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At Play in the Field of the Word










At Play in the Field of the Word

A content analysis of the coverage of women's sports in selected
 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 inequities in media coverage of women's sports in newspapers. A content analysis was conducted on sports sections from large, medium and small newspapers from the San Francisco Bay Area. 4,152 stories and 66,000 inches of text were coded. The study hypothesized that men's stories receive the majority of coverage and that smaller papers provide more equitable coverage of women's sports. Chi squares and descriptive data supported both hypotheses.









































We cannot change because we are dependent on what is wrong.
Wendell Berry



        Sports journalism, particularly in newspapers, has taken little notice of a nearly 30-year-old revolution. When it comes to covering sports, "The reality is that there is an entire world of women's sports that is excluded from the sports pages ..." (Amateur Athletic Foundation, Duncan, et al., 1991).
        In the late 1990s, women's sports enjoyed unparalleled popularity in the United States. The evidence is overwhelming, including attendance at the Women's World Cup soccer matches, the advent of women's professional basketball, softball and soccer leagues and the steadily growing popularity of women's college basketball. Furthermore, there has been widespread acknowledgment of women's sports successes, especially among U.S. teams in the 1996 and 1998 Olympic Games. Oddly, this has not translated in significantly expanded coverage of women's sports in newspapers.
The passage of Title IX flung open the doors to allow girls and women to compete in sports. Title IX is an extension of civil rights legislation and was part of the Education Amendments Act of 1972. It stated: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."
That small paragraph in a sweeping legislative document forever changed the landscape of American sports. In the 28 years since Title IX there has been a nine-fold increase in high school sports participation, from 29,015 to nearly 2,652,796 (National Federation of State High School Associations 1999). Intercollegiate women's sports have seen similar growth, from 31,000 in 1971 to more than 135,000 (NCAA, 1999).
However, studies show newspapers continue to lag behind in their ability and willingness to give due recognition to women's sports. (Duncan et al., Theberge and Cronk 1986, Bryant, 1981, Woolard, 1983, Wann et. al. 1998, Theberge, 1991, Silverstein, 1996).
An Amateur Athletic Foundation sponsored report found that women-only stories accounted for 3.5 percent of all sports stories and men's stories outnumbered women's stories 23-1 (Duncan et. al.). A study of the coverage of recreational sports in newspapers found women-only articles ranges from 14.2 percent to 2.7 percent in several Canadian newspapers (Theberge). Another report found men's stories comprised 85 percent of sports sections (Woolard), and yet another found the New York Times devoted three times the coverage to the men's NCAA Basketball Tournament as the women's tourney (Silverstein)
The inequitable coverage has continued despite studies that show women are major consumers in the sports marketplace. Newspapers in particular still seem to underplay women's presence and importance in the sporting world (Bridge, 1994, NSGA, 1999, Giobbe, 1996).
This research is designed to add to the literature on newspaper coverage of women's sports by examining the coverage of large, medium and small newspapers in a similar geographic area.
It is hypothesized that men's sports will receive greater coverage. A second hypothesis is that women's sports, due to their growth at grassroots levels, will receive proportionally more coverage in smaller newspapers.
Using a content analysis and chi squares, this study will examine whether a statistically significant difference in the coverages of women's sports can be documented in the newspapers studied.
        There are many scholars who contend that the underreporting of women's sports, particularly in light of increased participation, creates an impression that women are nonexistent (Creedon, 1994; Kane & Greendorfer, 1994; Kane, 1989; Theberge & Cronk). Thus the question has to be asked, are the media in general, and newspapers specifically, continuing to engage in the oft-cited "symbolic annihilation" of women's sports (Gerbner, 1978)?

