Television commentary on women's and men's Australian Rules football: A thematic analysis

Abstract

Commentators are reported to describe male and female players in different ways across a range of sports. The present study examines televised commentary on men's and women's games in the Australian Football League during the inaugural season of the women's professional competition. A two-phase thematic analysis was applied to television commentary on 10 men's and 10 women's Australian Rules football games. Semantic thematic analysis of the broad descriptive categories used by commentators for men's and women's matches indicated greater similarity than had been reported for televised commentary of other sports like tennis, in line with recent reports of progress towards greater gender equality in sports media reporting. Although technical descriptors were used slightly more frequently in describing men's play, there were no major differences in frequency for a number of other descriptive categories (mental, physical, personal or tactical) that have previously been observed as discriminating commentary on men's and women's sport. More in-depth, discursive thematic analysis did indicate some specific patterns of difference: terms, features and details used in commentary resulted in a greater focus on women's athletic weaknesses, and negative aspects of their skills and mentality. Identification of subtle linguistic features that minimise the athleticism and accomplishments of female players suggests that continued examination of media reporting on women's increasing involvement in traditional male sports can contribute important insights for promoting gender equality.

Still Battling for Equity: Examining Biological Sex Portrayals Through the Lens of the Gold Coast During Australian Prime Time Coverage of the 2018 Commonwealth Games

“…Many of these studies have analyzed the portrayal of biological sex (Billings et al, 2018; Xu et al, 2018; 2019). Historically, sport has been a male domain, in which the successes and feats of women are often downgraded, trivialized, and sexualized (LeCouteur & Yong, 2021; O’Halloran, 2018; Ponterotto, 2014); and women are frequently assigned an identity other than successful athlete in all media types - from print media, to broadcast media, and also on the internet (Greer et al, 2009; Harris & Clayton, 2002; Kian et al, 2015).…”