Gender Representation at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games From an Australian Broadcast Perspective

in International Journal of Sport Communication

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Olan K.M. Scott Department of Sport Management, Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario, Canada

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Bo (Norman) Li Department of Kinesiology and Health, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA

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Stephen Mighton Department of Sport Management, Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario, Canada

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsc.2021-0099
Keywords:
Australia; framing theory; content analysis; media; television
First Published Online:
17 Jan 2022
In Print:
Volume 15: Issue 1
Page Range:
66–75
Restricted access

This study examined differences in the Seven Network’s primetime coverage of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games on all of its channels. Over 102 hr of total coverage was analyzed for clock time, name mentions, and the descriptions of athletes by announcers divided by gender. Results found that male athletes received the bulk of the clock time; 13 of the top 20 most-mentioned athletes were men. There were also gender differences in the word for word descriptors of success, failure, physicality, and personality. From a theoretical perspective, results found the framing of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games to favor male Olympians. The top three sports that were broadcast featuring women were ice hockey, freestyle skiing, and snowboarding, which differs from other studies in this line of scholarship, so differences in the sports covered in the Australian context provides a unique context to study the Winter Olympics. Theoretical and practical implications are provided.

Scott (oscott@brocku.ca) is corresponding author, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8751-7691.

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