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The Olympic Ideal
The Olympic Ideal
A content analysis of the coverage of Olympic women's sports in
San Francisco Bay Area newspapers
By Greg Mellen and
Patricia Coleman
Masters Students
University of Missouri-School of Journalism
215 Lindell Dr.
(573) 817-2390
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Abstract
This study extends previous research on coverage of women's Olympic sports in selected newspapers. A content analysis was conducted on sports sections from large, medium and small newspapers from the San Francisco Bay Area. 513 stories and nearly 18,000 inches of text, photos and graphics were coded. The study supports Kinnick's findings of equitable and proportional coverage, but finds a bias in favor of "gender appropriate" sports.
Several studies show that women continue to suffer from inequitable coverage on a daily basis in newspapers in the United States. Research shows that despite huge increases by women participating in sports, women's sports events are underreported in newspapers. Content analyses have showed slow growth in the coverage of women-only sports in the past decade from 3.5 percent in 1991 (Duncan, et. al, 1991) to as high as 12.8 percent in 1998 (Mellen, 2000).
Although gains in overall coverage of women's sports have been slow and hard-fought, studies of women's coverage in the Olympic Games tell a more heartening tale. This study adds to literature that suggests that women are approaching and on occasion exceeding proportional coverage in the Olympic Games in four San Francisco Bay Area newspapers. However, it also suggests a disturbing continuing trend by newspapers to concentrate on so-called gender appropriate images of women in sport. It also poses the question whether Olympic coverage can be used to promote added coverage of women's sports throughout the year rather than only when high profile women's events are staged.
Although women have spent two decades struggling to find widespread acceptance and equitable coverage in daily newspapers (Bryant 1981, Woolard, 1983, Theberge & Cronk, 1986, Theberge 1991, Duncan et. al., Silverstein 1996, Wann et. al., 1998, Mellen), other studies show that coverage of women's sports in the Olympics is on an upswing (Eastman & Billings, 1999, Kinnick, 1996)
The last 30 years have seen unparalleled growth in women's athletics. The passage of Title IX, an extension of the civil rights legislation and part of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, opened the doors for women's participation in sports in the United States. In the 28 years of Title IX, there has been a nine-fold increase in high school sports participation from 29,015 to 2,652,796 (National Federation of High School Associations, 1999). Intercollegiate sports have seen similar growth from 31,000 in 1971 to more than 135,000 (National Collegiate Athletics Association, 1999).
However, growth in newspaper coverage has been ponderous at best. The Olympics, however, are popular among readers and provide newspapers with a ready-made opportunity to display equitable coverage.
Recent studies show that Olympic coverage is gaining popularity. Readership polls by the Augusta Chronicle indicated readers want more Olympic coverage. A full 69 percent were either very interested or somewhat interested in Olympic coverage (Neuwirth, 1998).
As a result, coverage of the Nagano Olympics in 1998 provided a platform to provide stories of women's successes.
Literature on Olympic coverage has differed in its interpretation on the increases in women's coverage in recent years. At least one study suggests no significant gains in parity for women (Eastman and Billings). Another noted gender bias in major newspaper coverage was less prevalent than found by other scholars and that differences in representation and respect between the sexes was minimal (Kinnick).
Eastman and Billings analyzed network television coverage of the 1994, 1996 and 1998 Olympiads, focusing on mentions of women and men athletes and women's and men's sports and found no appreciable change.
Eastman and Billings suggested that although references to men's and women's sports nearly mirrored participation rates among the athletes (65 percent men, 35 percent women), 50/50 coverage should be expected during prime time television hours for three reasons: those shows generally don't contain preliminaries, where most male athletes are eliminated in their sports; only medal events are likely to attract American viewers; networks have expressed a desire to attract women viewers.
After analyzing 150 hours of programming, Eastman and Billings found that air time devoted to men's events approximated participation levels, or 3-2. However, in the 1996 Olympics, dubbed the year of the woman, the minutes of prime time coverage were virtually identical. Additionally, medal events showed similar equivalence. Eastman and Billings noted that there was no gain in airtime for women in Winter Olympics between Lillehammer and Nagano.
