The representation of female athletes in textual and visual media

Whilst the participation of women in sport can be traced back at least as far as 1000BC, there is evidence to suggest that barriers to women’s participation in sport still exist. One possible barrier that can be investigated is the representation of female athletes in the media. This paper outlines the results of two studies designed to investigate the coverage of female participation in sport by newspapers and television companies in the UK. Both studies involved a media watch. The results of both studies indicated that the British media give preference in their coverage to male athletes, often ignoring female athletic achievements. Similar results have been found in earlier studies carried out in other countries (e.g. Australia and the USA).