Sports Media Coverage Research Articles

“I’ve never really thought about it”: the process of news construction and perception of underrepresentation of women’s sport media coverage by editors-in-chief in mainstream Polish media

In recent decades, a lot of work has been dedicated to gender bias in sports media coverage. However, there have been far fewer studies on gatekeeping processes in sports media. Using 11 in-depth interviews, this study analyses the information selection process to see if and how section processes influence sports media coverage on women’s sport in the Polish media. The study showed that for the participants the superiority of men’s sport was a given and editors did not feel obliged to promote women’s sport, despite being involved in the promotion of other disciplines or coverage in the media. Furthermore, the way of producing information in the Polish sports media depends on the personal beliefs of editors-in-chief. The ideology of the superiority of male sports adopted by the participants makes coverage on women’s sports biased, despite the journalists’ conviction about the objectivity of media coverage.

The Face of Mental Health: Kevin Love and Hegemonic Masculinity in the NBA

While public discussion about mental illness has become increasingly common in the United States, previous research has found that having a mental illness diagnosis is assumed to be incompatible with elite athletic success. As explored in hegemonic masculinity scholarship, to be successful, professional male athletes attempt to physically dominate opponents. In 2018, National Basketball Association (NBA) star Kevin Love disclosed having a panic attack during a game as well as living with depression and anxiety. While Love was not the only NBA player to publicly come forward to discuss their mental health experiences, Love is a successful White player in a league where 73.9% of players self-identify as Black or African American. His social location connects his public health discussion to existing scholarship on whiteness, hegemonic masculinity, and mental illness. Love was praised for his willingness to speak about his personal experiences and provide support for others. However, through a critical discourse analysis of sports media coverage of Love’s disclosure and subsequent mental health advocacy, this study reveals that his public discussion was constructed in terms of his identity as a White athlete and constrained by expectations of hegemonic masculinity.

Gender balance in ESPN and espnw content

With an increasing number of females participating in sports, coverage of women’s sport is still disappointingly unbalanced. The launch of espnW seemed like an excellent platform to expand coverage of women’s sports. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which the pattern of disproportionate coverage persisted when the content of top headlines/stories presented online by ESPN and espnW were compared. For five days in each of three weeks in April 2018, two pairs of researchers analyzed: (a) top headlines/stories, (b) buzz articles, and (c) photos located at or near the top of articles. A content analysis at the article and paragraph level was conducted based on codebooks developed to provide information related to (a) differences in the proportion of the content focused on female sports/athletes on each site, (b) the type of sports covered on each site, (c) the extent to which content was repeated from one day to the next, and (d) differences in the number and content of photos displayed on each site. Results indicated that differences in the proportion of content coverage of females were present: 23% of espnW article content focused on female athletes versus 31% of espnW article content focused on male athletes, and there was an even greater imbalance on ESPN where only 2% of the top headline articles focused on females. These results parallel previous studies’ findings of gender bias in sport media coverage.

Gamification of sports media coverage: an infotainment approach to Olympics and Football World Cups

Sports media coverage of mega-events is partly oriented to gamification, the use of game elements and game design techniques in non-gaming contexts. This infotainment approach to events has been developed by media outlets as an original and effective way to capture wider audience attention and to place events in context before a competition starts. This article examines 28 gamified sports pieces developed by media outlets from seven countries during the last two Olympics (2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang) and Football World Cups (2014 in Brazil and 2018 in Russia). This sample comprises two categories following Ferrer-Conill (2015): “gamified pieces” (game like elements that are part of a bigger interactive feature) and “newsgames” (more sophisticated pieces often included in complex graphics or multimedia content). The results show that, despite its entertaining formula, gamification serves mainly informational purposes and adds value to sports coverage. Especially in the Summer and Winter Olympics, gamified sports pieces tend to be explanatory and data-driven in order to inform the audience about nonmainstream sports.

Genre features of sports journalism

The scientific article describes the formation of the theory of industry journalism, which is currently one of the current problems – sports journalism. The purpose of the article is Describe the lack of a theoretical base and research on media coverage of physical culture and sports, the history of this process, which in particular is an urgent requirement of today. Summarize and describe the experience of sports journalism, highlight trends in the development of sports journalism. Consideration of physical culture and sports in sports journalism of Kazakhstan as the most important aspect of society culture. Definition of the role of sports journalism of Kazakhstan, as well as its place in the international information space, peculiarities of the manifestation of the main trends in sports journalism at the national level. The scientific novelty of the article is the setting of the question in the context of a comparative- historical and structural-functional analysis of the development of the information sphere, the informa- tion space in Kazakhstan, as well as the transformation of genres – determines the novelty of scientific research. The value of the study is the study of the genre palette in sports journalism, as well as the focus of online publications on the nature of materials. The main results and conclusions of the article are a description of the development of sports jour- nalism in Kazakhstan, which took place in direct dependence on the development of the material and technical base of sports in the country, the development of the sports movement, influence from the state and society. Provide sports information as a special phenomenon of sociocultural and informational ac- tivity. The typology of sports media is analyzed, the specifics of the work of a sports journalist in modern conditions are explained.

