Men Versus Women Sports Coverage and Popularity - Case Study Example

Men versus women sports coverage and popularity Men verses women sports coverage in the recent past has been gaining roots all over the world. This is because various games have resolved to consider gender based equality where both sexes are allowed to take part in the games. Various studies indicate a more likely situation where the coverage on men’s Olympic events will increase as opposed to the women in sports due the minimal clothing status experienced in the women Olympics. The Vancouver Olympics for example men received almost whole day prime-time coverage. This was about 13hours higher in comparison to the women’s coverage. Men in most cases tend to perform extremely well in various games. This boosts the reporter’s morale towards covering most of men’s games. In the summer Olympics in 2008 as well as the preceding years, there emerged improved air time coverage with both men and women almost getting equal air time coverage. About 46.3% of airtime coverage went to women in this year, a decrease from the previous year 2004 when the coverage was 47.9%. Nevertheless, coverage of women sports events improved heavily towards the socially acceptable sports for women. The socially accepted sports are always attractive as these sports involve minimal clothing hence women can be easily displayed as physically attractive. These kind of sports, even though are highly ranked in the media coverage among the women are not morally acceptable in the media fraternity. This research paper explains the impact of media coverage in comparison to men and women sports coverage and popularity. Women who normally take part in sports that involve either power or hard body contact are more often unlikely to receive media coverage. This is due to the stereotypical assumptions involved with these kinds of feminine events thus there is reduced women sports coverage. The women’s court volleyball competition received an absolutely no coverage in the year 2004 despite the American’s team captivating the silver medal. This was almost equally divided between the both the men and women volleyball sports coverage in this year. The emphasis of the women sports coverage exhibited a high emphasis on the women’s attractiveness and gendered qualities that may be provided for a much more efficient male-centric coverage. The 2010 Olympics aptly inclined towards men coverage thus rendering it biased. Most of the winter sports by their nature generally provide women with fewer opportunities to capture various sports. The make-up of the spectators whom NBC normally targets to please provides a more complex narrative than mere pandering to male sports fans for the summer Olympics in 2008. Women spectators over 18years of age in the recent Olympic Games have lost the media coverage with only 49 per cent total viewers attending while the rest are women. This reduces the lively participation by the women in these games due to the feeling of being neglected by the fellow women spectators. This in turn reduces the women sports coverage popularity in women’s sports participation fields. The sports world is almost entirely divided between men’s and women’s groups. The men’s sport has nonetheless, always dominated all forms of broadcasting coverage despite the fact that women as well competes in those exact similar sports in an increasingly professional level. The sports coverage revolves around newspaper, broadcasting, news coverage, reports and internet articles in the media houses. In United States for example, women’s sports receive a total of 1.65 of the total sports airtime on both the local, national and sports media giants such as ESPN. This is as well experienced in Australia media houses in relation to the popularity of men’s coverage in sports in relation to women’s. In Australia the situation is even demeaning with women’s sport coverage receiving only 9 per cent in relation to men’s coverage and airtime which is at 81 per cent. In the written press the numbers are always lop-sided hence if their reports in relation to the men versus women sport coverage is not always exactly captured in their research works. When it comes to football, women from different countries all over the world have a relatively large participation and interest in these sports though almost each and every media house normally covers majorly the men football sports. Absurdly, even though the participation level of women and girls in sports has been on the rise over time immemorial, this significant increase does not appear to have changed the media attitude towards increasing the women sports airtime. The opposite of this situation is what is normally experienced in the media houses sports coverage where the sports coverage gap between men and women has highly gained roots. The only outstandingly notable exemptions to the male domination in the worldwide sports coverage is the Olympic Games. In these games the coverage is usually equal irrespective of gender. The equality exhibited by the sports coverage in the Olympic Games is only enhanced by only one on-going sporting activity at a time. This leaves the media houses with no alternative but to cover even the independent women activities. The airtime given by the media houses in these games are therefore usually independent of bias as both the men and women are always given an equal opportunity in their airtime and coverage. This is as well related to the grand slam tennis where the coverage normally exhibits a wide range of equality considerations even though the men’s competition still carries more esteem. The men’s sports coverage domination according to many is culturally and socially influenced. It has always believed from the past history that men and women were not two equals. Most societies vowed women as less able in comparison to men therefore the activities men used to excel in they were never allowed to take part in. These are some of the traditional assumptions affecting the media coverage on the women sports for most media reporters as well as the media houses have believe that the ancient assumptions against women still exists. Lately, there has been a complete turn of events where women take part in various manly sporting activities such as weight lifting, boxing and javelin. This still surprises individuals hence influencing even the media houses in as a far as the women sports coverage is concerned. Newspapers sports pages and television airtime in women sports coverage have been criticised for the failure to include women’s sports fairly. This is in relation to the media houses sports reporters’ side-lining nature in relation to women’s sports coverage. These highly defendant sports reports argues that the gatekeeping factors are not the only major factors to be considered to have been affecting the coverage received by the women sports. The men’s sports coverage even in this civilisation era is far much ahead of women sports media coverage. This is basically due to the fact that even the readers and audience interests should be considered at large before undertaking any sports coverage by the media. Men sports coverage is normally outstanding and stunning thus tends to attract a lot of attention from various audiences. It is therefore the mostly covered sporting activity by the media as opposed to the women’s sporting activities which are normally not liked by many viewers. Most of readers and audiences systematically still believe in man’s prowess and excellence in sports. Many people normally consider the female’s athletic potential as inferior to that of men’s. The media reporter’s clubs managers in relation to this feel absolutely no commitment to hiring women or even covering their sporting activities. The gender imbalance is relatively on progress. Even though the women are naturally not competent and not normally born as sporting animals, the gender imbalance has really lowered the spirit of ladies and girls to excel in sporting activities. This in addition has been the epicentre of the women’s sporting coverage where even the media fraternity have been discriminatory in relation towards covering women sports. In conclusion, the media shapes the public’s sensitivity of the undertakings of women playing sports and generally on whether the women can be confident, strong and highly skilled. The media as well nurtures the dreams and ambitions of the girls. Boys normally get socialised through watching televisions which bombards them with confident and heroic images of themselves playing sports and being revealed for their endeavours. The boys through this become well acquainted with sports. The boys are in addition encouraged by everyone on the sporting activities by everyone. The girl child on the other hand is usually neglected hence they do not receive any message in relation to future ambitions. Currently, the sports coverage on women is non-existent and inconsistent most of the time. While the exposure of women in sports has greatly improved during the Olympic Games and the world cup soccer where these ladies demonstrate assessments successes, there are merely quadrennial manifestations. These events do not portray the power of women to the real external world because the coverage on these events is highly overshadowed by the male ones. The girls though these coverage receive negative and inconsistent messages from the sports television. Works cited Beck, Daniel, and Louis Bosshart. Sports and Media. Los Gatos, CA: Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture (CSCC, 2003. Print. Brown, Melissa T. 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