Women Vs. The Media Coverage in

the OlympicsBy: Katie Sholtis

What interested me?

• ESPN only spent about 1.4% of it’s time covering women’s sports in 2009• The Olympics seem to make the

coverage equal• The addition of women’s ski jumping

in the 2013 Sochi Winter Olympics

Title IX

• A United States initiative to require more equality in women’s sports

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”• Caused an increase in women’s sports in the U.S. • Did not have much impact on the global level or in the Olympics

Women’s Olympic Participation

• 1900 was the first Olympics where women participated.

• In 1964, women accounted for 13% of athletes.

• The International Olympic Committee works every year to increase participation from women

• 44% of the athletes in the 2012 summer Olympics were women

Charlotte Cooper from the UK became the first female Olympic Champion in the 1900 Olympics

Media Coverage in the US

• Studies show that women are not underrepresented in the media during the Olympics• Women tend to be overrepresented in newspaper

pictures• In 2004, NBC spent 27 hours covering men and

23 hours covering women’s sports

International Media Coverage

• A study was conducted looking at newspapers in the following countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, and Italy• Results show that women are covered just about the

same as men• We cannot make generalizations for other countries such

as China and those countries in the Middle East where women may have a lower status than men

How do we perceive women’s sports?

• Camera angles and they types of shots can make a big difference in the way we perceive a sporting event• Do cameras make women’s sports visually less

exciting?• Which women’s sports are covered on TV?• Typically sports considered “feminine” sports are

featured more than others such as gymnastics and figures skating

Camera Production

• Types of camera angles and techniques are featured in the picture on the following slide

• Long shot: we can see the object and much of it’s surroundings• Close up: we see mostly the object and not much background• The camera also has a point of view such as eye level, and

birds eye view• A variety of camera angles and shots or lack there of can give

us the perception of more or less excitement

How are Women Portrayed?• A large portion of the women’s sports covered on

TV are the sports where women wear the least amount of clothing

• Women are portrayed as more of a sexual figure rather than an athlete.

• Swimming, diving, gymnastics, and beach volleyball accounted for ¾ of NBC’s Olympic coverage of women in 2004

• Women’s court volleyball was not covered despite winning the Silver medal

So What?• The issue is not which gender is

covered more, but rather how each gender is covered on TV and by the media

• The issue concerns the overall image of women in the Olympics

• Media coverage will never be exactly half and half but maybe someday women will be equally represented in the number of events available to them