The Women’s Olympics? A Gender Analysis of NBC’s Coverage of the 2012 London Summer Games

Abstract

This study examines NBC’s U.S. prime-time broadcast coverage of the 2012 summer Olympic games for gender equality and compares that coverage to previous years. Olympic coverage is particularly important to female athletes because many receive little media attention beyond Olympic competition. The study found that, for the first time since 1996, NBC gave more airtime to women’s sports than to men’s sports. However, most of that coverage devoted to women’s events was confined to “socially acceptable” sports.

Keywords

broadcast news format sports news topic gender dimensions of journalism content analysis method framing theory

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adams

Tuggle

C. A.

(2004). ESPN’s SportsCenter and coverage of women’s athletics: “It’s a boys’ club”. Mass Communication & Society, 7, 237–248.

Alexander

(1994). Newspaper coverage of athletics as a function of gender. Women’s Studies International Forum, 17, 655–662.

Angelini

J. R.

Billings

A. C.

(2010). The agenda that sets the frames: Gender, language, and NBC’s Americanized Olympic telecast. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 29, 363–385.

Angelini

J. R.

MacArthur

P. J.

Billings

A. C.

(2012). What’s the gendered story? Vancouver’s prime time Olympic glory on NBC. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 56, 261–279.

Baroffio-Bota

Banet-Weiser

(2006). Women, team sports, and the WNBA: Playing like a girl. In Raney

A. A.

Bryant

(Eds.), Handbook of sports and media (pp. 485–500). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Billings

A. C.

(2007). From diving boards to pole vaults: Gendered athlete portrayals in the “big four” sports at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. Southern Communication Journal, 72, 329–344.

Billings

A. C.

(2008). Clocking gender differences: Televised Olympic clock-time in the 1996–2006 summer and winter Olympics. Television & New Media, 9, 429–441.

Billings

A. C.

Angelini

J. R.

MacArthur

P. J.

Bissell

Smith

L. R.

(2014). (Re)calling London: The gender frame agenda within NBC’s primetime broadcast of the 2012 Olympiad. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 91, 38–58.

Billings

A. C.

Brown

C. L.

Crout III

J. H.

McKenna

K. E.

Rice

B. A.

Timanus

M. E.

Ziegler

(2008). The games through the NBC lens: Gender, ethnic, and national equity in the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52, 215–230.

10.

Bissell

K. L.

Duke

A. M.

(2007). Bump, set, and spike: An analysis of commentary and camera angles of Women’s Beach Volleyball during the 2004 Summer Olympics. Journal of Promotion Management, 13, 35–53.

11.

Boutilier

M. A.

SanGiovanni

(1983). The sporting woman. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

12.

Brown

(2012, August 10). London 2012: The women’s Olympics? Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/10/sport/london-olympics-women/

13.

Bryant

(1980). A two-year selective investigation of the female in sport as reported in the paper media. Arena Review, 4, 32–44.

14.

Clarke

(2012, July 29). Despite protests and new bikini rules, Olympic beach volleyball gets full exposure. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnclarke/2012/07/29/despite-protests-and-new-bikini-rules-olympic-beach-volleyball-gets-full-exposure/

15.

Coakley

J. J.

(2004). Sports in society: Issues and controversies (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

16.

Cunningham

G. B.

(2003). Media coverage of women’s sport: A new look at an old problem. Physical Educator, 60, 43.

17.

Davis

K. K.

Tuggle

C. A.

(2012). A gender analysis of NBC’s coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Electronic News, 6, 51–66.

18.

Duncan

M. C.

(2006). Gender warriors in sport: Women and the media. In Raney

A. A.

Bryant

(Eds.), Handbook of sports and media (pp. 231–252). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

19.

Duncan

M. C.

Messner

M. A.

Wilson

W. V.

(1994). Gender stereotyping in televised sports: A follow-up to the 1989 study. Los Angeles, CA: Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles. Retrieved from http://www.la84foundation.org/9arr/ResearchReports/ResearchReport3.htm

20.

Duncan

M. C.

Messner

M. A.

Wilson

W. V.

(2000). Gender in televised sports: 1989, 1993 and 1999. Los Angeles, CA: The Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles. Retrieved from http://www.la84foundation.org/9arr/ResearchReports/tv2000.pdf

21.

Duncan

M. C.

Messner

M. A.

Wilson

W. V.

(2005). Gender in televised sports: News and highlights shows, 1989–2004. Los Angeles, CA: LA84 Foundation Publications. Retrieved from http://www.la84foundation.org/9arr/ResearchReports/tv2004.pdf

22.

Eastman

S. T.

Billings

A. C.

(2000). Sportscasting and sports reporting: The power of gender bias. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 24, 192–213.

23.

Entman

(1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43, 52.

24.

Goffman

(1974). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

25.

Greer

J. D.

Hardin

Homan

(2009). “Naturally” less exciting? Visual production of men’s and women’s track and field coverage during the 2004 Olympics. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 53, 173–189.

26.

Hardin

Chance

Dodd

J. E.

Hardin

(2002). Olympic photo coverage fair to female athletes. Newspaper Research Journal, 23, 64–78.

27.

Hardin

Greer

J. D.

(2009). The influence of gender-role socialization, media use, and sports participation on perceptions of gender-appropriate sports. Journal of Sport Behavior, 32, 207–226.

28.

Hardin

Lynn

Walsdorf

Hardin

(2002). The framing of sexual difference in SI for Kids editorial photos. Mass Communication & Society, 5, 341–359.

29.

Jones

(2006). The representation of female athletes in online images of successive Olympic Games. Pacific Journalism Review, 12, 108–129.

30.

Koivula

(1995). Rating of gender appropriateness of sports participation: Effects of gender-based schematic processing. Sex Roles, 33, 543–557.

31.

Koivula

(1999). Gender stereotyping in televised media sport coverage. Sex Roles, 41, 589–604.

32.

Markovits

(2006, June 5). Soccer remains foreign concept to most Americans. Boston Globe. Retrieved from http://www.boston.com/sports/soccer/articles/2006/06/05/soccer_remains_foreign_concept_to_most_americans/

33.

McQuail

(2010). McQuail’s mass communication theory (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

34.

Messner

M. A.

Cooky

(2010). Gender in televised sports: News and highlights shows, 1989–2009. USC Center for Feminist Research. Retrieved from http://www.usc.edu/dept/cfr/html/documents/tvsports.pdf

35.

Pedersen

P. M.

(2003). Examining stereotypical written and photographic reporting on the sports page: An analysis of newspaper coverage of inter scholastic athletics. Women in Sport & Physical Activity Journal, 12, 67–75.

36.

Riemer

B. A.

Feltz

D. L.

(1995). The influence of sport appropriateness and image on the status of female athletes. Women in Sport & Physical Activity Journal, 4, 1–13.

37.

Smith

(2011). A kick in the right direction. The Walkley Magazine, 68, 37.

38.

Tuggle

C. A.

(1997). Differences in television sports reporting of men’s and women’s athletics: ESPN Sports Center and CNN Sports Tonight. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 41, 14–24.

39.

Tuggle

C. A.

Huffman

Rosengard

D. S.

(2002). A descriptive analysis of NBC’s coverage of the 2000 summer Olympics. Mass Communication & Society, 5, 361–375.

40.

Tuggle

C. A.

Huffman

Rosengard

D. S.

(2007). A descriptive analysis of NBC’s coverage of the 2004 summer Olympics. Journal of Sports Media, 2, 54–75.