Full Description
Despite the position that sport occupies at the centre of public attention, and despite the billions of consumers and immense coverage which it attracts from around the globe, it seems that the media prioritise coverage of only a very small fraction of sporting events, and a few prominent athletes. It goes without saying that sport in the media is dominated by men - they are a large majority among athletes, consumers, journalists, and producers.
This book will shed new light on the long discussed question of gendered sporting coverage, in an era when the Olympics can be dubbed the 'women's games'. Some of the contributions present new perspectives such as: the relationship between media and sport in Poland; media presentations of men and women in gender 'adequate' and 'inadequate' sports; competition between women and men participating in the same events; the presentation of celebrities; and the framing of doping within the context of gender relations. Furthermore, the book focuses not only on athletes, sports and events, but also on consumers, such as hooligans and their brand of masculinity, and on journalists, such as Mike Penner, who attempted to transgress gender boundaries. This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.
Contents
Introduction 1. Fairy tales? Marion Jones, C.J. Hunter and the framing of doping in American newspapers 2. The female 'apologetic' behaviour within Canadian women's rugby: athlete perceptions and media influences 3. Are women still the 'other sex': gender and sport in the Polish mass media 4. Mike Penner 'or' Christine Daniels: the US media and the fractured representation of a transgender sportswriter 5. Hit and tell - Swedish hooligan narratives 6. Gender and politics at the 2012 Olympics: media coverage and its implications 7. Constructing gender differences: newspaper portrayals of male and female gymnasts at the 2012 Olympic Games 8. The rocker and the heroine: gendered media representations of equestrian sports at the 2012 Olympics