METHOD:
This study examines stories that appeared in the sports sections of the Marin Independent Journal, Santa Rosa Press-Democrat and San Francisco Chronicle and Sunday sections of the San Francisco Examiner. Papers in the same geographic area were chosen to make comparisons between publications that have similar readership and essentially the same menu of news events from which to choose, especially locally.
The San Francisco Bay Area was selected because it has a diverse and competitive news market. During the study period, the San Jose Lasers basketball team concluded its regular season and competed in the ABL playoffs; Stanford University qualified for the Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament; and the University of California, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Jose State had competitive women's programs. The area also has a vibrant network of high school and youth sports.
        The time period for this study covers a nine-week period from January through March 1998. It spans the end of the NFL playoffs, the Super Bowl and the start of baseball's spring training. The main sport during this period is women's professional and college basketball were at their heights. Basketball is one of the sports in which women have made their strongest gains in terms of participation and fan interest.
        To study the four papers a model was created to measure coverage of all sports broken down by gender and sport. This method gives a more complete picture of the coverage of women's sports within the context of the whole sports newshole.
        The Associated Press Sports Editors guidelines, which describe papers with circulations of less than 40,000 as small and those with circulations of more than 175,000 as large, were used to decide what constituted a large, medium and small newspaper.
        Stories were coded as "women-only," "men-only," "both-genders" and "neutral." Men-only and women-only stories are self-explanatory. Stories that included both men and women as participants, such as swimming, track and field, tennis, as well as general round-ups and sports digests were measured and counted in the both-genders category. Neutral stories included items such as bids for Olympic sites, stadium stories and stories about animals, such as horse racing.
Measurements were calculated in standard 12p2 column inches. For stories with wider column widths, the measurements were converted by taking the depth of the story, multiplied by the column width then divided by 12.17. A column inch of text equals approximately 40-45 words.
Text inches were the inches of text only; thumb mugs and art items imbedded within the standard column were included as text inches. Full-column boxes, pull quotes, mugs, etc., were not included in text inches.
The gender of a photo was determined by the main character's gender, regardless of who might be in the background or the stands. Photos of venues and animals were coded as neutral.
This study also analyzed coverages as a percentage of newshole. This calculation helps depict how limited space may have an effect on coverage and news gathering decisions. The study counts and codes page 1 stories of sports sections.
Because there was only one coder, inter-coder reliability tests were not necessary. Several issues of the papers were recoded to ensure consistency. Coding records for each story were entered into a Microsoft Access database. Batch totals by paper, day and page were compared to the detail database file to ensure accuracy of the data entry. Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel were used to summarize and report calculations based on the individual story records.
        Intra-coder reliability tests were done using the Holsti formula (Holsti, 1969, cited in Wimmer & Dominick, p, 179).  Tests using the formula showed a reliability coefficient of 87.5 percent. However, of the 15 coder discrepancies, all were connected to measurement of stories, and none were more than a half-inch in difference. The intra-coder reliability test showed 100 percent reliability in the coding of sports and gender.  The results indicate high intra-coder reliability.
        Chi-square tests were calculated to determine the significance of the differences in recorded data among papers (Wimmer & Domminick, 1994). Two-way chi-square tests were calculated to determine at what significance level the papers differed in their overall sports presentations as measured by story counts.
        The study also measures specific sports to determine which ones garner the most coverage. This helps to study not only relational aspects between men's and women's sports overall, but intersport ratios in both-gender sports such as college basketball, professional basketball and high school basketball.
        The Winter Olympics also were measured both separately and as a part of the overall news product. The papers studied all had expanded sections to accommodate Olympic coverage. As a result, although coverage of women's sports in the Olympics was proportionally higher, the effects on overall presentation were marginal. Factoring out Olympic stories, women's representation in story counts, column inches and overall inches fell between 1 and 2 percent.

ANALYZING THE DATA:

        This thesis analyzed data collected between January 11 and March 14, 1998. Issues from the Marin Independent-Journal, Santa Rosa Press-Democrat and San Francisco Chronicle were coded on Monday through Saturday. Because the Chronicle does not have a Sunday paper, the study coded Sunday issues of the San Francisco Examiner, which had a joint operating agreement with the Chronicle at the time.
Table 1. Coding Summary

        Overall, issues from 58 days and 174 issues were coded. The study coded 58 issues each of the Independent-Journal and Press-Democrat, 50 issues of the San Francisco Chronicle, and eight Sunday issues of the San Francisco Examiner. This study coded 4,152 stories overall, more than 66,000 inches of text and more than 107,000 inches of newshole.
This study asks two primary research questions of the data.
1.      Do men's stories, column inches, overall inches, presentation, placement and photographs dominate the newsholes of daily newspapers?
2.      Is there a difference between the amounts of women's coverage in relation to circulation size and is this difference statistically significant?
To help analyze and detail both questions, coverage is broken down between and within each of the four newspapers.
To help answer RQ 2, two-way chi-squares were computed. The chi-square tests showed with a p < .001 that there is a statistically significant difference in coverage with relation to circulation size.
For RQ 1 the data are clear. In every paper, the data show that men's-only story counts, column inches and overall inches were more than the rest of the stories combined. Men's stories were longer than women's stories and given greater prominence both with art and graphics and in page 1 placement.
Table 2. Story Counts

