Masculinity and Sports

In this week’s reading, Hegemonic Masculinity on the Mound: Media Representations of Nolan Ryan and American Sports Culture by Nick Trujillo, we examine the close relationship of sports and masculinity. As long as there have been athletics, the idea of dominance and victory have been idealized, and the vision of male hegemony has long been associated with sports and sports culture. Trujillo shows us that the media plays into this stereotype by advancing this notion through macho/manly portrayals of sports figures, in this case Nolan Ryan.

Nolan Ryan had a remarkable baseball career. I saw him pitch in 1993, nearly 25 years after he began his big league career. His longevity and pitching prowess made him a luminary in the baseball world. He was probably never considered “the best” pitcher of any one era, but his sustained excellence and his aforementioned longevity allowed him to stay relevant for much longer than the average baseball career. He played for long enough to establish quite a few prominent pitching records, including some of the most hallowed: career strikeouts and career no-hitters. When he threw his seventh and final no hitter in 1991, he was 44 years old: most pitchers careers are long finished at 44, and here is Nolan Ryan pitching his seventh no hitter! He also set the all-time strikeout record a few years earlier. Ryan has capitalized on his big league success by staying involved in the Texas Rangers organization, where he currently serves as Chief Executive Officer.

            The media had a love affair with Nolan Ryan towards the end of his career. His elder statesman and tough guy reputations were highlighted by a series of commercials in his careers’ twilight that painted him as a “man’s man.” Playing though pain and strife to achieve great things. It is strikingly similar to the media’s love affair with Brett Favre about a decade-and- a-half later. The media’s portrayal of Ryan and Favre later helped to advance the already entrenched hegemony of sports masculinity. 

Napier Week 13

The article “Hegemonic Masculinity on the Mound” by Nick Trujillo illustrates and talks about how masculinity has grown to be the dominate hegemony within sports today, and gives Nolan Ryan as the perfect, all-star athletic example.

Trujillo talks about media critics and scholars narrowing hegemonic masculinity down to five features within American culture: Physical force and control, Occupational achievement, Family patriarch, Frontiersmanship, and Heterosexuality. In journalist idolizing Ryan, it implied to the view that they should strive to be more like him. This is similar to the days of Babe Ruth where he was idolized and made into a hero who should be admired, when in actuality it was a façade.

In looking at many different authors and philosophers in my studies here at Temple, there is always an oppressed group. For example, it can be argued that in America, like in this article, masculinity is the dominate force over femininity; femininity being mostly attributed to females instead of males thus perpetuating this idea. The same can be said about black and white, rich and poor, the working –class vs. white collar.

Since the majority of news rooms have always been men, these masculine traits will not be pushed out easily. Only through diversification in the newsroom, of both female and minority journalists, can we begin to break apart these norms. 

Carlin Week 13

Our reading this week focused on hegemonic masculinity in sports and focused on the portrayal of Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan by the media. Hegemonic masculinity, the author writes, is the connecting of masculinity to toughness and competitiveness, the subordination of women and the marginalization of gay men. The author writes that there are five features of hegemonic masculinity: physical force and control, occupational achievement, familial patriarchy, frontiersmanship and heterosexuality. The reading states that arguably no other institution has influenced our perception of masculinity than sports.

The first examination of Ryan by the author is that Ryan's status as a power pitcher was "embellished" by the media. As time went on, Ryan was portrayed by the media as a power pitcher who pitched through pain, furthering the emphasis on masculinity. This referred to the first feature of hegemonic masculinity: physical force and control.

The author also writes that an emphasis on his workout routine over time showed that the media reaffirmed the Protestant work ethic. This referred to the the second feature, occupational achievement, and portrayed him as a hard worker. The media at times published and featured his entire workout routine in order to show his work ethic.

Ryan was also portrayed as a family patriarch, the third feature of hegemonic masculinity in the media. Particularly, the author writes, the media portrayed Ryan as the breadwinner, reaffirming male-female relationships and roles. This was shown through stories early in his career where he talks about his struggle to feed his family.

Ryan was also represented as a "cowboy" and frontiersman during his career. His hometown is in rural Texas, which gave the media fuel to portray him as a Western cowboy on the frontier. For example, the author cites a story where one of his games was described as a "Shootout at the O.K. Corral."

Finally, Ryan was presented throughout his career as an "acceptable image" of male sexuality. The author writes that Ryan's physique was commented on often by sportswriters, showing that the media thought Ryan served as an acceptable sexual image on a man.

