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This study aimed to better understand the media coverage between male and female sports journalists through Instagram posts.
RQ1
RQ1
Table 1: Cross-tabulation between male and female sports journalists and whether they post sports-related Instagram posts
Regarding the first research question of whether male or female sports journalists post more about personal or professional content on their Instagram accounts, each picture or video was coded. Table 1 represented 200 posts and which ones were related to sports. Dividing it by male and female showed that 50% (n=50) of the female posts were sports-related while the male journalists had a slightly higher percentage of 57% (n=57). These findings further understand how male dominance in the sports industry but only with a slight differential.
Table 2: Both male and female sports journalists posted not a lot of family in their posts.
In contrast, Table 2 compares sports journalists’ gender and the personal content published to their audience. Comparing these two tables will reveal which gender represents the sports industry more and how it influences the media coverage. Simultaneously, both males and females didn’t include any family in their posts, males having 85% (n=85) and females having 82% (n=82). They both only represented 3% (n=3) of their family posts that included sports. Female sports journalists did post more with their family of 15 % (n=15), not including sports, while males only posted 12% (n=12). The differences in percentages were low. Despite this, males were shown to be more prone to post sports-related content versus personal content.
RQ2
Table 3: Scenery Instagram post versus female and male sports journalists
The second research question focuses on the amount of content posted between male and female sports journalists. The number of posts was controlled in this research design. Looking at the post between males and females, male sports journalists posted more scenery pictures than females. These posts resulted with 16% (n=16) for males and 6% (n=6) for females. While this doesn’t show which gender posts more content overall, it does reveal that males post more landscape photographs that may include nature visuals. Both female and male sports journalists showed a high percentage of not posting scenery pictures, females resulting in 93% (n=93) while boys had a slightly lower percentage of 84% (n=84).
Table 4: Comparison of the average number of followers between male and female sports journalists
Table 5: Comparison of low and high followers between female and male
Table 4 is the single-item table representing the average of followers that each gender had. The male sports journalists had an average of 395,708.5 while females were slightly lower at 361,010. These numbers were very close, yet when it came to comparing the lowest and highest followers between the 10 females and 10 males, the males had fewer followers overall. In Table 5, the highest number of male sports journalists was 3 million followers that affected the average amount of followers for males significantly. Compared to females, the top female had the most followers with 1.2 million. If one examines the lowest followers for males, the results showed that males had only 203 followers while females had 37,500, a significant difference.
RQ3
Table 6: Gender of the sport being posted about by a male or female sports journalist
The last research question asks if female sports journalists cover more women's sports than men’s sports. The single item analysis in table 6 exemplifies which gender of the sport was published more by the journalists themselves. Men’s sports represented 39.5% (n=79) of the 200 posts while women’s sports only had 3% (n=6) in the posts. Overall, the sports journalists’ Instagram profiles did not post about sports resulting in 55% (n=110) of the content.
Table 7: Women sports were posted significantly less by both male and female sports journalists.
A cross-tabulation analysis between the gender of sports journalists and the gender of the sports posted allows a deeper look at how each sports journalist represents sports gender in their posts. Male sports journalists had higher percentages representing male sports at 48% (n=48) and the same percentage for no sport in the post. On the other hand, female sports journalists had a high percentage of 62% (n=62) with no sports in their posts and then 31% (n=31), including men’s sports. Women sports were both below 5% (n=5) for all the 200 posts.
Photo from New York Post
Additionally, this begins with reaching out to a younger generation in college and researching specific institutions that include sports journalists programs. If the numbers are low in participation in these programs, this reaches the starting point of where change can happen. Yet this also relies on professionals to educate the younger generation as well. Schmidt (2013) encourages higher education leaders to help influence the younger generations.“If journalism faculty members make a conscious effort to increase their own in-class discussion of women’s sports, and sports reporters who are women, it will be possible for educators to signal that equality of participation and coverage is the appropriate professional standard for sports journalists” (262). While finding the start of the issue can advance gender equality for women in the sports industry.
Read the limitations and conclusion to the study here:
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