What League? The Representation of Female Athletes in Australian Television Sports Coverage

Abstract

This article explores why women's sport in Australia still struggles to attract sponsorship and mainstream media coverage despite evidence of high levels of participation and on-field successes. Data are drawn from the largest study of Australian print and television coverage of female athletes undertaken to date in Australia, as well as from a case study examining television coverage of the success of the Matildas, the Australian women's national football team, in winning the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Asian Cup in 2010. This win was not only the highest ever accolade for any Australian national football team (male or female), but also guaranteed the Matildas a place in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany [where they reached the quarter-finals]. Given the close association between success on the field, sponsorship and television exposure, this article focuses specifically on television reporting. We present evidence of the starkly disproportionate amounts of coverage across this section of the news media, and explore the circular link between media coverage, sponsorship and the profile of women's sport.

Deuce or advantage? Examining gender bias in online coverage of professional tennis

“…As far as media coverage is concerned, female athletes are almost always rendered invisible in both print and televised media (Godoy-Pressland and Griggs, 2014; Pedersen, 2002). As pointed out by Caple et al (2011), while male athletes receive more year-round attention, even during off-seasons, the reporting of female athletes is event-driven and confined to a brief mention of match results to a large extent. Some researchers even found that the coverage devoted to female athletes not only failed to reflect women’s increasing participation in sports, but had actually decreased (Cooky et al, 2013; Weber and Carini, 2013).…”

Access, agenda building and information subsidies: Media relations in professional sport

“…The sport media agenda has been found to consistently favour male professional sport (Caple et al, 2011; Cooky et al, 2015; Fink, 2014), to offer little diversity across publications, and to focus simply on previewing, presenting and reviewing games (English, 2014; Rowe, 2007). Research on sport newswork suggests that this is because of the particular “demand conditions” of sport journalism work (Marr et al, 1999).…”

The Gendered World of Sports Reporting in the Australian Print Media

“…Consequently, the reporting of sport provides a 'lens for understanding dominant narratives about masculinity and femininity, sexuality and race among others' (Capel et al 2011). The secondary status of women's sport in the media, therefore, sends a not-so-subtle message to society that women's sport is less important than men's sport and unworthy of much attention (Toohey 1997;Menzies 1989).…”