Week 13 Blog

In this weeks reading by Nick Trujillo, the main focus surrounds masculinity in sports and how Nolan Ryan is the perfect example. Not only is Ryan considered the perfect male athelte, Trujillo expresses how the media considerds the former all-star as a perfect male in general. The basis of the story surrounds one term; Hegemonic Masculinity. The term as to Nick Trujillo can be considered as a connector of masculinity to toughness and competetivness, the subordination of women, and the marginalization of gay men. Nolan Ryan is arguably the best pitcher in major league history and with no “off the field” issues, all writers made him a hero; what could be considered the final time writers portrayed an athelte as a hero in stead of searching for dirt.

As these writers also portrayed Nolan Ryan as the best man in sports, they highlighted the role of women; the roles they highlighted were of ill-nature. Described as houswives, sexual objects, and care takers of chldren, it is obvious that the majority of the news rooms were men. With the mindset that women’s role in sports surrounded cheerleading, spectating and being advertising images, men were heavily favored by sports writers in every newsroom. What these men did were outrageous and did whatever they could to express the role of male dominence as a whole.

With Nolan Ryan’s prominence throughout the United States, and his “perfect hegemonic masculinity”, sports writers forced it upon readers to become more like him. This came at a time where homosexuality continued to be considered wrong, and of course, women were considered the “other” part of the population. Throughout the years we have all seen change, however the role of masculinity in the newsroom is still shown in spurts. It may not be to the extent as it were with Nolan Ryan, but the newsroom is still run by a majority of white male writers (keep in mind, Nolan Ryan was a white American).

Tansits Week 13 - Masculinity in Sports

Over the past thirteen weeks, this class has discussed the many cultural “norms” associated with media and its coverage of sports – both good and bad. This week we delved into how masculinity has grown into the dominant face of sports and sports media. Author Nick Trujillo wrote in his piece, Hegemonic Masculinity on the Mound: Media Representations of Nolan Ryan and American Sports Culture, about how the career of Nolan Ryan and the media coverage surrounding it essentially made Ryan into a hero.

Trujillo begins his writing by setting out the five features of hegemonic masculinity in American culture, which are: physical force and control, occupational achievement, familial patriarchy, frontiersmanship, and heterosexuality. The piece goes on to makes it clear that because sports are presented in the media the hegemonic masculinity is in effect presented by the media, and naturalizes the ideal to make it seem acceptable. This is a key role played by the media that through simply presenting the sports culture, it’s promoting a much larger psychological message whether it is intentional or not. Nonetheless the message is made clear and eventually picked up by advertisers and other outlets to make the masculine hegemony a cultural “norm”.

In this article, Trujillo basically takes the five features of hegemonic masculinity in American culture and shows examples of how coverage of Ryan’s career exemplifies each and everyone. Through reading the clips and bits that Trujillo pulled from major newspapers at the time they were published, an embellished picture begin to be created not so unlike that created of Babe Ruth. Writers seemed to drive this ideal that Ryan was literally “the man” of all men, in every essence of masculinity. Personally it seemed not far off from what reporters did to build up Ruth’s persona, but it was in a different more personal way invading the private life of Ryan. Overall Trujillo’s point is clear that there is a distinct hegemonic masculinity surrounding sports and that the media was the key player in building that in the case of Ryan.

Napier Week 11

"Participation in Internet Fantasy Sports Leagues and Mass Media Use," by Quint Randle and Ron Nyland looks at, as the abstract suggests, the relationship between fans that engage in fantasy sports and the media they use. Basically, those that keep uo with fantasy sports will also be looking to watching news sports, reading sports articles, and watching sporting events on television. This is made up by 15 to 18 million Americans who bring in about 1.5 billion in advertising and subscription fees.

Role-playing theory basically talks about how people place themselves into a varied collection of activities in which the participant can participate, learn, and experience sports. This is a way of challenging the individual engaged in the fantasy sports as if it was a real life event similar to playing the sport itself.

I once heard fantasy sports explained as Dungeons and Dragons for the jocks, and being a fan of fantasy and role-playing games I can personally relate to how engaged I can become in something both real and unreal.

As stated by Randle and Nyland, “fantasy sports leagues are also monster sport media users.” People begin devoting hours to watching the media to check on their stats. The more invested they are in fantasy sports, the more likely they will be to engage in media sources pertaining to the game.

