Research shows women underrepresented in sports coverage

The Olympics is as good as it gets for media coverage of women's sport according to research by a University of Southern Queensland academic.

Journalism lecturer Dianne Jones' research shows sportswomen will probably fare better in media coverage of the London Olympics compared with the "usual raw deal the mainstream media dishes out" outside of the Games fortnight.

Jones, a former journalist, has spent more than a decade analysing the coverage of men's and women's sports and has found that female athletes get from zero to 23% of regular sports coverage, but that jumps to as much as 40% of the pie during an Olympics.

Jones states "that's a great improvement but it's sad that it only happens for a fortnight every four years.

"Historically, women have had a pretty torrid time as far as sports coverage is concerned."

Jones, who is busily collecting coverage data from the London Olympics, said her research had shown there was a combination of reasons for women's sport suddenly becoming more 'newsworthy' during the Olympics.

She adds "a cocktail of nationalism, opportunity, success and convenience kicks in and propels mainstream media coverage of female athletes to record highs.

"Nationalism because we want to support those competing in our name. Opportunity because, finally, there's near parity in the number of events open to women and men - women competed in 45% of the events at Beijing. Of course, success and the expectation of it generates coverage. It's also convenient for journalists when women's and men's same-sport events happen in close proximity to each other. "

Jones adds that before critics begin to argue that men get more coverage because they're more successful, the research indicates otherwise.

An analysis of coverage from four online media organisations over the past three Olympics shows an average of 42% of sports stories were about women, but women won more than half of Australia's total medals.

Jones said in all her research she had never encountered a situation where the coverage of women's sports was more extensive than men's.

She added "I do concede that in Australia, for more than 12 months now, it's been almost impossible to find a newspaper, radio or television news bulletin or online sports site that hasn't been going bonkers over our latest, and some say greatest, top class - female - athlete.

"Nor do I begrudge her the celebrity status or the microscopic attention devoted to her every move, campaign and conquest.

"But, Black Caviar is a racehorse. And that, in my book, is the root of the problem confronting women's sports.

"Even racehorses get more media attention.

"Unfortunately, based on the trend of the past three Olympic Games I wouldn't expect the coverage of women's sports to break through that glass ceiling of just over 40%, irrespective of how well female athletes perform in London compared with the men."