Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.
Gender inequality in sports is a major problem, which encompasses gender discrimination, the wage gap, unequal representation of male and female athletes, less media attention and the biased coverage of womens events. According to Adams and Tuggle, despite the growing participation of women in competitions at all levels, coverage of womens sports remains inferior to that given male sports across all media (237). The analysis of the ESPN coverage of sporting events shows that, although women are portrayed mostly equally, they generally receive less media attention than men.
The analyzed video is the intro to the first day of the 2021 Australian Open broadcasted by the ESPN channel in February 2021. The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually in Melbourne, Australia, which features both male and female players. In the video, the four most prominent players participating in the tournament are mentioned, and the winners of the last years Australian Open are presented.
The video does not feature any particular gender framing devices. It mentions both male and female players, who are given equal screen time and portrayed in a gender-neutral manner. The only difference that can be noted is in the footage presenting the winners of the last years Australian Open. Naomi Osaka, who became the champion in womens singles, is shown crying, while Novak Djokovic, the winner of mans singles, is shown triumphantly raising his hands ( 2021 Australia Open on ESPN Intro 00-00:03:28-00:03:54). However, the choice of the shots can be explained as accurately depicting the players reactions to their victories rather than an attempt to portray women as more vulnerable.
While the video does not contain any gender bias, the overall analysis of the ESPN coverage of sports events shows some gender discrimination. On the ESPN YouTube channel, most videos focus on mens events, and it is hard to find commentary on womens sports. The channel has a special playlist on womens sports, but it has not been updated for a long time ( espnW ). Overall, it can be concluded that although women are generally presented in a neutral manner in sports commentary, they receive significantly less coverage than men.
References
2021 Australian Open on ESPN Intro. YouTube. Web.
Adams, Terry, and Charlie Tuggle. ESPNs SportsCenter and Coverage of Womens Athletics: Its a Boys Club. Mass Communication & Society, vol. 7, no. 2, 2009, pp. 237248.
espnW [Playlist]. YouTube, 2020. Web.
Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.