-Shawn Napier

Salciunas week 11

After last weeks readings and discussions, I am still amazed as to how much revenue fantasy sports take in each year. What also blows my mind, is the fact that it continues to expand every year for every sport. With an estimate of 15 to 18 BILLION participants in fantasy sports today, "Fantasy sports has gone from hobby to big business."

There are so many areas in which fantasy sports has affected the world for journalists today; all of which are good. With shows like "The Fantasy Show", a new outlet of sports media has grown into a favorite source of news. People continue to tune in to the different shows relating the predictions of their players, and along with television, subscriptions to magazines are made just for the fantasy editions. I myself am a member of Temple Talks Philly on WHIP radio Temple's student run radio station, and I seem to make some sort of a fantasy reference every time I am on the show; and I hear it all the time and know that I am not the only one who does it. It truly is taking over, but in a good way.

Once again, a study was done to see whether or not fantasy sports has increased ratings for games to be watched especially throughout the NFL. What I never noticed before these readings is, I have succumb to the same theory that fantasy sports increases the interest in games outside of your favorite teams. "Participation in fantasy sports leagues acts as a catalyst to increase interest in and likelihood of attending real life games, reading sports material, memorizing sports trivia, and being caught up (to the exclusion of other activities) in the world of sports." I have always been an avid sports fan, but to be honest, since I began participating in fantasy sports, my level of interest increased.
  

Carlin Week 11

This week's article, "Participation in Internet Fantasy Sports Leagues and Mass Media Use," by Quint Randle and Ron Nyland, examined the propensity fantasy sports participants have to consume forms of mass media. The authors estimate that 15 million to 18 million Americans participate in fantasy sports leagues, which rake in more than $1 billion a year in subscription and advertising. The emergence of fantasy sports as an industry, the authors say, provide an opportunity for traditional media outlets to capitalize on a new market.

Through their studies, the authors found that fantasy sports participants consume more media across the board, opening a new outlet for traditional media outlets to meet a new audience. As the authors wrote in the article, "In sum, fantasy sports leagues are also monster sports media users."

While the study shows that fantasy participation is normally associated with consuming sports media, the authors said that it is not necessarily correlated with actual sports participation. They wrote that this could support the role-playing theory.

Fantasy Sports

            Fantasy sports are all the rage these days. What used to be a niche among only the most dedicated of sports nerds can now be enjoyed by millions of sports fans now due to the proliferation of the internet. In this week’s reading, Participation in Internet Fantasy Sports Leagues and Mass Media Use, authors Quint Randle and Rob Nyland examine the symbiotic relationship between sports, fantasy sports and the mass media.

            Randle and Nyland conducted a survey of fantasy sports users on their habits of viewing and reading sports coverage. Unsurprisingly, the vast number of fantasy sports users heavily consumed sports media in all platforms. They also found a significant correlation between internet usage and fantasy sports participation. What they did not find was any correlation between actual sports activity and fantasy sports. The authors pointed out that fantasy sports allow sports fans to enjoy the thrill of competition and triumph that sports fosters on a personal level. It is called fantasy sports, after all.

            I found it interesting that the authors chose to include a seemingly unrelated nugget of information regarding the differing motivations behind male and female sports fans. According to their research, male sports fans identify themselves through athletic participation and sports knowledge, while females do by attending events and rooting wholeheartedly. I find that to be highly subjective analysis.

            The authors prove their point about fantasy sports involvement and sports interest, but accomplish little else.

Tansits Week 11 Fantasy Sports

This past Sunday marks the first time in a while that a Philadelphia quarterback is amongst the highest earners in fantasy points for a given week. Nick Foles played simply out of his mind against Oakland, passing for seven touchdowns and 406 yards on 28 pass attempts. Talk about a good day. But all of the hype surrounding the day that Foles had may not have been such big news for many sports fans if they didn’t own fantasy football teams.

The article we read this week dealing with a study on fantasy sports’ relationships with the media highlighted another part of the importance of this growing phenomenon. The study went online and sent surveys to Internet users via sports discussion boards, and asked questions to answer whether or not there were correlations between fantasy users and prior sports played, amount of sports watched and amount of time on the Internet. The findings showed that fantasy league participation does have a relationship with media use in general. Not surprisingly there was also a finding that fantasy users find it important to be a sports fan. This discussion also talked about the motives behind viewing sports and the Role Playing Theory. When fantasy owners take on leagues they get to act as managers and leaders of their team, giving them a role of the owner in a real life situation and making decisions about their teams. Through the reading the importance of access to information was also a key part of fantasy sports and leagues. Now more than ever, there is a seemingly endless amount of data for fans and fantasy owners to look at and decipher to help them make decisions on their teams.

