Analysis of Content of Four Articles, Article Review Example

Journal of Sport and Social Issues 1999 23: 171 C. A. Tuggle and Anne Owen ‘The ”Games of the Woman”?’ A Descriptive Analysis of NBC’s Coverage of the Centennial Olympics

This study was based on the media coverage of women’s events at the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. It was found that most of the coverage centring on women was in individual, ‘performance’ sports such as diving and gymnastics. It also found that men’s team sports received more coverage than any women’s sports, and women’s power and strength events received very little coverage. Men were more likely to be anchoring coverage, and also were used far more often for onscreen interviews and insight. Despite this, NBC’s coverage was positive in many ways, and helped to raise the awareness of women’s sports, however stereotyped that coverage might have been. The authors identify a more equitable media treatment of women’s sports as being crucial to continue the development of women’s sports in the mainstream media.

Depicting the Quarterback in Black and White: A Content Analysis of College and Professional Football Broadcast Commentary by Andrew C. Billings

This study analyzed 162 hours and 3,800 descriptors of White and Black quarterbacks in collegiate and professional football games. The article highlights how things have progressed on the field for black quarterbacks since 1953, when Willie T Thrower became the NFL’s first African American quarterback. It goes on to detail the concept of ‘stacking’, when players were allocated positions based on their ethnicity. It also addressed the ideas of media ‘framing’ of stories according to accepted ethnic categorisations, and also ‘self categorisation’ theory. Much of this is based on the traditional view of the African American as a more naturally talented individual than his more cerebral white counterpart, with a black player more likely to fail because of mental or psychological limitations. The movement towards a more equitable and equal portrayal of African American sports stars has great implications for wider society, and is to be applauded, in the eyes of the authors of the study.

Two Kicks Forward, One Kick Back: A Content Analysis of Media Discourses on the 199 Women’s World cup Soccer Championships

This piece focused on media coverage of the 1999 Women’s World Cup in soccer. The study draws attention to the fact that women’s soccer presents an interesting case study, as despite not being a traditionally feminine sport, it has become relatively popular in the USA. It also does not compete with a mainstream men’s sport, and, at least to an extent, does not challenge traditional gender roles. Women are still presented in feminine ways by the sports media who report on it. The main focus of the study is the contradiction inherent in coverage of women’s sport: that while it allows women to come out of a sexual ‘ghetto’, it also helps to reinforce gender roles as women are often presented in traditional ways. The research focused on 576 newspaper articles, taken from publications based in the main geographical areas of interest in women’s soccer. The study found that mentions of players in decidedly feminine terms, such as reference to sex appeal or motherhood history, were common. Contradictions were also common, with players accorded characteristics which were both feminine and masculine in the same article. This also happened in articles which spoke about factors such as the attractiveness of players and their empowerment. The American team’s sex appeal was also often presented in this contradictory way, as being a key factor in ’empowerment’. This is also related to the presentation of them as heterosexual, as opposed to the lesbianism often associated with women’s sport in the popular imagination. Ethnic, class and other social divisions are rendered obsolete in this model of presentation, while strongly sexual representations help to create an illusion of empowerment and equality. This message of empowerment was also used to market to the event to a wider audience.

Race, Quarterbacks, and the Media : Testing the Rush Limbaugh Hypothesis by David Niven, Journal of Black Studies 2005 35: 684

The piece relates to the infamous quote from media personality Rush Limbaugh that quarter back Donovan McNabb received credit for a performance because, “the media have been very desirous that a Black quarterback do well.” The piece uses several studies to show that white perceptions of African Americans are influenced by the positive depictions of African American quarterbacks in the media. The piece also highlights how a ‘segregationist’ mentality often led to coaches allocated positions on a team based on perceptions of race. Biases in reporting have also been found across the world and in other sports, as well as American football, that journalists will often stereotype players’ contributions based on perceived areas of ability for black and white players, with white players often being perceived as possessing planning and strategic abilities which are greater than those of black players, who are seen as being more naturally physically gifted. Using the evidence, the article concludes that there is little bias in favour of African American athletes in the media. The study itself, based on media coverage of white and black quarterbacks during 2002, shows that there is actually very little difference between how the two ethnicities were reported on in terms of their performances during the season. However, the media coverage of Donovan McNabb became almost entirely focused on how the quarterback’s excellent performances seemed to answer Limabugh’s criticism, rather than triggering what would have been a more worthwhile debate centring on the relative portrayal of different ethnicities in the sports media.