Moving Toward Parity? Dominant Gender Ideology versus Community Journalism in High School Basketball Coverage

Abstract

This research uses a content analysis to explore how male and female high school athletes are framed. In analyzing basketball coverage from 121 unique newspapers, results show that although boys received the bulk of the coverage, the gap in parity is much smaller compared to prior research. Furthermore, girls were generally not framed as overtly feminine. Still, the coverage also reflects lingering commonsense assumptions about gender, most notably in reference to the athletic body. The authors discuss the potential of high school sports coverage to challenge normative understandings of gender and sports and to consider the role community journalism standards may play in the construction of equitable and just interscholastic sports coverage.

Notes

¹For an example, see http://espn.go.com/boston/teams/preps/index

²The southern region includes Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana.

³A true random number generator was used from www.random.org. The specific dates studied were December 9–10, 12, 15, 19, and 22 in 2011 and January 4, 8, 10, 14, 17, 20, 25, and 29 in 2012.

⁴Full codebook available upon request.

^a χ²(2, N = 459) = 3.372, p < .05.

^b χ²(2, N = 459) = 6.064, p < .05.

^c χ²(1, 459) = 4.272, p < .05.

^d This category was coded as presence or absence only (“No reference” and “One or more references”).

^a χ²(1, 459) = 4.571, p < .05.

^b χ²(1, N = 459) = 4.571, p < .05.

^c This category was coded as presence or absence only (“No reference” and “One or more references”).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Erin Whiteside

Erin Whiteside (Ph.D., Penn State University, 2010) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee. Her research examines sports media industry practices and trends with a focus on gender and sexuality.

Jodi L. Rightler-McDaniels

Jodi L. Rightler-McDaniels (Ph.D. Candidate, University of Tennessee) is a Graduate Teaching Associate in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee. Her research interests include critical/cultural race, gender, and sexuality media and sport studies.