Overall this study makes it pointedly clear that there is a correlation between internet usage and fantasy ownership, along with strong relationship that the more time one spends online the more time they will spend watching sports and sports highlights. The amount of study and research into the world of fantasy sports is only in its early stages. Along with this growing activity there will come more and more data like this study to help reveal the importance of using sports media to look at fantasy sports.

Carlin Week 10

In this week's first reading, "Black Press Coverage of the East-West Classic," Brian Carroll writes that the press' partnership with the league made the East-West Classic possible.

Carroll says in the article that as the Negro Leagues bounced back, the prospect of integrating baseball became a prominent conversation that was furthered by the African-American media. The East-West Classic became a spectacle unlike anything else, except Joe Louis fights, in African-American sports. According to Carroll, the only way it was able to generate the fortune and accumulate the fame that it did, was through the marketing and coverage of the black press. Because black newspapers had a stake in the game, Carroll writes that objective reporting largely ended as they campaigned for the classic.

In the second reading, "The relationship of fantasy football participation with NFL television ratings," John Fortunato examines how fantasy football participation relates to the number of people watching NFL games on television.

Though research on the subject is still developing, Fortunato find that there is a statistically significant correlation in both ESPN and NBC games' ratings when the games featured players that started in 90 percent of the fantasy leagues that week.

Because of the evidence Fortunato presents, he urges the NFL to take fantasy implications and the popularity of players into consideration when creating the schedule before the beginning of the season in order to drive up television ratings. He also urges the NFL to not schedule potential conflicts in cities with baseball teams and says that broadcasters could cater to fantasy football participants by providing individual statistics throughout the games.

Fantasy Football and Black Baseball

             Two very diverse readings this week. In John Fortuato’s The Relationship of Fantasy Football Participation with NFL Television Ratings, we get a thoroughly numbers based study on a very modern subject, while in Brian Carrol’s A Perfect Baseball Day, we are treated to a passionate recounting of an older story. A study in contrasts for sure, and one that will certainly divide the stat people from the heart people, depending on which article you like better.

            In Fortunato’s article, he studies the ways in which fantasy football participation has expanded interest in the National Football League, specifically if it drives up television ratings. For his study, he looked at the ratings of every Sunday and Monday night football game. He then attempted to determine if higher percentages of fantasy starters in a matchup led to higher ratings. His somewhat confusing results determined that he did indeed find a correlation between fantasy players starting percentages in a matchup and the resultant TV ratings. However, that did not at all appear to be any kind of determining factor in the scheduling of games, as playoff implications are what drives a network to flex out a game late in the season- not potential fantasy owners.

            In the much more interesting Carrol article, he talks about the history of the East-West Classic. Originating in the same year as the MLB All-Star Game, the Classic was a cultural institution for the Black American community as it was a showcase of the very best colored players on the grand stage: in Major League ballparks. By 1933, the relationship between the Black Press and the Negro Leagues was beginning to deteriorate, but the Classic re-kindled the relationship with the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender and they featured them coverage of it heavily. The Classic often outdrew big league ballgames held in the same day and city and, during World War II, outdrew the MLB All-Star Game. By the time the Negro Leagues had dwindled into the twilight in 1955, with MLB well on its way toward integration, the Classic was laid to rest. As Kansas City Call sports editor John Johnson put it “Negro baseball has served its purpose.”

Salciunas week 10

After reading both "A Perfect Baseball Day", and "The Relationship of Fantasy Football Participation With NFL Television Ratings", my eyes opened to things I love that I did not know about. I always knew of the Negro Leagues and the amount of people who participate in fantasy football (to an extant), but there were multiple areas that I did not know about these two topics.

