Website Coverage of NCAA Basketball: Are Women Getting Equal Playing Time?
in Women in Sport and Physical Activity JournalClick name to view affiliation
Opportunities for girls and women to participate in sports have been increasing since the enactment of Title IX; however, the media attention given to female athletes and women’s sports has lagged behind. Media coverage of female athletes has been investigated extensively in newspapers and magazines; however, few studies have examined the attention given to women’s sports on the Internet.
This study focused on one sports news website to examine and compared the coverage of female and male athletes and coaches in one specific sport, college basketball. A content analysis was conducted on ESPN.com during the 2007 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments. Results showed that women and men do not receive the same attention on the main page; however, equity was evident when the webpage for women’s college basketball was compared to the webpage for men’s college basketball.
Lynn L. Ridinger, Ph.D. Department of ESPER 111 Spong Hall Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA 23529 Email: lridinge@odu.edu Phone:
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