World Cup brings normalcy to women’s sports

Joy BaconLeave a comment
Getty Images (Imae courtesy of http://www.fifa.com)

Despite the United States’ loss in the 2011 Fifa World Cup final to Japan, the tournament as a whole was a boost for the support of female athletes breaking twitter records and stereotypes both here and internationally.

The 1999 first-place finish for the American women is still remembered for Brandi Chastain’s shirtless celebration by many, including some media outlets who used the photo in their coverage of this year’s tournament. But this year’s second-place performance saw the team treated not as trailblazers, but as equals in their own right in a sport who’s women’s teams are often trivialized. The Huffington Post even used the tournament to highlight the role of Title IX in normalizing the access success of female athletes.

As Slate columnist Brian Phillips wrote, “the team managed to capture the nation’s attention without ever having to be a symbol for anything…They weren’t offering a corrective counterexample to the greedy/childish/immoral superstars playing men’s sports. They were just more or less kicking ass, as dramatically and unpredictably as possible.” Post-game coverage from Sports Illustrated.com and others also focused on the women’s performance as athletes, not as role models for their gender. The tournament’s media sponsor was Rogaine. For men.

However, some media coverage still angled to the role of women’s soccer on the international stage. Some fear that the game will start to become more like the men’s tournament, with over-dramatized injuries and theatrics that some say deters from the sport. Others worry that the increased popularity will take away from the diverse styles of play and creative strategies, rather than sheer physicality,  present in this year’s tournament. (Although the U.S. team was noted for being the fittest team in the team’s history.)

The team won’t be able to completely shake off its role-model persona; most local coverage of the tournament focused on young girls idolizing the tournament. But the tournament at least gave these athletes a well-deserved spot in the sports playbooks.

This is the Gender Report’s Week in Review, a weekly post that highlights some of the major stories related to gender issues this week. Some of these stories may have already appeared in our News Feed or in the week’s Gender Checks. We’ll at times include a longer analysis of stories as well as bring attention to stories that may have slipped through the cracks of the week’s news cycle.

Women’s presence higher in June after low showing in May’s New Media Index count

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

The number of female authors and sources in the top articles in the blogosphere climbed again in June after a low showing in May.

Here at the Gender Report we’ve been monitoring the top articles based on links provided in the Project for Excellence in Journalism‘s weekly New Media Index roundups, which chronicle the top five linked to and discussed news stories and opinion pieces around the web in a Monday to Friday week based on commentary on blogs and social media sites. We focus on the main top five in the blogosphere. When more than one link was provided on the topic, we’ve monitored the first mentioned or the one that appears based on the writing to be more dominant, unless it is specifically mentioned that two articles shared the attention for that particular subject.

In May, we saw a new low with women as only 13.3 percent of sources and even fewer authors in the 12 articles that could be monitored that month. Women were more present in June’s count, particularly among bylines. Here’s what we found:

June 2011

PEJ New Media Index: June 13-17, 2011

Between May 30 and July 1, the New Media Index included 29 articles could be checked — more than double the amount from last month. For five topics this month, two articles shared the attention, contributing to the higher overall article count. Only one story did not have a link provided this month — Obama’s Afghanistan plan — when instead a special report was done.

Here’s what was uncovered:

  • Women were 20.2 percent of sources in this month’s articles. The articles contained 83 male sources and 21 female sources.
  • This month 16 articles were written or produced by a man and nine articles were written by a woman (or in one case, two). Three were by both a man or two and a woman and one was not bylined.
  • Like last month, two top linked-to articles in blogs were opinion pieces. Both were by male authors.

Again, links this month predominately came from the LA Times, with a few for the BBC and individual articles from four other news sources.

For past months’ findings as well as other findings on gender and the online news, visit our findings and statistics page.

Coming soon: Check back on The Gender Report for a look at the overall findings from the first six months of our monitoring of the New Media Index articles.

Gender Check 7/15/11 – South

Joy BaconLeave a comment
*Gender Checks are quick examinations of gender representation in individual news articles for the purpose of discovering trends over time. Click here  to read more.

Website: The Miami Herald

On the Miami Herald, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10:30 a.m. (EST) on Friday, July 15 was titled “MDC Not Likely To Lose Accreditation, Say Experts.” Its subject was the possibility of part-time faculty numbers jeopardizing Miami Dade College’s status as a higher-ed institution.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male -college president (from a previously released letter)
  2. Male – spokesman
  3. Female – spokeswoman
  4. Female – policy analyst

Notes/analysis: Some key sources for this story declined comment.

Website: Patch (Seminole Heights)

On Patch of Seminole Heights, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10:30 a.m. (EST) on Friday, July 15 was titled “Looking for a Gas Bargain? Try These Pumps.” Its subject was a listing of local gas stations and their current prices.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

none

Gender Check: 7/14/11 – Midwest

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

*Gender Checks are quick examinations of gender representation in individual news articles for the purpose of discovering trends over time. Click here to read more.

Website: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (stltoday.com)

On Stltoday.com, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 8 a.m. (PST) Thursday, July 14, was titled “Federal agents seize 2,300 pounds of pot from truck near Pacific.” Its subject was marijuana in a secret compartment of a tractor trailer parked on the side of the interstate.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male, spokesman with U.S. Immigration and Customs agency

Notes/analysis: This was a developing story.

Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 8 a.m. (PST) Thursday, July 14, was titled “Crack cocaine offenders may get early release; neighborhoods hope to avoid reentry problems.” Its subject was a plan to ease sentences of some inmates with crack cocaine sentences.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male, professor
  2. Female, district judge
  3. Male, chief probation officer
  4. Female, associate professor
  5. Male, resident
  6. Male, alderman
  7. Female, resident
  8. Male, federal parole officer

Notes/analysis: The article also contains several of mug shots of sources — two of women and one of a man.

Gender Check 7/13/11 – Northeast

Joy BaconLeave a comment
*Gender Checks are quick examinations of gender representation in individual news articles for the purpose of discovering trends over time. Click here to read more.

Website: The New York Times

On The New York Times, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday, July 13 was titled “In Retreat, Murdoch Drops TV Takeover.” Its subject was the continued developments in the British news outlets’ missteps.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Authors: Male (shared byline)

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male – company deputy chairman (as quoted from press release)
  2. Male – prime minister (as quoted from statement)
  3. Male – political party leader
  4. Male – member of Parliament
  5. Male – committee member (as quoted from public statement)
  6. Male – committee member (as quoted from public statement)
  7. Male – former prime minister

Notes/Analysis: Much of this story and its quotes were taken from publicly released statements or debates in open committees.

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday, July 13 was titled “FDIC Chairwoman: Mortgage Industry ‘Didn’t Think Borrowers Were Worth Helping’ “. Its subject was an interview given by Sheila Bair to the New York Times.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author:  Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Female – former chairwoman
  2. Male – New York Times reporter (from his own writing)

Notes/analysis: This story used mostly a previous New York Times article that provided the interview. Other information came from previous ProPublica reporting on similar topics.