Women’s and Men’s Prominence in Sports Coverage and Changes in Large-, Medium-, and Small-City Newspapers, Pre- and Post-Title IX

Abstract

Through the lens of agenda-setting theory, this article investigates whether women’s sports coverage in mainstream newspapers increased after the passage of Title IX, consistent with the expectation that greater equality in athletics and the requirement that schools provide equality in publicity would lead to greater volume and prominence in coverage. Researchers conducted a quantitative content analysis of randomly selected front pages of sports sections from large-, medium-, and small-city newspapers for 10-year intervals in the period 1932–2012 (40 years before and after Title IX’s 1972 passage). Numbers of articles and photos and the square area devoted to them in each year were calculated. The researchers found traditional patterns of story placement and inequality persisted in large-city newspapers over the 80-year span, but small-city and medium-city newspaper coverage changed in favor of women’s sports. Thus, this article explores the thesis that proximity to women’s sports correlates to greater equality of coverage and the advancement of women’s sports. This article provides a springboard for future investigation into a larger question of the role local media play in advancing social change and social movements and suggests local media might be more effective, even if unintentionally, than big media.