Federal Sport and Recreation Minister Kate Ellis has spoken out about ‘the other competition’ faced by women in sport – the battle for media coverage – in an article featured on ‘The Punch’ website.
29 January 2010
The problem, she says, is part of a vicious cycle with the lack of coverage limiting sponsorship opportunities, which restricts career and training opportunities, which hampers the development and professionalism of sports, which in turn limits the coverage, and so on.
The Minister cites new research funded by the Federal Government which she says provides powerful background to the potential motivations to “sex up” or “pretty up” images in women’s sport.
Some interesting findings mentioned in the article include:
• Coverage of women’s sport makes up 9% of all sports coverage in Australian television news and current affairs, while male sport makes up 81%. Furthermore, reports on males sport also have an average duration which is 30 seconds longer than reports on female sport.
• Horse racing alone receives more air time than all women’s sport combined in Australian television news, making up the other 10%.
• However, coverage of female sport is far more positive than coverage of men’s sport.
Click on the weblink below to be view the full article on The Punch website.