The percentages of men's-only stories range from a low of 54.8 percent in the Marin Independent-Journal to a high of 69.9 percent in the San Francisco Examiner.  Overall in all the editions analyzed and coded, men's stories accounted for 61.6 percent of all stories.
Women's stories accounted for less than 13 percent of total stories, column inches and totals inches in all four papers. The percentages of women's stories range from 12.8 percent in the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat to 8.1 percent in the San Francisco Chronicle. Overall, women's stories accounted for 11.2 percent of all articles in the four papers.
In terms of column inches devoted to men's stories the ranges go from 54 percent in the Marin Independent-Journal to 72.4 percent in the San Francisco Examiner. In all four papers the men's column inches were 61.5 percent. Analyzing the number of column

Table 3. Column Inches Comparison

inches shows that women's stories were the shortest in the papers on average, as a result  the exposure of women's sports as a percentage of the overall news package dropped. In all four papers, the women's column inches as a percentage of newshole dropped from the percentage of story counts.
The ranges in percentages of women's column inches range from 12.1 percent in the Marin Independent-Journal, compared to 12.7 percent in story count. Overall the drop was from 11.2 percent to 9.9 percent.
Interestingly, that drop didn't automatically translate into greater percentages of column inches for men's stories. In the Marin Independent Journal and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, the drops between story counts and inch counts were picked up by longer stories in the both-gender and neutral categories. In the San Francisco papers, men's stories gained prominence.
And the overall newshole given to men's sports range from 56.2 percent in the Marin Independent-Journal to 74 percent in the San Francisco Examiner. Overall, 62.6 percent of the four papers' newsholes were devoted to men's sports.
Table 4. Total Newshole Comparison

Total inches for women's stories as a percentage of newshole were as high as 12.7 percent in the Marin Independent-Journal, a rise from the 12.1 percent of column inches. Men's stories also gained prominence from 54 percent to 56.2 percent. In the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, women's total inches were 12.6 percent, up from 11.3 percent of column inches, while men's coverage rose from 62.7 percent of column inches to 63.4 percent of total inches. The San Francisco Examiner's women's total coverage grew from 7.8 percent of text inches to 8 percent of total inches.
In the four papers combined, female overall inches climbed to 10.8 percent of the newshole from 9.9 percent of all text inches. However, that number is still slightly less than the 11.2 percent of story count. Men's stories also climbed to 62.6 percent from 61.5 percent. Both-gender stories dropped from 19.2 percent of total text inches to 17.7 percent of total inches. Neutral stories fell from 9.4 percent text inches to 8.9 percent total inches.
This suggests that although women's stories are written shorter than other stories with relation to their numbers, when text and graphics are added they get added play. Men's stories remain stable across the board in terms of story count, text inches and total inches. Both-gender and neutral stories, although often text-heavy, were not illustrated as much as men's and women's stories.
Table 5. Average Story Length - Column Inches

The Marin-Independent Journal, had the smallest difference between men's and women's story lengths at .4 inches per story. Women's stories were 97 percent as long as men's stories. The San Francisco Examiner had the biggest discrepancy between men and women's story lengths. Women's stories 79 percent as long as men's stories.
In the four papers combined, women's stories averaged 14.1 inches of text compared to 15.9 inches for men's stories. Both-gender stories averaged 16.9 inches, and neutral stories were 16.5 inches.
When total inches were computed for the four papers, men's and women's percentages of newshole increased in all four papers. This indicates that men's and women's stories received greater prominence with headlines and graphics than both-gender and neutral stories.
Women's stories measured with text and graphics were still generally the shortest stories overall, although the differences were minimal. In the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, the average space devoted to women's stories was greater than men's 27.1 inches to 26.9, but trailed both (28.5) and neutral (30.7) categories.
Table 6. Average Story Length - Newshole Inches

The data also show that men's stories outnumbered women's stories between 4.3-1 in the Marin Independent-Journal and 7.8-1 in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Overall, men's stories outnumber women's stories 5.5-1. The numbers remain fairly consistent in column inches, where the differences ranged from 4.5-1 in the Independent Journal to 9.4-1 in the Chronicle and 6.2-1 overall.
In overall newsholes, space devoted to men's stories outdistanced space to women's stories between 4.4-1 in the Independent-Journal and 9.2-1 in the Examiner, with an overall difference of 5.8-1.
Table 7. Page 1 Coverage



