Anything you can do I can do better? Vincent Equitable Media Questions..

Part 2 of my assignment for class.
___________________________________________

After having taking classes such as "Women, Sport, and Culture" and "Inequality in Sport" and even writing as a sports reporter for The Daily Iowan, I have probably seen and (discussed) the difference in equitable media coverage of male and female athletics way more than I would like to. I've even experienced it with the DI on some occasions.

In John Vincent's study he found that the coverage of female athletics were far less than that of male sports. Surprising? Not really. This is because of socially constructed sex stereotypes that many people have in their minds. Stereotypes of how men and women should be. Men should be athletes. They should show aggressiveness and competitiveness while women should sit at home and be graceful and look nice (not something I believe in). For many years, that's what people believed (maybe still do) and that's what been reinforced by society.

In his piece, one fact that stood out to me was that he cited that only 10 percentage of print coverage is dedicated to female athletics while male sport seem to get all the glory. As he states:

"Research has indicated that female athletes competing in the traditionally 'gender-appropriate' individual sports such as swimming, diving, gymnastics, and tennis, which represent a narrow, culturally stereotyped view of female athleticism, receive more electronic and print media coverage."

Ironically, I have covered all three of those sports in my time as a reporter for the DI. Sometimes it's frustrated when the front page is dominated by Iowa football, men's basketball, or wrestling. However, ever now and then a female sports story will take the front page.

He uses examples of how Anna Kournikova and Danica Patrick, good athletes but not necessarily the best, and often they get media coverage. It's generally because they can balance their athleticism with sexuality. Vincent makes a point to discuss how weak media coverage is of women's athletics despite the increasing trend of more female getting into sports. Because of social construction, women are taught to be graceful and fill a heterosexual familiar role which is often challenge by the notion of sport.

As much as I'd love to believe that one day, things can become equal, I am still skeptical. Even with my time at the DI (almost two years), I've only covered women's sports. I really hope that's more of a coincidence rather than intentional. Vincent did make a brief mention of lack of women in sports journalism and I know with the DI, out of almost 16 people, only 3 are female (or even take a look at the breakdown of students in Sports Reporting and Writing). It sometimes confuses me to see how men react to knowing a girl can know a lot about sports.

I think media outlets are often under pressure to have to do what their audience wants (or what they think they want) and there's just such a big difference in demand for women's sport as opposed to men's. Who wouldn't want to big up a newspaper with a big front page story of how the Boston Celtics won the NBA champion as opposed to a front page with the WNBA champion, Detroit Shock. Basically, I think if people want more equitable coverage, they have to do a lot of work in destroying pre-conceived socially constructed notions about how sex and gender work. Is it accepted for women? Absolutely not. But will in change? Only time will tell.