What Brian Carroll points out to me in "A Perfect Baseball Day", is a story that seems to be often untold. As an avid baseball fan, I love hearing stories about the sport. Whether it be stories of former superstars, or just the ones my father told me about his games in the local men's leagues. Throughout high school, I learned much about how baseball originated including the Negro Leagues, and after the movie 42 was shown in theatres, my interest grew; however, it took until this recent article for me to learn how much of a role black newspapers took to help push for the Negro Leagues, as well as destroy them. The coverage was absolutely phenomenal. African American's all over the country were interested in the league. Not only because it was arguably more exciting than the MLB, but it was a source of pride. Their fellow African American's stood out in every community where the teams resided, and names were becoming well-known; mainly in large part thanks to the Pittsburgh Courier, an African American run newspaper. Now as much as these newspapers portrayed the stars as heroes, every good story has to come to an end. In the 1950s, following the breaking of the color barrier in the Major Leagues of Baseball, the Negro League's began losing coverage. It got to the point where Jackie Robinson was considered a traitor to his fellow black community. The Negro League's soon diminished once the coverage moved toward players like Robinson, Roy Campanella, Larry Doby, and Monte Irvin.

Now today, you could say that everybody in America, even if they do not participate, knows or has heard of fantasy football. John A. Fortunato sure knows how to grab the readers attention when throwing out a number like 30 million. I know fantasy football is a world wide game, but never would I think a number like that would be the amount of people who participate. However, that is not the point of my response. It is exactly what the title states. Until this article that since I began participating in fantasy football, never did I notice how much my attention toward football increased. When I was younger, I would normally watch the Eagles game, put on whatever game was on after it, stop paying attention, and walk away. Although they do need to do more research to see how much a difference it has made, he made a valiant point about how the NFL needs to begin considering which games fantasy football stars are competing in and if those ratings jump. If a poll were to be taken asking if people tune in to certain games because of the fantasy football players in play, I would have to agree that I do watch it mainly because of a certain player on the field, and not the fact that I just want to watch a game between the Denver Broncos and the Jacksonville Jaguars. No love for Jacksonville here, but much for my starting quarterback Peyton Manning.   

Week 10 Post

In john Fortunato’s “The relationship of fantasy football participation with NFL television rating,” seeks to examine motivational factors and the relationship between fantasy football and television ratings as suggested by the title. While it should be safe to assume that NFL teams with high winning percentages would equal players in a high percentage of fantasy leagues, in actuality there doesn’t seem to be enough of a statistical difference to prove that it is a dominate factor. There are a multitude of factors that contribute to the television ratings of sporting events, and since this is clearly a way of gaining ratings, revenue, to would be in the interest of networks to better promote both in order to continue economic growth for the league.

The second article by Brian Carroll, “A Perfect Baseball Day,” address many of the advantages previously discussed in class about the coverage of black sporting events and the black sports journalist that covered them. As exclaimed by Pittsburg Courier editor William G. Nunn, the events of the East-West Classic were “a success from every possible point.” 20,000 black fans accompanied by 5,000 white fans made this event not only the pride of African-American culture here, but also a place of interracial good will. Carroll’s article goes on to explain how the coverage of the East-West by black journalist helped it to grow culturally and economically in a way that was likely unforeseen in the 1940’s amidst segregation. However, its success in eventually pushing for the integration of baseball was the very things that lead to the downfall of this culture hotspot for the African-American community. By the 1950’s, the Negro league was all but as disappointment and nothing more than a side-note in the Defender as noted by Carroll.

Shawn Napier

Tansits Week 10

Two very diverse readings from this week tie into our recent discussions with diversity in reporting amongst black and white media. As we have discussed in class, throughout the early 20^th century, the black media served to cover and embellish only black sporting events while the white media covered only white players in white sports. But as we read in Brian Carroll’s A Perfect Baseball Day, changes were coming by the middle of the 1900s.

The East-West Classic began in 1933, and grew into a cultural institution for the black society. Chicago’s Comiskey Park was the site for thousands to turn out to see the Negro League’s finest players on black baseball’s largest stage. But Carroll’s piece doesn’t simply highlight the significance of the East-West game. Carroll explains that through this game both owners and black newspapers (specifically the Pittsburgh Courier) used the East-West game to grow baseball culturally and economically so that by the early 1940s, the game was out earning much of white professional baseball.  This East-West Classic brought African-Americans from all over the nation to Chicago, a central meeting place where it was a culmination of sport and culture. Thousands of black baseball fans matriculated to the city, planning their vacations around the event. This All-Star game essentially became the event to see in the early 1940s baseball community. But as greed began taking over owners, the press pushed on towards the importance of the East-West Classic and of integration in baseball. Carroll wrote that the game was more than about baseball it was the heart and soul of the black sporting community. And once integration did arrive, the press gradually moved further and further from covering the Negro Leagues and eventually even the East-West Classic, which was last played in 1954. It was a bittersweet ending, with integration on the rise but an end to one of the crown jewels of black culture.

