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Jenna LaPlante Professor Babe MIT 3000 Thursday, December 2, 2010 Quantitative Content Analysis: Gender Bias in Local Sports Media Coverage Introduction Gender inequality is an age old issue dating back to ancient Greece where physical education was offered exclusively to males. Although women have been integrated into the once male dominated realm of athleticism, there still exists the question of bias. The media plays a role in maintaining an underlying hegemonic message that the relationship between athleticism and femininity are naturally disregarded. Print media in particular naturalizes the hierarchical gender relations in sports, promoting unequal opportunities for practicing and appreciating high level sports. The intent of this research is to provide a quantitative analysis of media portrayals and the amount of coverage focused on female athletes at the University of Western Ontario, as reflected in the London Free Press and the Western Gazette. Theory The media play a large role in how consent is obtained. Sports media in particular assists in upholding antiquated definitions of gender and negative stereotypes of women who do not conform to the traditional notions of femininity. This type of masculine hegemony provides little support for the promotion and appreciation of womens sports, thus presenting the question of gender power relations in the media. Elite female athletes should be defined and recognized for

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their athleticism just like any male athlete, therefore balanced coverage in terms of the amount of articles, their size and their prominence should be easily identified in the print media. Research Intent The intent of this research, carried out through an investigation of local print media coverage, is to conceptualize media and sports as reaffirming hegemonic masculinity. Through the examination of the only two newspapers that are largely liberal and cover Western varsity athletics on a daily basis, the research seeks to extract evidence of gender bias in its content. Furthermore, by examining the types of articles printed, the target audience can be deduced. Ultimately, conclusions can be drawn regarding potential inequality in the representation of female athleticism in the Western Sports sections. In addition, exploring the nature of gender power relations in the media may provide support for or against the promotion of womens sports in society. In this case, analyzing two primary newspapers that display Westerns varsity athletics on a regular basis will provide an understanding of gender bias in sports coverage. Hypothesis Due to the liberal mindset of the London Free Press and the student governed Gazette, it is believed there should be equal coverage surrounding both men and women athletics. However, it is hypothesized that there may be a disparity in the length of coverage and types of stories discussed. Upon further research, it is evident that the amount of games and events that each gender participates in varies by month. In each month, while female athletes participate in more events than male athletes, it is still hypothesized that male sports teams will receive more coverage.

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By studying how often gender is reported, inferences can be made about the bias of media coverage in sports. In accordance with the hypothesis the following questions will be answered: Do male or female sports teams receive more coverage? What are differences in the number of words written about either gender? Do gender specific articles favour certain themes (ie. Player profile)? What is the theme of each article? What does the majority of reporting tell about the audience? Is there a correlation between the number of articles written and the number of gender specific sporting events per month? Sampling Frame Universe The analysis of news content plays an important role in disclosing subtle biases in the way the news is reported. The presence and portrayal of gender in news media involves complex judgements of stereotypes and relative incidences of favouritism when it comes to male versus female coverage of sports. There were several steps involved in developing a sampling strategy. Foremost, a universe was established. The universe refers to the totality of recorded information regarding the characteristics that will be inferred. This population was chosen based on the nature of the information included and its relevance to the research questions. The Sports section in the London Free Press (LFP) and the Western Gazette (Gazette) newspapers were analyzed because both contain daily articles about the Western Mustang athletes. The major question in this study concerns the quantity of actual coverage in print of mens versus womens athletic events. Through selecting a small sample of news coverage

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relevant to the coding process, quantitative patterns were extracted and analyzed. The sample data is illustrative of patterns surrounding strong gender bias in the media. In this particular case, all articles published in the sports section of the Gazette and the LFP in the months of February and November 2010 were used as a sample of the universe. Selecting the unit of analysis was extremely important because it was comprised of the elements that will end up being classified. Every article, summary and score posted in the sports section about a Western Varsity team was analyzed in terms of its overall content. This did not include headings or captions under pictures. The press coverage of sporting events was measured by counting the number of gender specific articles, the length of the articles and the theme of the articles. Methodology Coding and Categories The process of coding is mainly one of selective reduction. This is the central idea in content analysis that works by breaking down the qualitative contents of the text into meaningful and pertinent quantitative information. In this particular case, the text was examined and coded for the existence of articles relating to female athleticism at Western. Too few categories can lead to unreliable or invalid conclusions; therefore it is import to create enough categories to avoid overlapping in the coding procedures. The category system must be mutually exclusive so that the units of analysis fall into only one category. For example, articles were obtained from two newspapers, both of which cover the Western Mustangs on a daily basis (Monday-Friday). These were chosen because they are both local newspapers targeting university students as their main audience. The articles found were divided into three

