The role of newspapers in the formation of gendered national identity: Polish coverage of women’s and men’s basketball championships

Abstract

This study examines how newspapers in post-communist Poland nurture a gendered national identity through their disparate coverage of men’s and women’s European basketball championships. Agenda-setting, framing and social identity theories were used to analyse 502 articles published between 2009–2013. Results show that men’s tournaments received 3.5 times more coverage than women’s events; the gap further widened when Poland hosted the championships. Articles about men’s championships were also longer (314 words on average versus 161). The discourse surrounding women’s competitions was factual whereas the men’s national team’s performances were framed as challenges, matters of national pride, and involved combat and military terminology. Peculiarly, the most frequently mentioned member of the women’s team was its male coach. Findings indicate a significant departure from the communist-era promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment as a source of pride. National identity is nurtured through newspaper coverage of the men’s national team (when team colours and the first person plural are mentioned) but not of the women’s national team.

Windows of equity? Media review of Czech gender hegemony during the 2018 Winter Olympic Games

“…Similar to the sport gender media studies conducted in Slovenia and Poland (Jakubowska & Ličen, 2019;Ličen & Billings, 2013a, 2013b, and in contrast to the Czech Republic's historic resistance to feminist ideology (Oates-Indruchová, 2016), the communist era promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment is only upheld as a means of supporting national identity. While coverage of Czech women was significantly bolstered by their out-performance of Czech men, coverage of foreign athletes reflected hegemonic masculinity in granting foreign men 57.2% of coverage, while only allocating 29.4% to women.…”

“…Several authors have examined men and women's media coverage fairness in Eastern European countries, such as Slovenia (Brown et al, 2017;Ličen & Billings, 2013a, 2013b, and Poland (Jakubowska & Ličen, 2019). Building on these findings, the current study examines the influence of hegemonic masculinity in an Eastern European culture, portrayed through Czech online media coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.…”

“…However, the sport coverage these consumers and participants receive are laden with values that reinforce traditional notions of gender and national identity. Identified as one of the most visibility in sport prompts criticism of sport media's maintenance of sport's masculine social construction (Cooky et al, 2015;Jakubowska & Ličen, 2019;Kidd, 2013).…”

A war between football fans and the government from the perspective of Herbert Blumer’s collective behaviour theory

“…Przegląd Sportowy is also the oldest sport newspaper in Poland. 4 Jakubowska and Ličen (2019) indicate that Przegląd Sportowy is not considered to represent any particular political orientation, which was one of the main arguments for performing an analysis of this particular newspaper. The questionable objectivity of media broadcasts in Poland is a significant problem, as confirmed by the expressions mentioned in this paper such as 'the government media' or 'mainstream media' , which function in the Polish collective memory.…”

He’s ours, not yours! Reinterpreting national identity in a post-socialist context

“…This triangle of sport, national identity and media has been the subject of regular research in recent years (e.g. Billings et al, 2011; Griggs and Gibbons, 2014; Jakubowska and Ličen, 2019; Lee and Maguire, 2011; Vincent and Harris, 2014).…”