The content analysis done by Kinnick is more helpful for the purposes of this study in that it looks at newspaper coverages. Kinnick compared personality profiles written about athletes in the Atlanta Olympics in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Atlanta Constitution. Among other things, that analysis looked at the percentage of feature articles devoted to male and female athletes, the sports that received the most coverage for male and female athletes, whether "gender appropriate" sports received more coverage, and placement of stories in the paper (front page, inside and above or below the fold).
Among Kinnick's findings:
Of 170 profiles, 93 were of men, 77 of women, or 45 percent for the women. This proportionally favored women who made up 34.4 percent of the overall participants, and 42 percent of the United States team.
In addition, 88 percent of the female athletes profiled were represented by photographs compared to 73 percent of men. USA Today had the largest disparity favoring stories about male athletes, 62 percent to 38 percent.
Slightly more photos of women appeared on section fronts than men, 9.1 percent vs. 7.5 percent. Articles about women were visually dominant on pages 49.4 percent of the time compared to 39.8 percent.
One of Kinnick's explanations for the relative absence of bias was that
journalistic practices have caught up with social attitudes and acceptance of women in sports.
However, Kinnick also correctly notes that the public's interest in women's sports peaks during the Olympic Games or during special events such as the Women's World Cup. Kinnick suggests a study with levels of representation before and after the Games.
One troubling aspect of Kinnick's study, confirmed by this study, is the fascination of the media with "gender appropriate" sports. It is suggested that when the media concentrate on such sports they perpetuate the image of sports as a man's world and bolster images of female passivity and frailty (Theberge & Cronk).
However, though the popularity of figure skating and gymnastics seem to suggest that even among women, sports that are closely linked with "feminine" attributes are the most popular. And in our society, popularity means advertising, which mean endorsements, which means media coverage and ultimately success. That seems to be where our society is now, and that is what will be reflected in coverage.
For women, _ sports reflect rather than form social attitudes. Allied to this is the conservatism of the media, devoted to satisfying existing audiences rather than trying to develop new ones. Women will get full equality in sports activity when they achieve it on other levels. (Koppett, p. 212)
Bringing readers beyond this mindset is a daunting task to say the least, and sports editors may have a point when they suggest that sports readers, like sports editors and writers, are comfortable with sports as they know them and are resistant to change.
METHOD:
To test whether women were receiving equitable coverage, and to look more closely at newspapers' coverage of "gender appropriate" women's sports, a content analysis was conducted. All Olympic stories in the sports sections of the Marin Independent Journal, the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Sunday sections of the San Francisco Examiner were tabulated, measured and coded. Stories were coded "men's" "women's" "both" and "neutral."
Men's and women's stories are self-explanatory. Stories coded "both" were generally round-ups, but also included pairs figure skating and ice-dancing. Neutral stories were about issues, site and weather news, and various postcards and culture-based stories.
For this study, 513 stories and 18,000 inches of overall newshole were coded. In addition to coding by gender, the study measured column inches of text and overall inches, including headlines, photos and graphics. This study also looked a page 1 placement of stories and broke down coverage into individual sports to test percentages of "gender appropriate" sports.
The Winter Olympics ran from two weeks in February 1998 in Nagano, Japan. All four Bay Area papers provided extensive Olympic coverage. That their coverage does not vary significantly statistically is not surprising. All four papers relied heavily on wire services to provide coverage of the Winter Games. The Marin Independent-Journal and San Francisco Chronicle each sent one staff writer to Nagano. The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat and San Francisco Examiner both covered the event entirely through the use of wire.
All four papers had occasional Olympics stories and daily teases on their news front pages, as well as occasional Olympics-related stories in feature, travel, business and even food sections. These were not coded for this study.
