Only 15 per cent of sports news focused on women’s sport in Victoria in 2022-23, with 81 per cent of coverage focused on men’s sport. Women’s sport was also much less likely to receive deeper coverage and analysis, new research shows.
The research, backed by the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation, is highlighted in a new report The Conversation of Sport: Representation of Women in Sports News Coverage that establishes a baseline of the current coverage of women’s sport in Victoria to help improve representation.
The study analysed sports news coverage across Victoria in 2022-23 and was based on a total sample size of more than 34,600 individual pieces of media.
Findings revealed women journalists represented only 27 per cent of bylines and that they were 62 per cent more likely than their male colleagues to report on women’s sport.
Underrepresentation of women’s sport was present across media type and location. Radio had only 12 per cent news coverage of women’s sport, compared to 88 per cent for men’s sport. The same percentages were true for TV sports news coverage, while online news had 15 per cent coverage for women and 85 per cent for men. Print media sat at 20 per cent for women’s sport versus 80 per cent for men’s.
Major metropolitan locations had the lowest coverage of women’s sports news at 13 per cent, compared to 87 per cent for men. Regional areas had 18 per cent for women (82 per cent for men) and suburban areas saw 25 per cent of their news covering women’s sport (75 per cent for men).
Out of the 20 sports analysed, only 4 sports had at least gender balanced (>40 per cent) coverage. These were swimming (56 per cent), athletics (52 per cent), hockey (46 per cent) and netball (96 per cent).
Interestingly, the study also found there was an overrepresentation of results and performance in the coverage of women’s sport, while female athletes were more likely to be described as ‘quiet achievers’ and ‘hard workers’, as well as ‘punching above their weight’.
Speaking to the importance of the data, Victoria’s Minister for Community Sport Ros Spence, said that strong representation of women in sports news coverage “is fundamental to advancing gender equality in sport and beyond”.
“Equal representation in sport is key in shaping the way we view the world,” she says. “It’s not just who plays sport, but who we, as a society, celebrate and showcase as leaders, experts and heroes. These perceptions have the power to change limiting gender norms and stereotypes.”