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categories for comparison: men-only, women-only and both. Stories in the men and women only categories were strictly focused on the respective gender, where as stories in the category marked both contained information about both mens and womens sports in one article. After an article was coded for gender, it was then coded according to the research questions. The number of words per article were used as the appropriate methodology to test for quantitative bias. The products of a quantitative content analysis tend to be deductive in that categorical schemes and coding rules are developed prior to analyzing the data. An a priori, nominal quantification system was used in order to categorize the data and ensure exhaustivity. The frequency of occurrence of each unit in each category was calculated. Thus, the data was logically categorized in terms of the types of stories that received coverage. This included: Feature story: this includes articles with more than 300 words regarding a player, a team or an event that does not include a game summary rather it highlights their future, speaks about an issue or profiles a team Game/ Event Summary with quotes: this includes articles that summarize the game or event and include quotes Game/Event Summary without quotes: this includes articles that summarize the game or event without including quotes Scores and Stats: this is a short article that lists the score, player or team stats of a game or event Score only: this is limited to displaying only final results from the game or event without acknowledging individual stats

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Further quantitative research was performed for a second analysis. The constructed categories included the specific content or theme of the article including: Player Profile: an article that focuses on a specific player; this includes their accomplishments or future goals but does not include a summary of their previous game Team Profile: an article that focuses on the accomplishments or problems of a specific team; this excludes articles that include game summaries Game Summary: this includes articles summarizing a previous game or event; it also includes stats and scores These categories are reliable in that there is little discrepancy as to their subjective meaning, thus coders do not have to be specifically trained in order to fully understand the procedure. This quantification system allows for replicability given that any coder can attempt the procedure several times and receive the same results. These units of analysis allow the procedure to measure exactly what it is supposed to measure. Gendered athletics is not a subjective theme, thus categories do not overlap and the procedure is valid. Preliminary Research This chart displays the gender equality of participation in athletics at Western. There are 19 teams for both male and female athletes to participate, thus there should not be an inequality in coverage because there are an equivalent number of teams for both genders to report on.

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Western Sports Teams Sport Badminton Basketball Baseball Cross-Country Curling Fencing Field Hockey Figure Skating Football Golf Ice Hockey Lacrosse Rowing Rugby Soccer Squash Swimming Tennis Track and Field Volleyball Water Polo Wrestling TOTAL Male Teams YES YES YES YES YES YES --YES YES YES -YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES 19 Female Team YES YES -YES YES YES YES YES -YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES -YES 19

Quantitative Results and Analysis (For the following results, the generated tables are listed in the appendix) Number of Stories Womens sports coverage was foremost ascertained by comparing the number of articles and their word count on male and female athletes. The data from Table 1 was compiled and a graph was created. Figure 1demonstrates the vast difference in the number of articles covering athletics in men versus women. Comparatively, male sports coverage in the London Free Press in February is 16% higher than female sports coverage. In November, latter receives 42% less coverage. The margins in the Gazette are much higher. In February, male sports teams receive

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44% more coverage than female sports teams, and in November the Sports section is dominated by male sports teams again, covering their teams 62% more often. Figure 1: The LFP and the Gazette: Number of Sport Related Articles Per Gender in November and February
80

70
60 50 40 WG November WG February LFP November LFP February

30
20 10 0

Male Athletes

Female Athletes

Both Teams

Length of Stories When the amount of words per article was considered, higher values were found in the male categories compared to the female categories. The significant differences found among genders are accounted for in Table 2. Figure 2 accounts for the total number of words printed regarding on the subject of male sports teams versus female sports teams. It is evident that the newspapers write an extensive amount of words regarding male sports teams compared to female. The Western Gazette writes 85% more content about male sports teams in November 2010 alone. Combined, in two months, the LFP and the Gazette write a total of 23,204 more words on male athletes which is a total of 87% more or a ratio of approximately 27:4. This information can tell the position and attitude the specific medium has on the subject. This proves

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the insignificance of the female sports, because if there are fewer words, the article topic is not seen as salient, rather they are regarded as trivial. Figure 2: LFP and Gazette, Total Number of Words Representing Male and Female Athletes
30000 25000 20000 WG November

15000
10000 5000 0 Male Athletes Female Athletes

WG February LFP November LFP February

* results do not include mixed gender coverage Coverage Relative to Participation in Sporting Events Taking the analysis a step further, the amount of games and events per team, per gender were calculated and compared to the coverage for that month. Table 3 and Figure 3 show the number of events in February and November.

