Research
The promotion of women in sport has been identified by the Australian Government as a key focus area for the future development of sport in Australia. The Australian Sports Commission is working towards achieving greater recognition of women’s sport and female athletes in the media, and improving leadership opportunities. The Australian Sports Commission undertakes research to support this work.
In 2008/09 the Australian Sports Commission engaged the Journalism and Media Research Centre at the University of NSW and Media Monitors Pty Ltd to undertake research that would provide a broad and rich picture of how much coverage there is of women’s sport and female athletes in radio, television and print media relative to the coverage of male sport, male athletes and mixed sport. The research also focused on how women’s sport and female athletes are portrayed: whether female athletes are routinely stereotyped, sexualised or trivialised in the media, and how they are depicted relative to male athletes.
The completed research report, Towards a Level Playing Field: sport and gender in Australian media is available below.
In 2008/09 the Australian Sports Commission engaged the Journalism and Media Research Centre at the University of NSW and Media Monitors Pty Ltd to undertake research that would provide a broad and rich picture of how much coverage there is of women’s sport and female athletes in radio, television and print media relative to the coverage of male sport, male athletes and mixed sport. The research also focused on how women’s sport and female athletes are portrayed: whether female athletes are routinely stereotyped, sexualised or trivialised in the media, and how they are depicted relative to male athletes.
The completed research report, Towards a Level Playing Field: sport and gender in Australian media is available below.
Related downloads
- Towards a Level Playing Field (
PDF - 4.7 MB)