Men's stories are also 6.3 times more likely to appear on page 1 than women's stories. In fact, men's stories are 2.5 times more likely to appear on page 1 than all other stories combined. Men's total inches on page 1 (13,701) were 5.5 times that of women's (1,507), and 2.5 times that of all other page 1 inches.
The Marin Independent-Journal and Santa Rosa Press-Democrat gave the most page 1 coverage to women's sports.
The Independent-Journal had the smallest discrepancy. Men's page 1 stories outnumbered women's stories 4.4-1. The ratio of men's text inches was 5.2 times that of women's inches and total inches were 4.6 times that of women.
The Press-Democrat had 6.2 times more men's than women's stories. The ratio of men's text inches was 6.6 times that of women's inches, but total inches were only 4.6 times that of women.
 The San Francisco Chronicle had the biggest discrepancy. Men's page 1 stories outnumbered women's stories by 9.8 times. The ratio of men's text inches was 12.5 times that of women's inches, but total inches were only 7.9 times that of women.
The analysis of overall coverage by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Santa Rosa Press Democrat and Marin Independent-Journal show that coverage of men's sports continues to dominate the sports sections of these papers. Despite gains for women's sports coverage from findings in earlier studies, the data show that women's sports are far from gaining anything resembling equity in coverage. It also can be noted observationally that if the coverage in college basketball roundups, sports digests, tennis and golf roundups and other items in the both-genders categories were tabulated, the results would likely show an even greater gulf between the coverage of men's and women's sports.
Smaller papers close gap
        To examine the question of whether circulation size was a factor in the differing coverages, this study used chi-square analysis.
A two-way chi-square analysis of the data for all coverage, with an n=4,152, results in a (2=65.06 (where df=6) and a p<.001. Therefore, there is a significant relationship between the newspaper and the gender mix of all sports stories published.
The data also clearly show that the smaller and mid-sized papers provide significantly more coverage of women's sports. The Marin-Independent Journal, despite having only 81 percent of the newshole of the San Francisco Chronicle, had 64 more stories or 67 percent more women's stories. The Independent-Journal also has 916.5 more text inches (72)  and 1,352 or 59 percent more total inches. Even when the Chronicle and its Sunday sister the Examiner are combined, they have fewer stories, text inches and overall inches of women's coverage despite more than 10,563 additional inches of newshole, or approximately 88 more open broadsheets of space.
The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, with a 23 percent larger newshole overall than the Chronicle (24,473.5 inches to 19,819) had nearly twice as many women's stories: 180-96. The Press-Democrat also gave more than twice as much coverage of female sports when inches of text are compared (2,658 inches to 1,275) and when overall inches are considered (4,874 to 2,290). Even when the Chronicle and Examiner are combined with a bigger newshole than the Press-Democrat, the Santa Rosa paper has 56 more stories, 932 more inches of text and 1,839 more total inches of female coverage.
Both the Independent-Journal and Press-Democrat also had more inches of both-gender stories than the Chronicle, although not as much as the Chronicle and Examiner combined. This is important because, as noted earlier, the both-gender category represents a place in which papers can include more coverage of women's sports, even if it is proportionally less than men's coverage. Unless the Chronicle and Examiner have substantially more women's coverage within the both-gender stories than either the Independent-Journal or Press-Democrat, a likelihood the rest of the data would seem to argue against, the two smaller papers would obviously further distance themselves in terms of women's coverage from the larger papers.

Individually speaking
One of the benefits of this study is that it breaks down coverage into several individual sports. More specifically, this thesis looked at a number of sports in which newspapers had opportunities for equitable coverage. Some of these included Stanford men's and women's basketball, overall college basketball and high school basketball. What this study found was a trend to give much greater attention to men's sports, even when women's sports were equally available and even when women's teams were equally strong. This was a trend that was apparent in all the newspapers studied, regardless of circulation size.
The lone exception was in high school basketball. And even in that arena, the boys coverage was often more comprehensive, despite the relative equality of the two sports.