ANALYZING THE DATA:
The findings of this study add to the work of Kinnick. The Kinnick study compared the number of personality feature stories written about men and women at the Atlanta Olympic Games and found that of 170 stories in five newspapers, 77 or 45 percent were about women. This study included men's and women's event stories as well as personality profiles and broke them down by sport rather than type of story. However, in relation to participation rates, women's coverage rates were fairly equitable.
Of 249 stories that were designated either men's or women's stories, 97 or 39 percent were women's stories. This is comparable to the 35 percent overall and 42 percent U.S. team participation rate by women in the Olympics. Women's stories also compared favorably with men's events in column inches per story and overall presentation with a few notable exceptions.
However, despite these impressive gains, women's stories were still the fewest of all four categories and shortest in terms of overall column inches. In terms of total newshole, women's stories finished in third among the four categories, slightly ahead of neutral stories, but well behind men's and both-gender stories.
Strong arguments could be made that women's coverage could and maybe should have been much higher, particularly in United States newspapers.
U.S. women were by far the most successful athletes from this country. Women captured four of the United States' six gold medals and nine of 13 overall medals. In the Nagano Olympics, the U.S. women's hockey team won the gold medal in that event's first-ever staging. U.S. women also had some of the more interesting dramas, as in the battle for the figure skating gold medal in which Tara Lipinski skated a nearly flawless final routine to pull past teammate Michelle Kwan to win the gold medal. Also there was alpine skier Picabo Street who came back from a career threatening knee injury to win a gold medal in the women's super giant slalom. She also just missed out on a bronze medal in the women's downhill. In addition, Chris Wilty was the only member of the U.S. team to win a medal in speedskating, taking the silver medal in the women's 1,000 meters and bronze in the 1,500. Also Shannon Dunn captured a bronze medal in snowboarding in the women's half-pipe.
U.S. men, by contrast, won only two gold medals, however, one of those gold medallists was Jonny Moseley, a Bay Area resident from Tiburon, Calif.
It is also notable that stories in both-gender categories and neutral categories jumped significantly. Because of the large volume of events being contested in the compressed time frame of the Olympic Games, most papers ran extensive round-up stories about qualifying events and non-medal competitions. There were also numerous neutral stories ranging from "postcards" from Nagano in the San Francisco Chronicle to questions from readers to writer Holly Woolard in the Marin Independent-Journal, to general stories about the atmosphere and culture of Nagano, to weather conditions, to stories by Dave Barry about oddities such as eating blowfish.
Table 1. Olympic Story Count Comparison
The percentages of men's-only stories in the four papers were generally consistent and range from 27.3 percent in the San Francisco Examiner to 30.9 percent in the San Francisco Chronicle. Men's stories in the Marin Independent Journal and Santa Rosa Press-Democrat were both 29.3 percent. Overall in the four papers, men's stories accounted for 29.6 percent of all stories.
Women's stories accounted for 18.9 percent of stories overall, and 20.4 percent of total newshole, indicating similar if not quite as prominent play given for women's events.
The percentages of women's stories range from 21.3 percent in the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat to 14.1 percent in the San Francisco Chronicle. The San Francisco Chronicle, women's stories (21) were half those of both-gender stories (42) and considerably less than gender-neutral stories (40). Overall, women's stories accounted for 18.9 percent of all articles in the four papers.
Overall, men's stories outnumber women's stories 61 percent to 39 percent. The numbers remain fairly consistent in column inches (60 percent for men) and total inches (61 percent for men). These numbers were closely reflected in the individual papers except for the San Francisco Chronicle, which had a more than 2-1 ratio of men's to women's stories.
Table 2. Olympic Column Inches Comparison
In terms of column inches devoted to men's stories the ranges go from 26.4 percent in the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat to 32.1 percent in the San Francisco Chronicle. In all four papers the men's column inches were 29 percent.
