“You either stop reacting or you don’t survive. There’s no other way”: the work experiences of Polish women sports journalists

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, considerable analysis has been devoted to the experiences of professional women journalists. Though the percentage of women in the media industry is increasing, women sports journalists appear to face an especially complex and difficult situation. This study aimed to explore the professional experiences of Polish women sports journalists. Eighteen semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted; the results revealed that sports journalists face gender prejudice and must adapt to an androcentric culture in sports newsrooms. However, the greatest obstacle they face is combining professional practice with maternal plans. The minority position of female sports journalists in the profession may be responsible for the respondents’ reluctance to admit that their disadvantageous job situation is the result of gender norms in sports and the media.

KEYWORDS:

• Women sports journalists
• Poland
• sports media
• gender inequalities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Following the Polish transformation of 1989, the media’s socialist model, which was censored and non-pluralistic, became a free market model (Ryszard Filas and Paweł Planeta 2009). Currently the Polish media industry is developed, pluralistic, and similar to the Western European model, with a growing concentration of capital.

2. There are two journalists’ associations operating in Poland: the Association of Journalists of the Republic of Poland [Stowarzyszenie Dziennikarzy Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej] and Association of Polish Journalists [Stowarzyszenie Dziennikarzy Polskich]. However, none of them collects data on the number of male and female sports journalists working in Poland. Therefore, the number of female sports journalists working in Poland can only be estimated based on the results of content analysis regarding sports media coverage. Honorata Jakubowska (2015) determined that female journalists wrote 8% of articles in the period she analysed between April and July 2011. When analysing Gazeta Wyborcza daily, Dziubiński, Organista and Mazur (2019) determined that during four years female sports journalists wrote only 3% of articles.

3. Such contracts in Poland are referred to as “trash contracts” (Vera Trappmann 2011) or “junk contracts.” See Adam Mrozowicki, Agata Krasowska and Mateusz Karolak (2015). For more about the problems of the Polish labor market, see Mrozowicki et al. (2015), and Trappmann (2016).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Faculty of Physical Education, Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw. Grant number: DM-55 “Gender inequalities in sports media coverage”.

Notes on contributors

Natalia Organista

Natalia Organista: Ph.D, is working as an associate professor in Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw. Her research has focused on issues of sport and feminism, sports media and gender inequalities in sport. E-mail: [email protected]

Zuzanna Mazur

Zuzanna Mazur: Ph.D is working as an associate professor in Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw. Her area of interests is media and sport in feminist perspective. E-mail: [email protected]