A Qualitative Study of Female Sportswriters’ Attitudes On
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Texas A&M Repository ON THE SAME TEAM? A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF FEMALE SPORTSWRITERS’ ATTITUDES ON COVERING WOMEN’S ATHLETICS A Dissertation by BRYAN CHRISTOPHER BUTLER Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2008 Major Subject: Kinesiology ON THE SAME TEAM? A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF FEMALE SPORTSWRITERS’ ATTITUDES ON COVERING WOMEN’S ATHLETICS A Dissertation by BRYAN CHRISTOPHER BUTLER Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, Michael Sagas Committee Members, Gregg Bennett George Cunningham Arnold LeUnes Head of Department, James Eddy May 2008 Major Subject: Kinesiology iii ABSTRACT On the Same Team? A Qualitative Study of Female Sportswriters’ Attitudes on Covering Women’s Athletics. (May 2008) Bryan Christopher Butler, B.S., Texas A&M University; M.S., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Michael Sagas Women’s athletics regularly receives less media coverage than men’s athletics, and female athletes are often portrayed in ways that de-emphasize their athletic abilities. Previous researchers have suggested that increasing the number of women who work in sports media might improve coverage for female athletes. Ten women sportswriters who work at daily newspapers were interviewed to explore how they perceived covering women’s sports. Most of the sportswriters said that they did not feel any preference toward covering women’s athletics. They said they were more interested in finding good stories to write than pursuing stories based on gender. The sportswriters also suggested that men’s sports received more coverage because sports fans were more interested in men’s sports. Most of the women said that their bosses do not expect women to cover women’s sports because of their gender, but that newspapers’ use of the beat system encourages sportswriters of both sexes to cover the top men’s professional sports and college football. iv The widespread use of beats to cover sports and the acknowledgement of what sports constitute the top beats suggests that the profession and the larger field of sports journalism can influence what sports sportswriters want to cover. Organizational culture, new institutionalism, and Bourdieu’s field theory can help explain how the sportswriting profession and sports media practices influence sportswriters’ decisions on what sports are desirable to cover. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Michael Sagas, for his help and support through this research and through all of my graduate studies. I also would like to thank my committee members, Dr. George Cunningham, Dr. Gregg Bennett, and Dr. Arnold LeUnes. Their guidance and patience improved this research as well as my future work. Thanks are also due to Vicki Michaelis, the president of the Association for Women in Sports Media, who helped me find sportswriters willing to be interviewed, as well as to the sportswriters who took the time to tell me their experiences. Dr. Marie Hardin at Penn State University and Elaine Sharpe of The Houston Chronicle provided insightful advice that helped guide my research. Fellow students, faculty, and staff at Texas A&M University provided valuable assistance by keeping me focused and on track throughout this process. I also want to thank my family and friends who believed in me, particularly my parents, but most of all my wife, Sara. Without their love and support, I would still be working on this research. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT....................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................. v TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................... vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 1 Problem Statement................................................................ 6 Research Questions .............................................................. 7 Significance of the Study ..................................................... 7 Researcher as Instrument ...................................................... 7 Delimitations........................................................................ 9 Contents of the Dissertation.................................................. 10 II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ................................................ 12 Sports Media and Female Athletes........................................ 12 Women in Sports Media ....................................................... 16 Research Questions .............................................................. 19 Summary of the Review of the Literature ............................. 20 III METHODS.................................................................................... 22 Rationale for a Qualitative Study .......................................... 22 Research Paradigm ............................................................... 23 Gaining Access..................................................................... 23 Selecting Participants ........................................................... 24 Procedure ............................................................................. 25 Data Analysis and Trustworthiness....................................... 26 The Participants.................................................................... 28 IV RESULTS ..................................................................................... 31 ‘It’s Part of the Job’.............................................................. 32 Beat Assignments ................................................................. 41 vii CHAPTER Page Newspapers’ Coverage of Women’s Sports .......................... 44 A Good Story ....................................................................... 49 External Factors.................................................................... 52 Research Question One......................................................... 58 Research Question Two........................................................ 60 Research Question Three ...................................................... 62 Chapter Summary................................................................. 63 V DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ............................................ 65 Organizational Culture.......................................................... 66 New Institutionalism and Field Theory ................................. 71 Accepting the Status Quo...................................................... 75 Myth of Professionalism....................................................... 80 Hierarchy of Men’s Sports.................................................... 83 Specialty Coverage............................................................... 87 Limitations ........................................................................... 88 Areas of Future Research...................................................... 89 Conclusion ........................................................................... 90 REFERENCES................................................................................................... 93 APPENDIX A .................................................................................................... 102 APPENDIX B .................................................................................................... 103 VITA.................................................................................................................. 104 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Congress passed Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act in 1972 with a goal of providing equal educational opportunities for women and girls (Taylor, 2005) and, as a result, sport participation among these persons has increased (Salter, 1996; Theberge, 1985). However, despite the growing numbers of female athletes and an increase in the numbers of sports in which they compete, many studies support the claim that men’s sports receive more media coverage than women’s sports, by sport and by medium, and that female athletes are often portrayed in ways that downplay their athleticism (Billings & Eastman, 2002; Eastman & Billings, 2000; Higgs, Weiller & Martin, 2003; Lumpkin & Williams, 1991; Pedersen & Whisenant, 2002). Journalism also has long been a male domain (Hardin & Shain, 2005), and it was not until the 1970s that journalism departments really started to accept women in large numbers (Lavie & Lehman-Wilzig, 2003). Researchers have only recently studied sports media using feminist perspectives when compared to other media research (Creedon, 1994), starting at roughly the same time that research started looking more closely at sport and its effects in society (Theberge, 1985). One reason researchers overlooked sports journalism as an area of research is because of the low status of sports departments in newsrooms – sports departments were frequently called the “Toy Department” or “Toyland” (Creedon, 1994, Wanta, 2006). Another reason that scholars might have overlooked sports is that opportunities in sports were limited for women This dissertation follows the style of the Journal of