The percentages of column inches range from 22.1 percent in the Marin Independent-Journal, compared to 21 percent in story count. In the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat column inches fell to 20.4 percent from a 21.3 percent story count, the San Francisco Chronicle saw a gain in column inches to 15.3 percent from a 14.1 percent story percentage. However, the Chronicle and Examiner both had considerably higher ratios of men's to women's coverage than the smaller papers. In the Chronicle men's column inches more than doubled those of women (784-373.5), while in the Examiner, men's coverage wasn't quite twice that of women (155.5-86). The San Francisco Examiner's percentage of column inches for women's stories dipped considerably to 14.7 from an 18.1 percent story count. (It should be noted that the Examiner numbers are small, covering only three Sundays and may not mirror the paper's overall coverage.) Overall the numbers stayed stable, climbing slightly from 18.9 percent to 19 percent.
Table 3. Olympic Total Newshole Comparison
The overall newshole given to men's sports range from 28.8 percent in the Press-Democrat to 37 percent in the Independent-Journal. Overall, 32.5 percent of the four papers' newsholes were devoted to men's sports. The 2.9 percent jump between the percentage of men's sports stories and percentage of newshole suggests that men's stories received prominent play with photographs and graphics.
The overall newshole for women's stories ranged between 24 percent in the Press-Democrat to 12.9 percent in the Examiner. The 20.4 percent overall newhole for women's stories compared to the 18.8 percent story indicates that they also received prominent play, although not to the extent of men.
The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat had more than 900 inches more of total space given to women's coverage than its nearest competitor. Its 1,805.5 inches of women's newshole was 45 percent of the newshole devoted to either men's or women's Olympic sports.
The two large San Francisco papers were not nearly as equitable in their coverage of women. The men's newshole in the Chronicle favored men (1,741.5-828.5), while the Examiner's newshole was tilted in men's favor 401.5-144. In both cases, men's coverage was over-reported in comparison to men's participation in the Olympics.
Table 4. Olympic Average Story Length - Column Inches
Interestingly, in three of the four papers, women's stories were longer on average in column inches. The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat has the longest women's stories on average at 18.9 inches, compared to 17.8 inches for men's stories. In the Press-Democrat, the neutral stories were longest at 22.2 inches, followed by both-gender stories at 20.1 inches.
The San Francisco Chronicle's men's stories averaged 17.8 inches, compared to 17.0 inches for women's stories. In the Chronicle, both-gender stories were longest at 19 inches, neutral stories averaged only 11.9 inches.
In the Marin Independent-Journal, women's stories were slightly longer than men's stories 14.5 inches to 14.3 inches. Both-gender stories averaged 15 inches and neutral stories were 10.1 inches.
The San Francisco Examiner had the shortest women's stories, 14.3 inches on average. Men's stories averaged 17.3 inches, both-gender stories were 18.6 inches and neutral stories (which included the opening and closing ceremonies) were 18.4 inches.
Overall, women's stories averaged 16.9 inches, compared to men's stories 16.5 inches. Both-gender stories were the longest 18.1 inches and neutral stories were 15.8 inches.
Table 5. Olympic Average Story Length - Newshole Inches
Two papers offered more overall space per story to women's stories than men's stories. The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat devoted the most space in terms of total inches to women's stories, which averaged 48.8 inches, almost 30 inches per story longer than the column inch counts. The Press-Democrat's men's stories averaged 42.5 inches. Both-gender stories were 45.3 inches and neutral stories 38.2 inches. The San Francisco Chronicle devoted 39.5 total inches on average to women's stories and 37.9 inches to men's stories. Both-gender stories averaged 41 inches and neutral stories 22.3 inches.
The San Francisco Examiner gave the smallest coverage to women's stories. The overall length of women's stories averaged 24 inches, compared to 44.6 inches for men's stories. Neutral stories were 31.9 inches and both-gender stories averaged 31.2 inches.
Overall, women's total inches averaged 37.7 inches, men's stories were 38.5 inches, both-gender stories were 35.4 inches and neutral stories were 28.3 inches.
What's appropriate?
As mentioned earlier, all four papers provided extensive coverage of the Winter Olympiad in Nagano. As also noted, the amounts of coverage tended to mirror participation rates of the U.S. team. However, when specific sports were broken down, this study found some surprising results that could bolster claims that sports editors still tend to focus on the so-called "gender appropriate" sports.
