dashper, 2018 ).…”

Sport media and the cultural circulation of race/ethnicity: Moving from content analyses to production studies

“…At this point it is worthwhile to briefly shift the focus to production studies in sport media concentrating on gender. This is relevant as -in contrast to the relatively few production studies on race/ethnicity -there is a relatively larger number of production studies with a focus on social identities other than race/ethnicity in sport media such as (dis)ability (Howe, 2008), homosexuality (Kian et al, 2015), and above all, gender (see: Harden & Shain, 2005;Organista et al, 2019;Schoch, 2013). When surveying the literature on gender in sport media, it becomes clear that (overwhelmingly White and male) producers and journalists tend to rely on similar discursive strategies to explain stereotypical representations of female athletes, and the role sport media can play to challenge these representations, as those that have been noted in reference to race/ethnicity.…”

“…Previous studies into gender and sport media found that journalists often relied on discursive strategies that prioritized 'objectivity', 'neutrality' and 'audience interest' to explain gendered inequities in sports reporting (Gee & Leberman, 2011;Knoppers & Elling, 2004;Organista et al, 2019). Knoppers and Elling (2004: 69-70) explain how such invoking of terms as "objectivity" and "neutrality" by sports journalists "work to secure consent to the point where conflicts of interest are not apparent and their power is seen as legitimate" and "to conceal issues of gendered dynamics of power, by using an ideology of neutrality".…”