Journalism or Public Relations? Coverage of Sports Teams in High School Journalism Programs

Just as professional sports reporters are often embedded with teams, high school sports journalists have to go to class with the athletes they cover. However, high school reporters lack the expertise of professionals, leading to an examination about whether high school media coverage of sports is more like public relations or objective journalism. In a survey of high school media advisers, the scholastic sports coverage was found to be a trade-off between objective journalism and positive public relations produced by students— who, either way, gain valuable skills— for students.

Models of digitisation of organisational space in sport

This research presents the organisational model of digitisation of sport institutions as the element of development shifting towards digital models of sport business. Empirical research concerns: the level of saturation of information and communication technology (ICT) in sport institutions and media coverage of organizational space in sport as the element of media technology development. The research has been conducted in the theory of organisational space (Cieśliński, 2016, 2017) and has been financed with the use of two research-implementation grants and implementation one under the operational program Program Operacyjny Polska Cyfrowa (POPC).

Gamification of sports media coverage: an infotainment approach to Olympics and Football World Cups

Sports media coverage of mega-events is partly oriented to gamification, the use of game elements and game design techniques in non-gaming contexts. This infotainment approach to events has been developed by media outlets as an original and effective way to capture wider audience attention and to place events in context before a competition starts. This article examines 28 gamified sports pieces developed by media outlets from seven countries during the last two Olympics (2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang) and Football World Cups (2014 in Brazil and 2018 in Russia). This sample comprises two categories following Ferrer-Conill (2015): “gamified pieces” (game like elements that are part of a bigger interactive feature) and “newsgames” (more sophisticated pieces often included in complex graphics or multimedia content). The results show that, despite its entertaining formula, gamification serves mainly informational purposes and adds value to sports coverage. Especially in the Summer and Winter Olympics, gamified sports pieces tend to be explanatory and data-driven in order to inform the audience about nonmainstream sports.

A voz dos atletas

Atualmente é impossível pensar em um grande evento esportivo sem a presença dos meios de comunicação. Assim é fácil notarmos que “o que” a mídia cobre e “como” realiza essa cobertura, e trata os participantes em cada esporte, podem ser questões que criam barreiras. No entanto o objeto das coberturas midiáticas esportivas, raramente é ouvido por pesquisadores. Assim, esse estudo visa analisar como atletas paralímpicos brasileiros percebem, entendem e interpretam suas próprias representações nos meios de comunicação, e o que pensam sobre a cobertura midiática dos Jogos Paralímpicos. Em linhas gerais concluimos que alguns atletas preferem ser representados exclusivamente como atletas de alto nível, enquanto outros como exemplo de superação, no entanto, o tema mais forte apresentou-se como a indissociabilidade das características do ser em sua apresentação; os entrevistados querem que o esporte e a deficiência sejam representados como partes importantes que compõe sua identidade.

A COBERTURA MIDIÁTICA SOBRE O FUTSAL MASCULINO NO BRASIL: PERSPECTIVA DOS ATLETAS DA SELEÇÃO BRASILEIRA PRINCIPAL

O Brasil se destaca pelo número de praticantes e conquistas internacionais no futsal. Este esporte encontra-se em processo de consolidação da profissionalização de suas práticas no país. Consequentemente, a mídia torna-se fundamental para a atração de consumidores e investidores. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar a perspectiva de jogadores brasileiros de elite de futsal relativa à cobertura midiática sobre este esporte no Brasil. Foram realizadas entrevistas com 21 jogadores da seleção brasileira masculina principal de futsal. Após análise temática, as categorias analíticas foram discutidas com base na Teoria dos Campos de Pierre Bourdieu. Concluiu-se que, segundo os jogadores, o futsal ocupa um espaço desprestigiado na mídia esportiva, o que dificulta a atração de investimentos e desenvolvimento de carreiras. Os jogadores propõem ações ortodoxas que tentam se adaptar às normas do campo, de modo a alcançarem capitais econômicos e simbólicos que melhorem suas condições de trabalho e posição na estrutura social.

