Media Coverage In Women's Sport

At the moment people are discussing the importance of media coverage in women’s sport and whether or not it is sufficient. For many years the media has been dominated by men’s sport in not only television, but also the radio and more recently on the internet. Many people that are ‘for’ this statement believe that equalling the amount of sport in the media is not needed due to it not being as interesting as men and that there are not as many women that play sport compared to men. On the other hand people that are ‘against’ this statement are stating that it will encourage girls or other women to take part in sports and that it helps to create a more equal society. In Australia’s sports coverage it showed that over the television stations ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine and Ten the overall coverage of women’s sport is only 7.4% compared to men’s 81.1%. This shows the lack of equality in sport, but is that because the media
“More young girls may wish to take up sport if they realise that it is recognised” “Promotion of professional women’s sport to increase engagement with it and encourage young women to participate” (Onepoll.com, 2014). These statements show that a lot of people believe that if we increase media coverage of women’s sport it will help encourage young girls to get more involved and if it’s not recognised then young girls will not be exposed to the world of sport. A survey conducted in 2012 named ‘CHILDREN PARTICIPATING IN ORGANISED SPORT’ show that from ages 5-8 females have a lower participation rate in organised sports with a percentage of 50.1%, compared to men’s 61.4%. These statistics show that young girls are not as into sports as young boys and many people believe that equalling media coverage will open up young girls’ minds about