Media coverage and representation

Media coverage can have a direct effect on a sport's ability to attract commercial sponsorship. The lack of coverage can have significant impact on the sustainability of female athletes, sports, and competitions. ^{99, 100}

In Australia, and internationally, men are more likely to feature in the media (both playing and commentating). ^{97, 98}

Despite the often-argued chicken and egg relationship between the popularity of women's sport and broadcast and sponsorship engagement, research and evidence in Australia and international indicate that the public appetite for women's sport is strong. ^{17, 101, 102, 103, 104, 107}

• A 2022 media consumer survey found that 30% of Australians surveyed had a sport subscription; 51% are already engaged with women's sport; 37% would watch more if it were advertised more broadly; and, 47% of men, and 44% of women engage with women's sport regularly. ¹⁰³
• Preliminary findings from tracking print and online sport media coverage in Canada showed that 92.6% of content was solely related to men’s sport coverage, but 61% of girls (aged 13 to 18), 54% of women and 45% of men wanted more women’s sport content available on television and online platforms. ⁹⁷
• In 2023 more than half (53%) of UK adults under the age of 55 surveyed said that there wasn’t enough media coverage of women’s sport and 60% were in favour of sports coverage combining men’s and women’s sports. ¹⁰⁵
• In 2021 two-thirds of UK sports fans followed some form of women’s sport, and half had attended an event featuring women athletes. ¹⁰⁶

The significant interest in women's sport could, and should, drive increased investment and broadcasting opportunities, providing the resources to improve gender equity, pay equality, and the professionalisation of women’s sport. ^{17, 78, 104, 106, 108, 109}

Proportion of coverage

Consistent and comprehensive analysis of sport media is often difficult to find. However, research and evidence over the past thirty years in Australia and internationally has shown that during major sporting events media coverage of women’s sports increases, yet outside such events coverage remains relatively low, sometimes less than 10%. ^{18, 110, 111, 112, 113} While some countries, such as New Zealand, have seen improvements in gender balance in sports media coverage, there remains a long way to go before reaching parity. ^{110, 111, 114, 115}

• In 2021 the proportion of women’s sport in all sports news coverage in New Zealand had increased to 21%. However, in the top three sports (rugby, cricket, and football) that account for 60% of the total coverage, women’s competitions and athletes averaged only 11% of media coverage. ¹¹⁰
• In a 2021 survey of Australian media, 89% of sports stories included a male subject in comparison to 31% featuring a woman subject. ¹¹⁶
• A 2019 search of five major online UK news outlets on two separate dates identified 1095 articles on the sport homepages, of which only 11% (119 out of 1095) were related to women. While the majority (65%) of the women's sport articles were related to sport performance, 22% included content perceived to sexualise women. ¹¹⁷

In both coverage of major events and year-round news reporting the proportion of men speaking about sport (male or female) is also greater than the proportion of female spokespeople, and changes in this space are very slow.

• In a May 2021 survey of Australian news media, 84% of quotes in sports articles were from men, women were only quoted in 31% of the most prominent sport stories. Male journalists wrote 76% of front page or top homepage stories in sport and 87% of sport stories in total. In sport women wrote only 21% of opinion bylines. ¹¹⁶
• In 2021 New Zealand media items, the proportion of female sources had increased (14.5% in 2020 to 17.6% in 2021), but the rate of growth was much slower than for overall gender balance of coverage. Female reporter bylines were down in 2021, from 11.3% to 10.3% of all sports bylines. ¹¹⁰
• New Zealand based research in 2018 highlighted that female athletes were 20% more likely to be spoken for by their coach, nine times more likely to be pictured with a male spouse or partner, 67% less likely to be the lead story, and 39% more likely to be referred to as girls, especially by male journalists. ¹¹⁸
• At the 2016 Rio Olympic Summer Games and 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games, approximately 80% of accredited journalists and photographers were male. ¹¹⁹
• The International Sports Press Survey 2011 concluded that 90% of sports media articles were written by male journalists and more than 85% of the articles focused on sportsmen. ⁹⁸

Tone of media coverage

The focus and tone of media attention towards female athletes and sports is often quite different to that of male sport. ^{110, 111, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124}

• There is often a more pronounced focus on physical appearance, femininity, and/or sexuality rather than athletic abilities.
• More likely to discuss the personal lives of female athletes.
• More frequent use of infantilising language.
• Images accompanying stories are more likely to be ‘passive’ rather than ‘active’ (i.e., male athletes are more often depicted with ‘action shots’ from competition).

In 2016 experts at Cambridge University Press analysed millions of words relating to men and women and how they are described in language associated with the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The results highlighted the different style of language and images that media and fans used to discuss men and women in sport. Words associated with male athletes in the media were: mastermind, battle, fastest, strong, dominate, real, great, win, male, beat, big, man. Words associated with female athletes were: unmarried, married, ladies, older, participate, women, pregnant, aged, compete, strive, girls. ¹²⁵

Research also suggests that the way in which women’s sport is presented is often lower in quality and less accessible (e.g., production values, camera angles, language used – commentators and marketing, scheduling – both time of matches and free-to-air versus subscription services). ^{126, 127, 128} This is sometimes referred to as "gender-bland sexism”, where overt sexism is replaced with a silent sexism, in which women’s sport was portrayed as less exciting and therefore of lower quality. ^{127, 129, 130}

To address these issues several organisations including the International Olympic Committee, the international basketball federation (FIBA), and the Victorian Government’s Change our Game initiative have produced guidelines to help organisations to improve the gender balance and equity of their media products. ^{131, 132, 133}

Social media

With the advent and overwhelming popularity of social media—including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok—people and organisations in sport are increasingly engaging directly with fans. ^{134, 135} While this can have positive effects in raising the profile of individuals, athletes, teams, and competitions, it is another area where the difference between the treatment of male and female athletes, administrators, officials, and journalists are plainly seen. ^{136, 137}

• Analysis by World Athletics of social media messages sent to athletes during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games revealed that female athletes received 87% of all abuse. 63% of identified abuse was directed at just two athletes – both black and female – while the two most common categories of abuse were of a sexist (29%) and/or racist (26%) nature, accounting for 55% of all identified abuse. ¹³⁸
• Research in 2019 by Plan International found that sportswomen received three times as many negative comments on Facebook posts shared by major sports news broadcasters in Australia over a 12-month period as men (27% versus 9%) and that over a quarter of all comments towards sportswomen were negative, sexist, sexualised, or belittled women's sports. Although gender stereotypes (such as that men shouldn't display weakness or emotion) were apparent in 15% of negative comments towards male athletes, none were sexualised. For female athletes 14% of all negative comments were sexualised. ¹³⁹

In 2023 an Australian first study was launched by Deakin University, funded by the Victorian Department of Families, Fairness and Housing to investigate the prevalence of online harassment is in professional women’s sport, what the impact of this is and what needs to be done to make online communities a safer space for women and gender diverse people. ¹⁴⁰

Resources and reading