Framing the Paralympic Games: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Spanish Media Coverage of the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Paralympic Games

In recent years, there has been an increased emergence of studies focusing on the media coverage of the Paralympic Games. Until recently, studies have predominately used quantitative content analyses that, although providing useful interrogation of observational patterns, limit the understanding of and appreciation for the contexts that may have shaped the production of information. By focusing exclusively on the “what” and on the “how much,” it is difficult to reveal the “why” and to identify the underlying motives of any changes. This article recognizes the nuances of the editorial decision-making process by using a mixed-methods approach, employing quantitative and qualitative data drawn from a case study focusing on the Spanish media coverage of the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games. An initial content analysis of all news published in Spain’s 12 highest circulation newspapers during Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Paralympic Games was undertaken. Subsequently, 15 semistructured interviews were conducted with journalists that were also sent to these two iterations of the Paralympic Games by Spanish media. Drawing on conceptualisations of media framing, the results highlight that the numerical data alone shed insufficient light on the complexity of the news-making process. The semistructured interviews brought to light issues such as editorial management buoyed by commercial imperatives, and organisational interjection in journalists’ narratives and authorship, that also contoured coverage and content. In addition to further debate about the complexities of media coverage of Paralympic sport, the study underscores the utility of incorporating and combining qualitative methodologies within sport media and communication research.

On ESPN Deportes: Latinos, Sport Media, and the Cultural Politics of Visibilities

This article explores the ways Latinos—as audience, market, media—reshape the boundaries of sport media coverage. Its central focus examines the ways ESPN responds to the “browning of America” and its changing demographics. To this end, the essay examines the emergence and development of ESPN Deportes, and provides a textual analysis of “One Nación” (September 2015-August 2016), a podcast hosted by Max Bretos (Cuban American) and Marly Rivera (Puerto Rican). Offering a textual and content analysis, I suggest that One Nación provides a benchmark to assess the cultural politics of diversifying sport media content, coverage, and context. Moreover, I argue that One Nación, while unable to escape the dominant features of late racial/gendered capitalism, produces a counterhegemonic discursive practice capable of challenging mediated circulations of Latino Americans.

“The Legacy Element . . . It Just Felt More Woolly”: Exploring the Reasons for the Decline in People With Disabilities’ Sport Participation in England 5 Years After the London 2012 Paralympic Games

This article explores why sports participation of people with disabilities in England has declined since the London 2012 Paralympic Games (LPG). Thirty semistructured interviews were conducted with staff employed in a variety of sports and disability-specific organizations. Our preliminary findings suggest that the decline is a result of a complex interplay between multiple factors. A competency gap and a lack of relevance between Paralympians and the rest of the community of people with disabilities might have limited the impact of the legacy. In addition, an absence of coordinated leveraging of the LPG, and a decline in the media coverage of disability sport in the aftermath of the LPG, might also have dulled the legacy. Finally, our data show that austerity and negative media coverage of people with disabilities deterred some people from participating in sport.

Use of sports media to crack down on the 2011 Bahraini uprising

This study explores the relationship between sports media and politics in Bahrain when Bahrainis took to the streets in the 2011 uprising. It addresses two questions: how did the pro-regime sports media frame the uprising in Bahrain and what strategies were used by the Al-Khalifa regime to politicize the sports media? A quantitative and qualitative content analysis was conducted of the sports media coverage in two television sports programmes in the period between March and May 2011 when demonstrations spread across Bahrain, sports activities were suspended and martial law was introduced. This study concludes that the sports media was used as a propaganda tool by the Al-Khalifa regime in Bahrain to carry out repressive actions on behalf of the nation, to name and shame the protesters, and to preserve the status quo.

“We wouldn’t say it to their faces”: online harassment, women sports journalists, and feminism

In April 2016, a US-based independent sport media organization Just Not Sports launched #MoreThanMean, a digital media campaign to raise awareness about online harassment of women in sports journalism. The video quickly reached 3.7 million views and generated widespread coverage in mainstream news media, sports media, and online-only outlets. Using the #MoreThanMean campaign as a case study, this study assesses how discourses circulate in the sports media environment and, in particular, how feminist messages travel as the content moves from social media to mass media. This study engages with post-feminism in order to examine how various producers of media content position online harassment and sexism in sport and society. While the campaign positioned online harassment as gendered workplace discrimination, the mainstream and sports media coverage typically centralized men in the discussion. Feminist perspectives were constrained to platforms with a progressive, women-centered, and/or explicitly feminist take. Implications for digital feminist activism in the context of sport are discussed.

