Assessing Gender Inequity in Local Athletic News Coverage

Roger Lacson; Edward Lacson

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14

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Assessing Gender Inequity in Local Athletic News Coverage

Roger Lacson, Edward Lacson

Published in International Journal of Sports Science and Physical Education (Volume 7, Issue 1)

Received: 7 January 2022 Accepted: 4 February 2022 Published: 16 February 2022

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Abstract

The amount of sports news coverage is generally less for women compared to men. This serves to promote sports as a predominantly male enterprise, hindering female athletics participation and marketing. In addition, it dissuades young women from participating in sports activities, which can lead to many negative mental and physical health outcomes. This study compared athletic news coverage of male and female athletes in a local suburban newspaper and assessed factors that may influence coverage. All articles published in the weekly Lexington Minuteman in 2017 were manually reviewed extracting the sex of the athletes, sport-related factors (e.g., sport played), and publication-related factors (e.g., front-page status). A one-proportion z-test was performed to compare the proportion of articles covering male and female athletes; chi-square and t-test were used to compare factors associated with articles that covered males and females. The study found that 70% of sports-related articles covered male athletes, significantly more than females (p<0.0001). Other factors did not differ significantly by sex, including criteria for accepting articles. Although publication-related factors were similar for articles covering males and females, underrepresentation of female athletes in local newspaper coverage suggests decreased stakeholders’ interest in submitting articles concerning female athletes. This may, in turn, impact female participation and interest in athletics. Improving sports consciousness needs to be addressed more widely by society to encourage female athletic participation in fitness and sports.

Published in	International Journal of Sports Science and Physical Education (Volume 7, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14
Page(s)	22-27
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

News Coverage, Local Newspaper, Local Sports, Female Athletes

References

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APA Style

Roger Lacson, Edward Lacson. (2022). Assessing Gender Inequity in Local Athletic News Coverage. International Journal of Sports Science and Physical Education, 7(1), 22-27. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14

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ACS Style

Roger Lacson; Edward Lacson. Assessing Gender Inequity in Local Athletic News Coverage. Int. J. Sports Sci. Phys. Educ. 2022, 7(1), 22-27. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14

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AMA Style

Roger Lacson, Edward Lacson. Assessing Gender Inequity in Local Athletic News Coverage. Int J Sports Sci Phys Educ. 2022;7(1):22-27. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14

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@article{10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14,
  author = {Roger Lacson and Edward Lacson},
  title = {Assessing Gender Inequity in Local Athletic News Coverage},
  journal = {International Journal of Sports Science and Physical Education},
  volume = {7},
  number = {1},
  pages = {22-27},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijsspe.20220701.14},
  abstract = {The amount of sports news coverage is generally less for women compared to men. This serves to promote sports as a predominantly male enterprise, hindering female athletics participation and marketing. In addition, it dissuades young women from participating in sports activities, which can lead to many negative mental and physical health outcomes. This study compared athletic news coverage of male and female athletes in a local suburban newspaper and assessed factors that may influence coverage. All articles published in the weekly Lexington Minuteman in 2017 were manually reviewed extracting the sex of the athletes, sport-related factors (e.g., sport played), and publication-related factors (e.g., front-page status). A one-proportion z-test was performed to compare the proportion of articles covering male and female athletes; chi-square and t-test were used to compare factors associated with articles that covered males and females. The study found that 70% of sports-related articles covered male athletes, significantly more than females (p<0.0001). Other factors did not differ significantly by sex, including criteria for accepting articles. Although publication-related factors were similar for articles covering males and females, underrepresentation of female athletes in local newspaper coverage suggests decreased stakeholders’ interest in submitting articles concerning female athletes. This may, in turn, impact female participation and interest in athletics. Improving sports consciousness needs to be addressed more widely by society to encourage female athletic participation in fitness and sports.},
 year = {2022}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Assessing Gender Inequity in Local Athletic News Coverage
AU  - Roger Lacson
AU  - Edward Lacson
Y1  - 2022/02/16
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14
T2  - International Journal of Sports Science and Physical Education
JF  - International Journal of Sports Science and Physical Education
JO  - International Journal of Sports Science and Physical Education
SP  - 22
EP  - 27
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-1611
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14
AB  - The amount of sports news coverage is generally less for women compared to men. This serves to promote sports as a predominantly male enterprise, hindering female athletics participation and marketing. In addition, it dissuades young women from participating in sports activities, which can lead to many negative mental and physical health outcomes. This study compared athletic news coverage of male and female athletes in a local suburban newspaper and assessed factors that may influence coverage. All articles published in the weekly Lexington Minuteman in 2017 were manually reviewed extracting the sex of the athletes, sport-related factors (e.g., sport played), and publication-related factors (e.g., front-page status). A one-proportion z-test was performed to compare the proportion of articles covering male and female athletes; chi-square and t-test were used to compare factors associated with articles that covered males and females. The study found that 70% of sports-related articles covered male athletes, significantly more than females (p<0.0001). Other factors did not differ significantly by sex, including criteria for accepting articles. Although publication-related factors were similar for articles covering males and females, underrepresentation of female athletes in local newspaper coverage suggests decreased stakeholders’ interest in submitting articles concerning female athletes. This may, in turn, impact female participation and interest in athletics. Improving sports consciousness needs to be addressed more widely by society to encourage female athletic participation in fitness and sports.
VL  - 7
IS  - 1
ER  -