The Stanford comparison
The two most easily compared and comparable programs were Stanford men's and women's basketball. In most respects, the programs were nearly identical. During the 1997-98 season, the Stanford men's basketball team compiled a 30-5 record, finishing second in the Pacific-10 Conference with a 15-3 record. Stanford eventually advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament. The team's success in the NCAA Tournament, however, came after the analysis period. The women's team was 21-6 overall record and was 17-2 in the Pacific 10. Between Jan. 11 and March 14, the Stanford men's team had 16 regular-season games: eight home games and eight road games, plus one NCAA Tournament game. The women's team had the same number of home and away games and its first NCAA Tournament game in the Bay Area on March 14 in Oakland.
Table 8. Stanford Coverage

Despite the almost identical natures of the programs, the coverage in the Bay Area newspapers was vastly different. In the four newspapers studied, Stanford men received 72 percent of the overall stories on Stanford basketball, 76 percent of the column inches and 80 percent . Overall, Stanford women's basketball stories average 14.7 inches of text per story and a meager 21.2 inches of total space. Men's stories averaged 17.9 inches of text and a whopping 33 inches of total space, indicating that far more art and graphics were given to men's stories.
In the four papers, photos of the Stanford men's basketball team outnumbered women's photos 6.5-1 and were 11 times more likely to be on the front page. The four papers ran 39 Stanford men's photographs and six pictures of the Stanford women's basketball team. The papers ran 22 Stanford men's pictures on page 1 and two women's photos on the front pages of sports.
        Not only did the Stanford men receive dominant coverage, they also received much more page 1 coverage. Among the four papers, Stanford men's games were on page 1 51 times, the women were on page 1 15 times.
College basketball
        This thesis coded 564 college basketball stories and roundups that were not specifically related to Stanford. Most of the stories were roundups of college games.
Once again, the papers heavily favored men's coverage, which outdistanced women's and both-gender roundups combined. On average the men's stories were both longer in text inches and in overall space. Of all non-Stanford college basketball stories, 300 were men's stories, 127 were women's stories, 136 were both-gender stories and two were neutral. As a result, men's-only coverage accounted for 53 percent of all college
Table 9. College Basketball Coverage

basketball coverage excluding Stanford, and 2.36 times more coverage than women's-only coverage. If men's coverage were estimated to be only half of the both-gender stories, observations show it to be much higher, then roughly 65 percent of all non-Stanford basketball coverage was given to men.
        Men's stories averaged 16.9 inches of copy and 27.4 overall inches compared to 13.7 and 22.3 for women's stories, or 23 percent longer in both measurements.
Both-gender stories averaged 15.4 inches of copy and 21.1 overall inches.
        Men's college basketball stories were also 3.9 times more likely to receive page 1 coverage, got 4.9 times more copy inches and 3.7 times more overall inches.
High school hopes
 One of the hypotheses of this study is that smaller papers do a better job of covering women's sports due mostly to their commitment to covering local women's sports, specifically high school and youth sports. In breaking down high school coverage, however, this thesis found that male stories still exceeded women's coverage, although in one paper, at least, the numbers were pretty close.
Table 10. High School Basketball Coverage


Overall, the four papers there were 24 percent more boys stories, the stories were longer and more prominently displayed both in terms of art and graphics and placement.
In page 1 presentation, boys stories outnumbered girls stories 41-25. Nine both-gender stories ran on front pages. There were 317.5 inches of boys text (7.7 inches per story) on section fronts and 909.5 total inches (22.2 inches per story). Girls stories totaled 180.5 inches (7.2 inches per story) and 394.5 total inches (15.8 inches per story). Both-gender stories totaled 98 text inches (10.9 per story) and 204 total inches (22.7 per story).
The Marin Independent-Journal appeared to have the most balanced and equitable coverage of boys and girls basketball. The Independent Journal had 54 boys basketball stories and 50 girls stories, or an 8 percent difference. However, the boys stories were shorter14.3 column inches per story to 15.2 inches and in overall inches 25.3-25.5. The paper had 30 both-gender stories measuring 516 text inches (17.2 inches per story) and 752 total inches (25.1 inches per story). The Independent-Journal had 22 boys stories on page 1 and 19 girls stories and seven both-gender stories.
 The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat 63 boys stories and 50 girls basketball stories, a  26 percent difference. The boys stories were longer in column inches 15.7-13.5 and more prominently displayed 25.7-19.9 overall inches per story. The Press-Democrat also had 29 both-gender stories averaging 19.4 text inches and 24.6 total inches per story. The Press-Democrat had 18 boys stories on page 1 and six girls stories and two both-gender stories.
The San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner, ran no girls basketball stories and only seven high school stories overall.
Professionally speaking
The San Francisco Bay Area had one thriving professional basketball team that was part of a fledgling league trying to establish itself. The Bay Area also had a fledgling, or at least bumbling, professional team in a thriving basketball league.
The San Jose Lasers and the women's American Basketball League and the Golden State Warriors and the men's National Basketball Association were two teams and leagues that played during the analysis period of this paper. At the time the analysis was done, the NBA was at a high-water mark, with Michael Jordan being in the process of leading the Bulls to another title. The Bay Area's other big NBA news at the time, although not nearly so positive, was an arbitration hearing involving Warriors guard Latrell Sprewell for an altercation in which he choked his coach, P.J. Carlesimo.
Although equity of coverage may not reasonably be expected, it is interesting to look at the disparity of coverage, keeping in mind that during the analysis period the Lasers advanced into the ABL playoffs and the ABL staged its all-star game, as did the NBA. This may also be illustrative of the way in which sports editors invariably favor established sports enterprises, often at the expense of newcomers. Add that with gender bias and the disparities are occasionally stunning.
Table 11. Professional Basketball Coverage


