Women's sports coverage: online images of the 2008 Olympic Games

Jones, Dianne (2010) Women's sports coverage: online images of the 2008 Olympic Games. Australian Journalism Review, 32 (2). pp. 89-102. ISSN 0810-2686

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Abstract

A content analysis of sports photographs from the 2008 Olympic Games on ABC News Online shows greater exposure for sportswomen who stepped outside the boundaries of conventionally appropriate female behaviour to participate in power sports and team sports. Yet, in total, female athletes received far fewer photographs than male athletes. Frequent depictions of them as passive subjects rather than active competitors in their sports echoed the historic and stereotypical treatment of women in sports media. News Online's coverage was heavily tilted towards three types of sports – swimming, athletics and basketball – limiting the opportunity for portrayals of successful female and male athletes in lesser-profile Olympic sports. The findings of this study are also compared with News Online's reporting of two previous consecutive Olympics.

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Item Type:	Article (Commonwealth Reporting Category C)
Refereed:	Yes
Item Status:	Live Archive
Additional Information:	Published version deposited with permission of publisher.
Faculty / Department / School:	Historic - Faculty of Arts - Department of Mass Communication
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2011 02:19
Last Modified:	16 Feb 2015 05:25
Uncontrolled Keywords:	media coverage; sports; women; women's sports; Olympic Games; 2008
Fields of Research :	20 Language, Communication and Culture > 2001 Communication and Media Studies > 200101 Communication Studies 19 Studies in Creative Arts and Writing > 1903 Journalism and Professional Writing > 190301 Journalism Studies 20 Language, Communication and Culture > 2002 Cultural Studies > 200205 Culture, Gender, Sexuality
Socio-Economic Objective:	E Expanding Knowledge > 97 Expanding Knowledge > 970120 Expanding Knowledge in Language, Communication and Culture
URI:	http://eprints.usq.edu.au/id/eprint/18187

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