Cam Newton and Russell Westbrook's Symbolic Resistance to Whiteness in the NFL and NBA

Using critical rhetorical analysis (McKerrow, 1989) as a method of analysis and critique, and informed by critical whiteness studies (Nakayama & Krizek, 1995) and Black feminist thought (Collins, 1991), this project argues that NFL North Carolina Panthers' quarterback Cam Newton and NBA Oklahoma City Thunder's point guard Russell Westbrook rhetorically perform an alternative Black masculinity that symbolically contests whiteness's surveillance of male bodies who occupy Black positionality in the NFL and NBA via their performance of cool pose (Majors & Billson, 1992). Focusing on news and sports media coverage in the 2015–2016 season, this project also interrogates whiteness's strategies to reconstitute Newton and Westbrook's expressions of cool pose by inscribing Black masculinity with belittling and dehumanizing controlling images that favor whiteness and White masculinity. This manuscript closes with a discussion of the harmful repercussions of whiteness's strategies in pro sports as well as the possibilities that athletes like Newton and Westbrook bring forth for social justice initiatives.

Review of Football and Manliness: An Unauthorized Feminist Account of the NFL by Thomas P. Oates (University of Illinois Press)

In 'Football and Manliness,' Thomas B. Oates offers a prescient intersectional feminist analysis of the central symbolic place of the National Football League in U.S. culture and politics. In each chapter, Oates provides close readings of various popular media texts, which, despite remaining secondary to the spectacle of televised games, profoundly shape the ideological work the NFL performs in relation to dominant constructions of race, gender, sexuality, and class. These texts include fictionalized cinematic and televised melodramas depicting the internal dynamics of professional football teams; sports media coverage of the NFL draft; self-help books authored by noted NFL coaches; computer-based games, including fantasy league football and Madden NFL; and lastly, the investigative reportage that ignited the NFL concussion scandal. As Oates succinctly posits, these texts produce a complex but ultimately coherent set of stories about gender, race, and contemporary capitalism (20).

The gendering of media sport in the Nordic countries

International and Nordic studies indicate that women still receive less than 10% of routine newspaper coverage. Lack of gender diversity in sport media coverage seems therefore to be as persistent in the Nordic welfare states, ranked among the most gender equalized in the world, as in other countries. This article will firstly explore how gender diversity in Nordic sport media corresponds to the global picture. Secondly, it presents a study of Norwegian online newspapers, examining whether – and eventually in which ways – the gendering of online newspaper discourses differs substantially from discourses in traditional newspapers and, gendered differences between commercial and state-owned online newspapers. The methodology is based on Fairclough’s framework of critical discourse analyses. Bourdieu’s theory of male dominance and symbolic power in social fields are used as an analytic tool. The results indicate that online newspapers mostly reproduce the gendering found in former newspaper studies. Men’s football dominates the coverage and female athletes are still exposed as the ‘other’ gender through stereotyping and trivialization. Alternative discourses indicated, however, more fluid and less hierarchical gender constructions, which may trace future changes.

Media visibility and place reputation: does sport make a difference?

PurposeThe paper aims to contribute to the research field on the reputation effects of hosting sport entities. It asks if sport by boosting the visibility of places increases the attention of other domains of activity at the place, such as culture, politics and business.Design/methodology/approachBy using a full text database, the study compares media coverage across cities of similar size that host/do not host a premier professional football club. Qualitative screening is used to compare coverage of diverse domains related to the place.FindingsHosting a top football club largely magnifies the media coverage of a city. There is no indication that sport media coverage enhances media exposure of other attributes connected to the place.Research limitations/implicationsThe study does not measure the effects media coverage has on individuals. Further research should address this issue.Practical implicationsPlace branding through sport media coverage does not automatically exhibit other qualities of a place. If places intend to expose its diversity through sport, a deliberate “branding through sport campaign” must be considered.Originality/valueThe study is unique in relating media coverage of sport teams to visibility of other activities of a city. It is the first to measure how sport media coverage impacts on place exposure.

The Visibility of Female Athletes: A Comparison of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games Coverage in French, British, and Spanish Newspapers

The media coverage of sport events in relation to athletes’ sex has been extensively analyzed in the scientific literature. Apart from sports mega-events such as the Olympic Games, the findings of these studies seem consistent in that female participants are systematically underrepresented in sports media coverage. However, much of the research in this area relates to North America. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine sex equity in the coverage of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics by French, British and Spanish newspapers to provide new insights in this research field from a different cultural perspective. A content analysis was carried out and mixed results were found. French coverage shows significant discrimination of female athletes on most of the variables analyzed. Conversely, British coverage shows significant discrimination of male athletes on most of the variables studied. Finally, Spanish coverage is fair. These mixed results show the value of conducting such studies in geographical areas outside North America.