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Figure 3: Total Number or UWO Sporting Events Per Month, Per Gender

Games/Events in February

52% 48%

Men's Games Women's Games

Games/Events in November

60%

40%

Men's Games Women's Games

*results do not include mixed gender coverage As indicated in Figure 1, stories about men appeared far more frequently than stories about women. However, in both February and November, more female sports were being played at Western, thus there should have been favourable coverage surrounding female sporting events.

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Of the 99 games played in November by both sexes, 59 were played by female athletes. There were only 20 articles in both the Gazette and the LFP (Table 1) that covered female athletics where as 41 articles were written about male athletes, which is 36 % more. These results show the partiality in media coverage as women sports should have received 20% more coverage if compared to the amount of games played. Overall coverage of females remains lower than males. Women have tended to be vastly underrepresented relative to their participation. Figure 3 demonstrates that womens sports receive proportionally less coverage than mens sports relative to participation. For example, in November, the amount of words written about female athletes was 1191, compared to 7292 for men. The 14% coverage on female athletes compared to their 60% participation is not balanced. There should have been more words written on female athletes because there were more events to cover. Women received extremely poor coverage in relation to the number of events. Number of Articles in London Free Press in February Type of Story Feature Story Game/Event Summary with quotes Game/Event Summary without quotes Score and Stats Score Total Mens Team 17 5 2 Womens Team 5 3 2

15 2 41

(46%)

5 5 20 (30%)

Types of Articles in The London Free Press in February and November Type of Articles Player Profile Team Profile Game Summary Total Mens Team 5 13 23 41 Womens Team 2 4 14 20

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Number of Articles in the Gazette in February and November Type of Story Feature Story Game/Event Summary with Quotes Game/Event Summary without quotes Scores and stats Scores Total Mens Team 10 15 0 Womens Team 2 2 1

1 0 26 (72%)

0 1 6 (28%)

Types of Articles in The Gazette in February and November Type of Articles Player Profile Team Profile Game Summary Total Mens Team 0 10 16 26 Womens Team 0 3 3 6

When simply looking at the game or event summary, mens quotes were used in 9 more articles than womens, and mens game summaries were rarely written without quotes. The types of articles written tell a lot about the audience. Focusing on giving praise or recognition to individual male athletes and their teams was far more recognizable than those written about female athletes. Player profiles on male athletes outnumbered female athletes by a ratio of 5:2. Male team profiles dominated female team profiles by a ratio of 23:7. Both types of stories privilege and recognize athletics talents more than a quick game summary proving that female athleticism is seen as trivial and deserves less recognition and appreciation than male athleticism.

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Results and Description References to male athletics strongly outnumbered references to female athletics which suggest gender bias in news coverage. The number of articles and their word count written about female athletes was as hypothesized less than those written about male athletics. Hegemonic masculinity was reinforced significantly through the types of articles written. Women appeared more often in shorter stories and when examining the content of the stories, men received extensive profiles on their team and specific athletes. It was predicted and assured that although women participate in more sporting events per month, coverage still favoured male athletes. Limitations and Self-Critique The question of reliability is a primary concern in a qualitative content analysis. After discussing the chosen categories and reaffirming the results with another coder, the study was reliable. The categories did not require extreme coder training as they were particularly straightforward and very objective. The study is reliable and replicable because if repeated, similar conclusions would result. The coding instructions and category definitions were fully explained and any confusion or overlapping was eliminated prior to data collection. Although the facts and data analysis that were provided seem reliable, the sampling size and method was a major limitation in the final data. For example, expanding the sample from two months to four could have made a difference in the results, thus providing a stronger result. Furthermore, choosing the month of November as part of the sample did not provide valid results because the hype surrounding mens football at Western plays a large role in the amount of articles and types of articles written. The football season is known to be one of Westerns beloved traditions, thus a large portion of coverage is allotted to the football team. Additionally,

