Gender Bias In The 1996 Olympic Games

Abstract

This study examined the televised coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta to determine the amount of coverage time, quality of coverage devoted to men’s and women’s same sport activities, and to compare this coverage with that of the 1992 Summer Olympic Games. Of the more than 150 hours of NBC televised coverage, a total of 60 hours was then randomly selected as an appropriate sample. A content analysis was then performed on those segments that featured same-sport activities for men and women. This included quantitative (e.g., running time, length of segments, number of slow motion replays, and use of onscreen statistics) and qualitative (e.g., the narrative of the commentators) analyses. Although the findings suggest there have been notable improvements in the way female athletes were presented in the 1996 Olympic Games as compared to the 1992 Olympic Games, there are still many disparities in the coverage of women’s sports, especially those that traditionally appeal to the media audience.