Gender bias in sport media: a critical analysis of Twitter content and the National Football League’s Carolina Panthers

ABSTRACT

The National Football League (NFL) is the most popular sport in the United States. Of the NFL’s passionate fan base, 46 percent are women. Despite the substantial attraction and following by women, communication to this audience has been compromised through gender discriminated sport media content. We examined Twitter posts from the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, over a two-month test period. The posts confirm a bias toward men. On the rare occasion woman were noted, it was framed in a stereotypical context, for example, promoting team cheerleaders. We conclude by making recommendations on future social media strategy for the NFL and its related teams. There is an opportunity to embrace womanhood and build trust among this viable stakeholder.

KEYWORDS:

• NFL
• football
• fans
• National Football League (NFL)
• Twitter

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Arianne N. Grace

Arianne N. Grace is a graduate from the Department of Communication at Appalachian State University. She graduated from the Department of Communication Summa Cum Laude with departmental honors. She is interested in studying corporations’ communication with women and the implications it has on the maintenance of relationships with that target audience. She is also fascinated with the practice of applied analytics and how information from data can inform communication decisions.

Thomas S. Mueller

Dr. Thomas S. Mueller is an Associate Professor in Advertising Communication at Appalachian State University. He is currently serving as a faculty fellow at ASU’s Center for Analytics Research and Education (CARE) where an energy conservation study is underway. His work also includes service learning projects with the Mandela Washington Fellowship, through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Dr. Mueller is the senior member in ASU’s faculty in residence program and is a co-founder of the Active Living Residence Learning Community