The second reading for this week covers fantasy football and how it relates to television ratings and viewership. It seems simple enough to understand that the more fans involved in fantasy football, the more likely they are to watch more games to see their players on their teams. But the research done in John Fortunato’s paper doesn’t show a very strong relationship between the two. He writes that although there has been shown to be a statistically significant relationship between the two; it’s no where near being a dominant factor in networks deciding which games to play on prime time. Nonetheless his writing does indicate the there is a role that fantasy football plays in television viewership, enough so that networks should take a look at. 

Gender Inequality in Sports Reporting and Coverage

In this week’s article, "Gender in Sports Writing by the Print Media: An Exploratory Examination of Writers' Experiences and Attitudes," by Edward Kian, we study the nature of gender roles and influences in the world of sports and sports reporting. The main point that Kian attempts to convey is that women’s sports has a much lower level of regard than men’s and female sports reporters face a continuing uphill climb in their search for equality in the newsroom and elsewhere.

            Kian describes sports in our society as being a masculine hegemony. “In hegemonic masculine societies, masculinity is the standard from which everything else is measured, and masculine traits are the most desired and valued in society” (Connell, 1995). Kian states that numerous scholars contend that sports serves as a means of upholding this idealized, male dominated society by promoting certain physical aspects that traditionally have been the domain of the masculine.

            Sports reporting reflects this attitude, both in the representative numbers of male and female sports reporters- heavily in favor of the male, and in the sports that are covered by these reporters- also dominated by the males. In a study conducted of six sports reporters nationwide- varying heavily in experience, issues covered and of both genders, Kian reaches conclusions that help to uphold the gender-biased stereotypes that have long pervaded athletics and sports reporting: That society advocates for men to enter the realm of sports reporting, but not so for women; that women are treated as outsiders in the realm of sports reporting, even upon acceptance into the industry; and that, even upon entering the profession, female sports reporters attitude towards women’s sports seemed to reflect that of the overall society: they look upon it with indifference and disdain.

            Despite the advances in our society of gender equality (Title IX and other actions have made the USA one of the most progressive countries in terms of female athletic treatment), women’s sports seem to lag far behind men’s sports in terms of viewership, attendance and interest. This is reflected in coverage from the media as a whole, and it does not seem to matter whether men or women are doing the coverage. Until interest in women’s athletics is on equal terms with men’s, their coverage will continue to languish.

            What is less forgivable is the treatment that some female reporters have faced in the masculine hegemony. Many have reported being harassed, sexually or otherwise, by athletes, coaches and co-workers. Many have also reported a discernible and impenetrable “glass ceiling” above which a female sports reporter cannot advance. This is the 21^st century, and our society has (nominally) evolved past the superstitions and biases of the previous centuries. Unfortunately these biases still exist, and until they are truly eliminated, we as Americans are all the worse off for it. They are women. Hear them roar.

Salciunas week 7

While growing up through the later part of the 20^th century and now the 21^st, many issues facing diversity in the work field flew right over my head. In high school, I learned of feminist movements during the Civil Rights Era, and read success stories following the events that took place in the 1960s. What was never taught was the lack of female presence in upper class management and in other professions such as journalism. After reading Edward M. Kian’s Gender in Sports Writing, the numbers and opinions on women in sports journalism really jumped out at me.

The numbers regarding women in sports journalism alone are unbelievable. The lack of women in the field leave me scratching my head and feeling slightly disturbed. Entering this class, I never found it an issue. I saw women on ESPN all the time, and that was when I made the mistake of jumping to a conclusion. When reading the work provided by Edward M. Kian, one stat regarding the number of female sports journalists was eye popping. In the 1990s, out of 10,000 different professional print and broadcast sports journalism sections, only 3% of its members were women. Saying that this field is run by men seems to be the just statement and needs to be taken into consideration of change. Since then the numbers have changed but it is still way too low.