Maybe the most exciting story of the Winter Olympics was the success of the American women's hockey team. The Nagano Olympics were the first Winter Games to include women's hockey as a medal sport. The U.S. team came in as heavy underdogs to the Canadian Olympic team. However, the U.S. women produced their own "Miracle on Ice" with a 3-1 victory against the Canadians in the gold medal game.
The U.S. men's team, by comparison was a major disappointment and failed to even reach the medal round, despite fielding a team featuring a number of professionals from the National Hockey League, including players such as Brett Hull. In addition to its failure to reach medal play, the U.S. team was best remembered for trashing a number of hotel rooms in Nagano.
Because the women's competition was a first-ever event, and because the U.S. unexpectedly dominated the play, one might expect more coverage of the women's sport, but that was not the case. In fairness, it should also be noted that there were many more men's teams than women's at the Nagano Games, which helps account for some of the difference.
Table 6. Olympic Hockey Coverage
Overall in the four papers, men's hockey stories outnumbered women's stories 55-29, representing 65 percent of the coverage of Olympic hockey. The Olympic men's hockey stories totaled 1,014 inches, for an average of 18.4 inches and 67 percent of the hockey text inches. Women's stories measured 474.5 inches, for an average of 16.4 inches. The total inches for men's hockey was 2,150, for 39.1 inches per story, or 62 percent. Women's hockey total inches were 1,334.5, 46 inches per story.
In the four papers, men's hockey stories made the front page 25 times to 11 times for the women.
Interestingly, the Marin Independent-Journal had the largest disparity between men's and women's coverage. Men's stories outnumbered women's stories 13-5, for 72 percent of the stories. Men's text inches were 188.5-65 (75 percent) and total inches were 319.5-137.5 (70 percent). The Independent-Journal had nine men's hockey stories on the front page and only one women's story, when the U.S. women won the gold.
The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat came the closest to equitable coverage. Men's stories outnumbered women's stories 21-14, for 60 percent of the stories. Men's inches were 399-227.5(64 percent) and total inches were 858-700.5 (55 percent). The Press-Democrat had six men's stories on the front page and four women's.
The data in the coverage of women's hockey shows that although men's stories substantially outnumbered women's stories, the papers did on average give strong presentation to women's hockey as evidenced by the fact that women's total inches were substantially more per story than men's.
However, overall, in the rough and tumble world of hockey, newspapers only seemed to catch up with the unfolding drama once the U.S. women were in medal contention.
In figure skating, by contrast, the four papers heavily favored women's coverage. This bolsters the argument that papers support "gender appropriate" sports. If could be argued that the coverage was warranted because Americans Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan were battling for the women's gold medal, while there were no American men in the medal hunt. However, by that logic, it is hard to justify the comparative lack of coverage of women's hockey and alpine skiing.
Overall in the four papers, women's figure skating stories outnumbered men's stories 29-17, representing 63 percent of the coverage of men's vs. women's figure skating. The women's figure skating stories totaled 563.5 inches, for an average of 19.4
Table 7. Olympic Figure Skating Coverage
inches and 65 percent of the text inches. Men's stories measured 300 inches, for an average of 17.6 inches. Oddly, enough, men's stories got more prominent play than women's stories when headlines and photos were factored in. The total inches for women's figure skating 1,147, for 39.6 inches per story, or 60 percent. Men's total inches were 761.5, 44.8 inches per story.
In the four papers, women's figure skating stories made the front page nine times to six times for the men.
The Marin Independent-Journal had the largest disparity between men's and women's coverage. Women's stories outnumbered men's stories 13-5, for 72 percent of the stories. Women's text inches were 202.5-99.5 (67 percent) and total inches were 389.5-251.5 (61 percent). However, the Independent-Journal had four women's figure skating stories and four men's figure skating stories on page 1.