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further research could have been carried out in terms of analyzing the amount of coverage for each gendered sport and comparing the results. The information gathered and quantified focused on news content in textual form only, thereby excluding analysis of visual coverage. Privileging the text over image, rather than incorporating both in the study could potentially change the results or strengthen the hypothesis. This is particularly regrettable because images could have been dissected, thus providing further insight as to the specific types of gender bias in sports media coverage (ie. more action shots of male sports teams). Moreover, whether it is print, visual, news, advertisement, entertainment, there is no suggested research domain for content analysis. Quantification of content units makes it possible to reduce data and characterize its variation with statistics such as percentages and averages. With proper training, coders can calculate acceptable levels of reliability, even when measuring concepts or variables in news content. The unlimited possibilities may be extended and individual variables can be developed and discussed empirically and thus, used reliably. Overlooking gender specific descriptors further limited the results. Although its exclusion made the intercoder reliability more accurate, it would have benefitted the argument of gender stereotyping. Specific themes or keywords extracted from the article would have allowed for the analysis of evidence regarding the tone of the article and how women are portrayed. While several themes appear to demonstrate a shift toward male sports teams, providing the raw numbers may evoke an overly pessimistic picture of the equality of womens representation in newspaper. Therefore, in addition to investigating the amount of coverage, it may be valuable to analyze the types of sports covered and the larger, more subjective issues such as the tone of the articles.

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To improve the study, Figure 3 depicts the sporting events played in February by both genders. These results could have been compared to the article specific coverage which includes what sport the article was written about. This would have levelled the playing field in terms of getting rid of over covered sports such as football which is thought to have skewed the data. Sport Basketball Hockey Volleyball Squash Mens Teams 7 9 6 2 Womens Teams 7 4 6 2

Given the results, the study confirmed the underreporting of womens sports even though there are many events and athletes that could be reported. The obvious question remains: why arent more stories being written about female athletes and to answer this question, researchers must move beyond the qualitative study of print media. The attitudes and opinions of readers and editors, the budget and staff constraints and the pressure to sell newspapers are other factors that play a role in the results. Conclusion Quantitative content analysis primarily determines the effects of communication in an objective and systematic way. The research questions were most productively analysed by rigid statistical procedures and quantitative analysis because given the nature of the questions such as those surrounding unequal coverage, it must be proven quantitatively rather than qualitatively. As hypothesized, there were significantly larger proportions of male sports team coverage and the noticeable tilt in the coverage could suggest many implications. The media uses several techniques to subordinate the female athletes. The amount of articles dedicated to female

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athletes, the number of words written in each article and the types of articles written do not represent womens achievements in sports equally. The overwhelming media coverage of male sports teams reflects the hegemonic masculinity in everyday sport reporting. The media is undermining and trivializing womens accomplishments in sports and reinforcing the notion that sports pertain to men. In fact, the data shows that female sports are greatly underreported in local newspapers. Gender equality would be achieved when the participants in both mens and womens sports programs received equal coverage or at least proportional coverage to the amount of events per month. The notion of equal representation reflects an important societal goal in that both genders are given the same opportunity and praise to participate in athletics. Media coverage of sports has the ability to set the agenda. Newspaper editors make decisions about what will be covered in each issue, and it can be argued that they are giving the public what they want. Content decisions are bounded by audience desires, thus, indicating that the audience enjoys sport coverage about male teams rather than female.

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Appendix Table 1: The London Free Press (LFP) and the Western Gazette Newspapers, Number of sportrelated articles by Gender, (February and November 2010)* Newspaper/Publication Male Teams Month LFP February 18 (46%) LFP November 23 (66%) Gazette February 5 (72%) Gazette November 21 (77%) *includes sports statistics *does not include standings Female Teams 12 8 3 4 (30%) (22%) (28%) (15%) Mixed Teams 9 4 0 2 (24%) (11%) (0%) (8%)

Table 2: LFP and Gazette, Total Number of Words Representing Male and Female Athletes Newspaper Number of Words representing Male Athletics 7348 7252 3102 9790 Number of Words Representing Female Athletics 4916 1191 922 1759 Amount of words written about male athletes female athletes 2432 6061 2180 8031

London Free Press February London Free Press November Western Gazette February Western Gazette November

Table 3: Total Number of UWO Sporting Events Per Month Per Gender Month # of Male Sporting Games/Events 24 40 # of Female Sporting Games/ Events 26 59 Total Number of Sporting Games/ Events 50 99

February November

* does not include mixed gender sporting events (ie. Squash tournaments and curling)