When looking at the mindset of not only women in the sports journalism field, but as well as the men, some opinions could be disturbing. We have heard of the instances when ESPN’s Tony Kornheisser showed disgust to his colleagues “open” outfit. Who is to say other men, maybe not in areas as prominent as ESPN, are not doing the same thing? There was one other stat that really jumped out at me in Kian’s Gender in Sports Writing when he took his poll on men’s feelings toward women in the office. 59% of the surveyed male sports editors felt obligated to hire female staff writers. That shows that these men know the numbers are low but still do not actually want to hire women, but they feel obligated to. Then you look at the other 41%. What are they thinking? Did they not feel obligated and they enjoyed hiring their female staff members? Or was it that they did not feel obligated and had no intentions of hiring female staff members? That is another study that needs to be done; but clearly as the numbers already show; it seems to have been the later of the two.

Until the end of this semester, I am sure diversity in the field of sports journalism will be a huge topic. Whether it is regarding women, or the lack of “color” in the newsroom, we will speak of it; and that needs to be done. The numbers do not lie, they are there to make a point, unfortunately, the point is slowly getting across. The numbers are raising for women in the field of sports journalism, but too slow for anyone’s liking.

Carlin Week 7

This week's reading, "Gender in Sports Writing by the Print Media: An Exploratory Examination of Writers' Experiences and Attitudes," by Edward Kian, explores the masculine nature of sports and the way that is portrayed through journalism. Kian says in his introduction that though there have been studies to show that female athletes and women's sports receive considerably less media attention than men's sports, his analyzes the attitudes of those doing the reporting and writing.

Kian writes that as a result of the lack of women in sports media, the masculine and hegemonic order that is so often portrayed in sports is able to be upheld. He also writes that one of the origins of this may be created in college. When female student journalists go to the college newspaper and find the sports section comprised almost completely comprised of males, they may look for another section to write for instead of that one, he writes. This could be one of the reasons why the pool of professional female sports journalists is so small.

He writes later in the article that studies have shown that female sports journalists may help uphold the masculine and hegemonic order in sports journalism because they more than likely do not seek out to cover women's sports or female athletes. This, he says, is because of a perceived lack of interest in the sports or athletes and the lack of career enhancement opportunities that could come from this. Female journalists also report being disrespected and pigeonholed into covering human-interest stories or women's sports.

From Kian's article, we find that the masculine and hegemonic order that is perceived in sports and sports media is started in college and carried into the workplace. Although there has been much progress in bringing more gender diversity into sports journalism, it still is an area where females find it difficult to gain respect and get a foot in the door.

Tansits Week 7 Post - Kian

As our weeks studying sports journalism and its transformation throughout the past century continue, it's obvious that one of the most pressing issues over the past 30 years has been that of diversity. Diversity in sports coverage, diversity in sports media content producers and diversity in the stories themselves. Along with racial diversity, gender diversity is a heavily scrutinized and studied area of sports newsroom production and content. In Kian’s Gender In Sports Writing By The Print Media: An Exploratory Examination Of Writers’ Experiences And Attitudes, the lack of diversity in sports media is discussed in terms of studies and what the results of the cited studies yielded.

In Kian’s writing, he refers to a homogeneous, masculine sports hegemony that has formed our culture and society for years. He refers to the term hegemony to describe that this masculine picture formed through sports has helped set the standard in Western society. Kian says that this hegemony is reinforced by mass media in three ways: 1. The media serves to perpetuate male-dominated sports hegemony by simply refusing to cover, or very minimally covering female athletes and women’s sports 2. Limited coverage of female athletes results in the general public underestimating the number of women in competitive athletics; sports media often covers sporting events that help reinforce stereotypical feminine images and portrayals of women athletes 3. When sports media do cover female sporting events, they often minimize or trivialize women’s athletic accomplishments through their use of language and commentary.

Furthermore Kian adds that the lack of women in newsrooms and especially in powerful seats in sports departments is something that isn’t new, and he attributes the lack of women covering women’s sports to their fears of not being able to move up because of their lack of popularity. Kian draws three primary conclusions from his study: 1. Both men and women had social and societal factors during their lives that made the foundation of their hegemonic masculine view of sports 2. Once in the sports media profession, men and women have generally different experiences and these experiences lead to different attitudes 3. Once they enter into the media profession, both men and women generally exhibit the same attitude towards men’s sports and women’s sports.

Overall this study shows that the problem of lack of coverage of women’s sports isn’t completely rooted in newsroom diversity, and that it’s more of a cultural problem as well. Additionally, the study displayed that there is definitely a problem with equality amongst women in sports departments, and it’s not something that is going away with time.