The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat had similar coverage. Women's stories outnumbered men's stories 11-6, for 65 percent of the stories. Women's inches were 260.5-113 (70 percent) and total inches were 551-339.5 (62 percent). The Press-Democrat had 11 women's stories on the front page and six men's.
The San Francisco Chronicle, unlike the rest of the papers and somewhat inexplicably, had more coverage of men's figure skating than women's. It also had much less coverage than the other publications. The Chronicle had five men's figure skating and three women's stories. The men's inches were 71-52 (58 percent) and total inches 150.5-109 (58 percent).
The Chronicle had five men's figure skating stories on page 1 and three women's stories on the section front.
(Note, Tara Lipinski's gold medal victory in the women's finale was run on page A-1 of the Chronicle.)
Alpine skiing also showed an unusual bias toward men's coverage. The papers in this study had more coverage of men's alpine skiing, which appears to be an odd editorial decision given the inspiring story of American Picabo Street. Plagued by knee injuries at different times in her career, Street made a triumphant return to the Olympic stage with a victory in the women's super giant slalom, then barely missed the bronze medal in the women's downhill. There were no similar stories in the men's competition. It was best remembered for a spectacular crash by Hermann Maier and Alberto Tomba sitting out the finals of the men's slalom.
Overall in the four papers, men's alpine skiing stories outnumbered women's stories 22-12, representing 67 percent of the coverage of men's vs. women's alpine skiing. The men's alpine stories totaled 326.5 inches, for an average of 14.8 inches and 62 percent of the text inches. Women's stories measured 199.5 inches, for an average of
18.1 inches. The total inches for men's alpine skiing 749.5, for 34.1 inches per story, or 58 percent. Women's total inches were 546, 49.6 inches per story.
Table 8. Olympic Alpine Skiing Coverage
In the four papers, men's alpine skiing stories made the front page 11 times to five.
Although, as the numbers indicate, women's stories were longer and contained more art and graphics than men's stories, it still is puzzling that overall, men's coverage was more than women's, considering the varying degrees of success and likely interest within the United States.
Picture this
It is said that a photo is worth 1,000 words, which would be about 25 inches of text, but for this thesis, I decided to use simpler math. Like stories, pictures were coded as either male, female, both or neutral.
Olympic photos were equitably distributed on page 1 with 49 men's photos on section fronts and 38 women's photos. These numbers (56 percent men, 44 percent women) match the U.S. men's and women's participation rates. The four papers also combined for 14 both-gender Olympic photographs, most depicting either the opening and closing ceremonies or pairs figure skating. However, a strong case could be made for higher photographic representation for U.S. women considering their success compared to men. Also note that these numbers do not reflect photos that appeared on the front pages of news sections.
The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat was the only paper to have more women's Olympic photos than men's both on the front pages and inside. Overall, the Press-Democrat had 20 women's photos and 18 men's photos on page 1. Thus women were represented on 53 percent of the page 1 photos compared to men. The Press-Democrat also had four both-gender and one neutral Olympic photos on page 1, plus three both-gender and two neutral non-Olympic photos.
The San Francisco Chronicle had 13 men's photographs and 10 women's photos. Thus men were represented in 56 percent of the page 1 photos compared to women. The Chronicle also had two both-gender and two neutral Olympic photos on page 1, plus one neutral non-Olympic photo on page 1.
The San Francisco Examiner had very little Olympic coverage on its fronts, making comparisons difficult. On its three front sections on Olympic days, it had one photo each from the opening and closing ceremonies, plus a photo of Italian skier Alberto Tomba.
When inside photos were compared, the disparity between non-Olympic photos grew, but the difference decreased among Olympic photos.
Among the four papers, Olympic photos were equitably distributed inside with 96 men's photos and 92 women's photos. These numbers (52 percent men, 48 percent women) actually exceed women's participation rates.
The Press-Democrat had 56 women's Olympic photos and 47 men's photos. Thus women were represented by 54 percent of the inside photos compared to men and 48 percent of all inside Olympic photos. The Press-Democrat had 13 both-gender and one neutral Olympic photos inside, plus one both-gender and two neutral non-Olympic photos.
