Gender, the Press & History

Abstract

The representation of gender in Australian sport media has come under increasing scrutiny during the last decade. This development has been due, in part, to the women's movement and the growth in feminist scholarship, as well as to policy initiatives aimed at improving the quality and quantity of female sports coverage. However, despite a range of social indicators which suggest that equal opportunity and the status for Australian women are improving, it is evident that both the media and sport have been slow to reflect prevailing social attitudes towards gender and its representation in the sports media. Using data from a longitudinal study of sports coverage in the Newcastle Herald, this paper examines the degree to which newspaper coverage of women in sport has changed in the last 100 years. Despite evidence of improvement, the findings support previous studies which suggest that women continue to be marginalised in the sporting press. These findings are discussed in the context of issues relating to the increasing commercialisation of sport and how it may lead to media practices which systematically exclude women from sports news.