Media Coverage of Women's sports - Dissertation Example

Number MEDIA COVERAGE OF WOMEN’S SPORTS Background The perception of thepublic in women participating in sports, as well as whether in general women can be strong, highly skilled and confident is shaped by the media. The media also plays an important role in shaping girls’ ambitions and dreams. Boys read newspapers and watch the television as they grow up. They are bombarded by their heroic as well as confident images as they participate in sports and being admired and respected for their accomplishments (Jang & Stepchenkova, 2015). They are aware that the society expects them to take part in sports while they get encouragement from everyone around them. Young females do not receive such messages. Media coverage for women’s sports happens to be a serious ingredient for the accomplishment of professional women’s sports, as well as modest professional sports salaries as well as purses. If pro sports for women cannot tap within huge advertising dollars, then salaries and purses for athletes will get depressed further while the financial success for women’s pro leagues as well as tours will not be easy to achieve. Introduction This research is intends to bring to light how the media contributes in the exclusion of women within sports from view and discourse by public something that affects their participation within sport, the manner in which media’s limited coverage for women within sports promotes gender stereotypes, as well as, contributes towards bias access to services by women as well as their potentiality fulfilments in relation to their right to sport. The key principle within the research will be that satisfying the right to sport has not just to do with satisfying physical access to sport, however, as well about making sure that the facilitation happens (Donna, 2008). Location of Research The research will be conducted in London, United Kingdom. 1,000 grownups will be surveyed to find out where individuals stand as far as women’s sport is concerned. Within the discussion, sports will be examined, in general, since the human right to sport acknowledges sport for professional engagement, for recreation, and for health and social benefits. Sport is an established competitive activity, which involves specialised equipment or facilities and physical skill, and is governed by a set of rules that are accepted to determine a winner (Lombe, 2014, 9). Recreational sport, on the other hand, involves activities whose key purpose is participation with regard to fun, enhancement of physical fitness, as well as social involvement frequently prominent. They are perceived to be less stressful both mentally and physically on their participants. With regard to their performance and commitment to them, lower expectations exist. Leisure sport involves physical activity for leisure time and relaxation. Educational sport includes physical education within schools. Finally, competitive sport is managed by national, as well as, international sports federations (Lombe, 2014, 10). Research Objectives The key objective will be to examine how poor service delivered through the media in covering women’s sport has impacted the interest of women’s sport among people. In this context, interviewees will be expected to respond to various questions regard their interest in women’s sport, how they view it, comparison with men’s sport among other queries. They will as well express how they feel about women’s sports coverage by media and what they expect in the future with regard to it (Donna, 2008). Significance of the Research The media is recognized as a platform for providing information and broadcasting ideology as well as addressing or advancing stereotype. Women’s coverage within media has essential significance and instrumental value, which can positively impact interest on women’s sport among people. Stereotypes round women within sports border on their possible level of sport and what sport they can do. Women sports coverage can address these two stereotypes effectively (Jang & Stepchenkova, 2015). Assumptions • News collectors, as well as editors, fail to consider women’s participation within sport newsworthy. • News collectors and editors fail to appreciate women’s diversity within sport • Sports programs for women lose corporate investment possibilities because of lack of non-visibility within the media hence they do not attract the corporate sector. • Limited visibility within the media bars more women from sports participation depriving then their right to sport, as well as the resultant economic and social benefits (Jang & Stepchenkova, 2015). Research Questions 1. Do People have interested on sport for women? 2. Do individuals follow women sport? 3. Should the media increase women’s sports coverage? 4. Should sport for women get equal coverage to sport for men? 5. For what reasons would sports for women not get equal media coverage to men’s sport? 6. So, should equal Coverage be exercised? 7. Who are some of the famous women in sport? (Onepoll, 2014) Methodology Data within the study will be collected by way of surveys, which will utilize questionnaires as the instruments to gather the data. Questionnaires are usually quite helpful in quantitative data collection. The research instrument will consist of questions as well as related prompts for gathering data and information about media coverage for women’s sport. The reasons as to why questionnaires will be used include: • They are convenient while collecting quantitative data since the results can be easily and quickly quantified through software packages or just by the researcher, • Huge data amounts can be gathered from many people within a short time as well as in a fairly cost-effective manner, compared to other research instruments such as interviews. • Any number of individuals or the researcher may carry out the research with limited impact on its reliability and validity (Foddy, 1994). 7 key questions will be presented for the respondents to respond to. However, some of the questions will have sub-questions increasing the number of questions significantly. Some of them are set in a way that will trigger respondents to provide both quantitative and qualitative data. Descriptive statistics will be used to analyse the data. Such a technique is expected to the quantitative description of the data as well as information acquired through the survey instrument. In this regard, they will provide a meaningful summary of the information in a quantitative form for easy interpretation and discussion (Gina, 2015). Bibliography Donna, A. L. (2008). Media Coverage of Womens Sports Is Important. Retrieved 10 24, 2015, from Sports and Management Resources: http://www.sportsmanagementresources.com/library/media-coverage-womens-sports Foddy, W. H. (1994). Constructing questions for interviews and questionnaires. Theory and practice in social research, 1. Gina, W. (2015). Choosing Apropreate Study Methods. Retrieved 10 24, 2015, from palgrave.com: http://www.palgrave.com/studentstudyskills/page/choosing-appropriate-research-methodologies/ Jang, W., & Stepchenkova, S. (2015). Sport Management Digest. International Journal of Sport Communication, 337-356. Lombe, A. M. (2014). Media Coverage of Women in Sport by National Newspapers in Zambia: An Assessment of State Compliance to Women’s Right to Sport. SEARCWL, 69. Onepoll. (2014). Media Coverage of Womens Spot. Retrieved 10 24, 2015, from Onepoll.com: http://www.onepoll.com/media-coverage-of-womens-sports/ Read More