Women In Sports Media

Is it a level playing field between the sexes?

Screenshot from Ep.1 ‘After The Flag – Qatar 2015’ – MotoGP YouTube channel

“The war that has been raging in the media is not a simplistic war against women but a complex struggle between feminism and antifeminism that has reflected, reinforced, and exaggerated our culture’s ambivalence about women’s roles for over thirty-five years.” (Douglas, 2009)

Since the late 1960’s women have been fighting for equality between the sexes, fighting for equal rights in both the workplace and domestic environments. The fight for women’s liberation is one that throughout history and today still challenges and contests the stereotypes placed around women and their roles. When we look at women’s role in the media, we can see that its more common to for females to simply be presenting, rather than reporting, and in other words doing the ‘soft’ news rather than the ‘hard’ news.

In 2013, Wendy Bacon conducted an investigation into the underrepresentation of women as editors and reporters in the Australian media and developed the findings into a series of stories. Paying attention mainly to the research regarding women as presenters and reporters, the last article of the series, ‘Have We Achieved Gender Equality In The Media?’ states “…74 per cent of stories had a woman on screen as presenter, compared to 38 per cent that included a man.”, thus showing that there is a subtle gender bias in today’s media, the article also states that often in news media, a female presenter will be there to introduce, what is more often than not a male reporter.

‘Women in the Media’ centralises around news media in particular, and doesn’t necessarily delve into other areas of media such as sports media/journalism. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for your entire life, you would’ve seen a televised sports programme, whether that be an actual sports event or a sports variety programme. It’s obvious that sport seems to be a male dominated industry but is that only due to the lack of televised women’s sporting competitions? Pamela Creedon states in her book that “The women’s sports coverage that does exist can be categorised in three ways: less coverage than men’s sports, greater coverage devoted to “feminine” sports such as tennis and golf, and coverage of athletes according to sex-role stereotypes rather than sports roles (Boutilier & SanGiovanni).”

Multiple stereotypes surround both genders but female stereotypes seem to be more offensive for example “women belong in the kitchen”, the 1950s housewife mentality. Women in the 21st century have a world of opportunities in front of them, they choose the way they live and the fact that these stereotypes still exist is proof that people don’t value women’s roles. Although, in the recent years there has been an emergence in the role of women in sports journalism. Sports such as the Moto GP, have introduced Amy Dargan, a reporter for motogp.com and their online series “After The Flag” in which she conducts interviews with riders and goes behind the scenes of what goes on at the track. Other sports programmes also introduced women, Mel McLaughlin for the Cricket on Network Ten, Erin Molan for The Footy Show (NRL) on Channel 9, Riana Crehan for the V8 Supercars on Channel 7 and now, Jessica Yates for the V8 Supercars on FOX Sports (who in 2015 own the broadcast rights for the sport, no longer Channel 7).

Its a fair statement, that among the women being hired for these positions in sports media, majority are on the younger side of the age scale. An article by The Telegraph (UK), brings forward the on going argument on whether these women are hired because they are young and ‘attractive’ or because they possess the skills and knowledge required for the job. British Politician Tory Philip Davies had this to say “You are simply doing it for one reason only: to be able to come here and say we’ve managed to tick this box.” In a similar article by The Guardian, Davies was again, quoted saying “You have absolutely no idea whether it makes any difference to whether more women watch the programme, you’ve got no idea whether it increases the audience for sport more generally.”, this was his response to TV bosses at SKY and BBC when they were unable to bring forward any evidence to support their claims that the women were hired to aid in the increase of women watching and playing sport.

This idea of women being hired for their looks rather than their abilities is often portrayed in other areas of media, especially the film industry, for example Sigourney Weaver’s character Ellen Ripley in Alien, “Despite her considerable abilities to outwit the enemy and keep herself safe, Ripley is still made available for a voyeuristic gaze; she is still commodified as a sexual object.” (Byerly & Ross). Often, a female character can be portrayed as a strong and independent but when the character is analysed and their portrayal watched carefully, it is clear the subliminal idea behind the character is to create sexual appeal. In the retrospect of sports media, a large percentage of sports fans are men. Depending on the sport, there could be a larger percentage of female fans, but since the most televised sports are male dominated, it’s more likely to have a larger male following. In order to keep their ratings up network bosses have to think, what can they do to keep their current audience but also entice more to watch. This is where the women come in because whats more enticing than a young and attractive female talking sports stats?, and unfortunately to further degradation of women, it actually works.

Looking at The Footy Show’s, panelist Erin Molan, its obvious that her age and her looks factored into her hiring. The Footy Show is a sports variety programme for National Rugby League and up until 2012 was an all male panel. Molan started out with doing a small segment once a week but was made a permanent co-host in 2014. Her role on the show is what would be considered as presenting the ‘soft’ news, in comparison to what the male panelists report. More than anything else, she seems to be the conversation control, she guides the conversations and prompts stories, without actually reporting on any ‘hard’ NRL news. Using this example it proves that the stereotype of ‘women can’t do what men can’ is still evident in today’s society, it’s just a little more subtle.

References

Writer and Director N/A. The Footy Show (NRL). (1994-Present). Sports Variety Programme. [Television Series]. Gary Burns and Glenn Pallister (Producers). Sydney, Australia: Channel 9 Network.

Douglas, S.J. (1994). Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media. New York: Random House.

Bacon, W. (2013). Women In The Media. Investigations. Retrieved from http:// http://www.wendybacon.com/investigations/women-in-the-media/

Creedon, P.J. (1994). “Women, Media and Sport: Challenging Gender Values. (pp. 159-180). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Byerly, C. M., & Ross, K. (2006). Women in/as Entertainment. In Women and Media: A Critical Introduction. (pp. 17-37). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Agencies. (2013). Female Sports Presenters over 30 are overlooked. The Telegraph. UK. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/10491811/Female-sports- presenters-over-30-are-overlooked-says-MP.html

Press Association. (2013). BBC and Sky bosses insist female tv sports presenters are chosen on merit. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/ dec/04/bbc-sky-female-tv-sports-presenters

Images

Moto GP – After The Flag: Episode 1 – Qatar 2015 [Video File – Screenshot] (2015, April 1). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctaWzGAcmlA

V8 Supercars Commentary Team [Image] (2015, February 6). Retrieved from http:// http://www.v8supercars.com.au/news/championship/v8-supercars-commentary-team- revealed

The Footy Show (NRL) Panel [Image] (2015). Retrieved from http:// wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=286264

Cricket Commentators [Image] (2014). Retrieved from http://tenplay.com.au/sport/ cricket/photos/bbl-commentators#1