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.
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