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Author Information

Roger Lacson

Lexington High School, Lexington, USA
Edward Lacson

Lexington High School, Lexington, USA

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Roger Lacson, Edward Lacson. (2022). Assessing Gender Inequity in Local Athletic News Coverage. International Journal of Sports Science and Physical Education, 7(1), 22-27. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14

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ACS Style

Roger Lacson; Edward Lacson. Assessing Gender Inequity in Local Athletic News Coverage. Int. J. Sports Sci. Phys. Educ. 2022, 7(1), 22-27. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Roger Lacson, Edward Lacson. Assessing Gender Inequity in Local Athletic News Coverage. Int J Sports Sci Phys Educ. 2022;7(1):22-27. doi: 10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14,
  author = {Roger Lacson and Edward Lacson},
  title = {Assessing Gender Inequity in Local Athletic News Coverage},
  journal = {International Journal of Sports Science and Physical Education},
  volume = {7},
  number = {1},
  pages = {22-27},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijsspe.20220701.14},
  abstract = {The amount of sports news coverage is generally less for women compared to men. This serves to promote sports as a predominantly male enterprise, hindering female athletics participation and marketing. In addition, it dissuades young women from participating in sports activities, which can lead to many negative mental and physical health outcomes. This study compared athletic news coverage of male and female athletes in a local suburban newspaper and assessed factors that may influence coverage. All articles published in the weekly Lexington Minuteman in 2017 were manually reviewed extracting the sex of the athletes, sport-related factors (e.g., sport played), and publication-related factors (e.g., front-page status). A one-proportion z-test was performed to compare the proportion of articles covering male and female athletes; chi-square and t-test were used to compare factors associated with articles that covered males and females. The study found that 70% of sports-related articles covered male athletes, significantly more than females (p<0.0001). Other factors did not differ significantly by sex, including criteria for accepting articles. Although publication-related factors were similar for articles covering males and females, underrepresentation of female athletes in local newspaper coverage suggests decreased stakeholders’ interest in submitting articles concerning female athletes. This may, in turn, impact female participation and interest in athletics. Improving sports consciousness needs to be addressed more widely by society to encourage female athletic participation in fitness and sports.},
 year = {2022}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Assessing Gender Inequity in Local Athletic News Coverage
AU  - Roger Lacson
AU  - Edward Lacson
Y1  - 2022/02/16
PY  - 2022
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14
T2  - International Journal of Sports Science and Physical Education
JF  - International Journal of Sports Science and Physical Education
JO  - International Journal of Sports Science and Physical Education
SP  - 22
EP  - 27
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-1611
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsspe.20220701.14
AB  - The amount of sports news coverage is generally less for women compared to men. This serves to promote sports as a predominantly male enterprise, hindering female athletics participation and marketing. In addition, it dissuades young women from participating in sports activities, which can lead to many negative mental and physical health outcomes. This study compared athletic news coverage of male and female athletes in a local suburban newspaper and assessed factors that may influence coverage. All articles published in the weekly Lexington Minuteman in 2017 were manually reviewed extracting the sex of the athletes, sport-related factors (e.g., sport played), and publication-related factors (e.g., front-page status). A one-proportion z-test was performed to compare the proportion of articles covering male and female athletes; chi-square and t-test were used to compare factors associated with articles that covered males and females. The study found that 70% of sports-related articles covered male athletes, significantly more than females (p<0.0001). Other factors did not differ significantly by sex, including criteria for accepting articles. Although publication-related factors were similar for articles covering males and females, underrepresentation of female athletes in local newspaper coverage suggests decreased stakeholders’ interest in submitting articles concerning female athletes. This may, in turn, impact female participation and interest in athletics. Improving sports consciousness needs to be addressed more widely by society to encourage female athletic participation in fitness and sports.
VL  - 7
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download