Warriors and NBA stories were 7.6 times more likely to appear in the papers. Women's pro basketball stories averaged just 9.5 column inches per story and very little display with only 14.2 overall inches per story. Men's pro basketball got 12.7 times more text inches and 13 times more overall inches. The four papers had eight women's pro basketball stories on page1 and 112 men's pro basketball stories on front pages, a ratio of 14-1.
Picture this
As with stories, pictures were coded male, female, both or neutral. This study counted and coded 1,449 photos. The analysis also noted placement of photos on page 1 or inside. Overall 375 photos appeared on the front pages of the sections analyzed. Of  these 73 percent (275) were men's pictures. Men's pictures appeared on page 1, 3.9 times more than women's photos (70). However, when Olympic photos are subtracted, men's photos on page 1 outnumbered women's photos 226-36. Although the Olympics ran for only two weeks in the nine weeks studied, more than half of the page 1 women's photos came from the Olympics.
Overall 1,074 photographs appeared on inside pages of the papers analyzed. Of these 817 were men's pictures, or 76 percent. Men's pictures appeared on inside pages, 4.0 times more than women's photos (203) and 3.2 times more than all other photos combined (254).
SUMMARY
The data analyzed support the hypotheses of RQ 1 and RQ 2 through chi-squares and descriptive data, including percentages, story and inch counts and total newshole measures.
As the data indicate, men's coverage continues to dominate the sports sections of the newspapers analyzed. Men have the overwhelming majority of stories in the sections and in virtually every category examined, the Olympics notwithstanding. Men's coverage also dominated in areas in which it would be reasonable to expect equitable coverage for women, such as high school and Stanford basketball, and to a lesser degree college basketball overall. Even in the Olympic coverage, there were puzzling instances in which men got better coverage, even though the women's categories appeared to have greater appeal and U.S. women enjoyed greater success.
Although women's coverage appears to have made inroads into overall coverage when compared to previous studies mentioned in the literature review, the data indicate that equity remains a seemingly distant goal and male hegemony continues to reign in the pages examined here.
The data also indicate that women's gains in coverage have happened at smaller papers and are represented almost exclusively in the coverage of local and high school girls sports.
CONCLUSION
"When one looks at the issue of the coverage of women's sports in newspapers, the issue isn't about feminism so much as fairness. Women shouldn't get more coverage because they're women; they should get coverage and recognition because they've earned it. They should get it because they "represent a welcome in our sense of what women can be and do." (Conniff, 1996)