CONCLUSION:
Analysis of newspapers' coverage of the Olympics shows both how far women have come and how far they have yet to travel to gain equitable treatment from newspapers. Equitable coverage in terms of numbers of stories and column inches in special events is certainly a positive step. But it remains essentially an occasional blip on the radar that occurs on every couple of years.
Women deserve year-round coverage that in some way reflects their commitment and excellence in sport, their ever-increasing participation levels and to a certain degree the interest they generate or could generate if given a chance among fans and the sporting public.
In terms of commitment, excellence and participation, there is little doubt that women are making huge strides on the sports landscape. The achievements of the U.S. women's teams in recent Olympics and in the Women's World Cup of soccer prove that women can be successful and impressive athletes. That U.S. women have outperformed men as a whole in these different venues attests to the level of United States women's sport.
Much of the inequity of coverage of the women's hockey teams in the Olympics, derives from their relative anonymity outside of the Olympics. Whereas the Olympic men's teams have a built in public relations machine in the NHL, the American women's hockey team had very little exposure and played few games before the Olympics, except for a pre-Olympic tournament with Canada. Once the Olympics were over, the U.S. team went back to training with few opportunities to build on the momentum created by its success in Nagano. With no league or information network to till the ground and create excitement before and after the Olympics, the women's team could only create a brief flurry of interest, despite its gold medal performance. Thus Cammi Granato and Sandra Whyte never got the chance before or after the Olympics to receive the exposure of Brett Hull and Dominik Hasek. As a result, it only makes sense that Cammi Granato is noted for being the sister of San Jose Shark player Tony Granato,
as happened in a San Francisco Chronicle. Although Cammi Granato is probably a better player than her brother, as an NHL player Tony is the Granato people in the Bay Area know about.
Events such as the Women's World Cup and the Winter and Summer Olympics show that women's sports events can generate bursts of enormous interest and excitement. And, as this study shows, with several remarkable exceptions, newspaper coverage adequately represents and highlights women's achievements in selected instances. But what those events fail to show is whether women's sports can sustain those levels of interest.
Kerri Strug was a hero and a portrait of courage in the Atlanta Olympics. And she hasn't been heard from since.
The story of the U.S. Women's basketball team in Atlanta created tremendous interest in the game. And yet, the subsequent failure of the American Basketball League indicates that the "next step" for women in sports is tricky at best. The complicity of newspapers and other media in this equation is equally murky. Was the ABL, lacking the endorsement and television backing of the rival Women's National Basketball Association, doomed to fail from the outset? Possibly.
Certainly liberal feminist theory, as descended from the Enlightenment and the values of individual liberty rooted in the writings of John Milton, John Stuart Mill, Mary Wollencroft, Sarah Grimke and others, would argue that women have the same inalienable rights as men (Messner & Sabo, 1992). As a result, it looks at the devaluation of women in society and seeks equity (Coakley, 1994) or, more precisely, "full and equal participation for girls and women" (Lenskyj cited in Coakley).
A liberal feminist would see the disparity of coverage as sexist and discriminatory and would seek equal treatment and recognition of women's achievements as a moral obligation and an issue of ethical treatment. Exclusion of women from the sports section would be seen as an issue of most male editors' bias.
Some suggest, with scientific support, that mere exposure to women's sports could increase its acceptance. Dr. Mimi Murray, a former president of the National Association For Girls and Women in Sport, says,
There is a principle in psychology that indicates that more exposure one has to the unfamiliar, the more familiar it becomes, and the more one begins to like it. So we need to encourage more coverage of women's sporting events and applaud those journalists who represent women in sport as they should be -- as athletes (Fiege, 1991, p.1).
Equitable and unbiased coverage of women's sports in newspapers during the Olympics is but the first step. But until overall news coverage of women's sports events gains something approaching equity in the mainstream press, the Olympics will remain as anomalies, bright shining examples of what sports coverage could be -- but isn.t.
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