        In terms of commitment, excellence and participation, there is little doubt that women are making huge strides on the sports landscape. However, in our culture it remains to be seen if women will ever be given equal respect and coverage, not only from the press, but also from the public as a whole. Until there is a perception shift that women are as good as men, or at least differently but not lesser abled; until it is perceived that a woman could beat or even compete with men in most sports, then the "illusion" of men's superiority (Koppett) will keep women marginalized, even if the standards of comparison are skewed in the favor of men.
        Building on the data of the Amateur Athletic Foundation (Duncan et al, 1991) and other studies, this study shows that women's coverage is indeed improving, or at least becoming more comprehensive.
This study could serve as a basis from which to do more complete readership studies to see if indeed consumers believe they are getting enough women's sports. It could also provide a base for cultivation or agenda-setting research.
        Yet even if women have come a long way baby, as the Virginia Slims slogan says, there's still a distance to go. Increases in coverage make it difficult to support Gerbner's contention that sports journalism is engaging in the "symbolic annihilation" of women. But it's also hard to say that equity is being approached.
        And yet, in the often ponderous and slow moving world of shifting perception, there is no doubt that there have been significant changes in how women are perceived in the sports world. The changes in participation rates among female athletes have been nothing short of revolutionary. Go to any playground and you'll see girls competing step-for-step with boys, being assertive and not backing down. No longer are girls shy about jostling for position to get into a four-square game. To watch a girls soccer game on a Saturday morning, to watch boys and girls playing together on Little League teams and to have the chance to watch the Women's NCAA Tournament basketball final on prime-time TV is to realize that indeed, women have come a long way, baby. With miles to go before they sleep.
Slowly, but surely, this is being reflected, in albeit a small and insufficient way, by newspapers. Even the papers in this study that reported the least on women's sports had 231 percent more stories than reported in the AAF study. In seven years of declining newsholes, that is a not inconsiderable shift. Overall the percentages of women's sports stories in the papers studied in this thesis have increased three-fold over those in the AAF study.
Similarly, the 23-1 ratio of men's to women's stories that the AAF found has been reduced to 5.5-1. In addition to increases in women's sports stories, there have been dramatic increases in both-gender stories. And while these may fail to give women a place of their own, they do provide added visibility. The percentage of men's only stories has fallen from 81 percent in the AAF study to 61.6 percent in this study.
The ratio of column inches devoted to men's stories vs. women's stories has dropped from 218.8-1 to 6.2-1and the ratio of men's to women's photographs has fallen from 13-1 in the AAF story to 4-1 in this study.
These numbers provide persuasive evidence that the coverage of women's sports is much more comprehensive than it once was.
But the same measures also signify just how incomplete women's coverage was to begin with. Although it seems that a three-fold increase in the number of women's stories is something to celebrate, it's tempered by the fact that that three-fold increase only brings total coverage up to 11.2 percent overall.
It is sobering also to realize that the paper that had the highest percentage of women's coverage in this study, the Marin Independent Journal, still only averaged less than three women's stories a day, taking up less than 38 column inches, while there would be 12 men's stories, five both-gender stories and two neutral stories on an average day.
Thus it is hard to say whether the numbers in this study should be viewed as a celebration of how far we've come or an indictment of where we were.
This study suggests the most likely path for increased coverage of women's sports lies in smaller papers. However, editors at these papers should not slip into complacency, thinking that simply printing the occasional girls basketball game story and run girls statistics qualifies as gender equity. In reality there's a very large sports landscape about which they are oblivious. When high school girls coverage is eliminated from the Marin Independent-Journal's sports package, there is little that differentiates it from the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner. Without girls basketball, the Independent-Journal has only 110 female stories, compared to 124 for the Chronicle and Examiner combined. The Independent Journal would also have fewer column inches (1,722-1,433.5) and fewer total inches of women's coverage (3,035-2,367) than the two larger papers combined. However, it must also be noted that the Chronicle/Examiner in this scenario has 13,000 more inches of space, which is more than 100 broadsheets.
However, the above examples illustrate that but for grassroots coverage of a narrow scope of sports, small papers are no different from their larger competitors in covering women's sports. This also illustrates that exposure to larger quantities of women in sport at lower levels doesn't necessarily translate into a broader appreciation and more inclusive view of the sports world. Although the editors of the smaller papers give substantial coverage to local girls sports, that does not translate into greater coverage of women's sports in the larger sporting world. The different papers' handling of Olympic coverage is further evidence that the thought processes of editors in large and small papers are not so different.
Thus, it seems the improvement of coverage of women's sports will continue to be slow and tedious until editors change their views and presentations of women's sports not only locally, but globally.
Title IX has been in place for more than 25 years, but it has only been in the last 15 years that it has really taken hold. As the children of Title IX grow to adulthood, it is possible that they will succeed in pushing for equal inclusion of women in all aspects of society. Certainly, if sport succeeds in its goals of building, community, self-esteem, teamwork, etc., those who take those lessons forward will bring them to the media.
There is also the possibility that as the Internet continues to grow, other sources of information will be developed and sports sections will become irrelevant. Women will just leap past newspapers and find better ways to gain deserved and equitable recognition.















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