Media is an influential factor in shaping and creating the image of both men and women. It makes people represented to millions of people and thus it is possible to create an order in the society. This role of the media is also seen in sports and games. The way the media covers sports has been a long discussion in the field and thus creating a heated controversy. Many authors argue that the media is dominated by the representation of male sports people as compared their female counterparts. This comes from the way sports have been viewed in the cultures such as the United States. Athleticism in such culture is highly linked to the masculinity as it requires energy to carry out the tasks ( Kareithi, 2014) . Therefore, the media pays more attention to the gender that is considered more masculine than the other. This phenomenon has been attributed to many factors which will be talked about in this study. This paper seeks to review the literature on the nature of sports coverage in the media. The sports media is dominated by male hegemony and the female gender is highly under represented.
Background and Need (Rationale)
The consumption of sports news affects the perception of female athleticism. Just like any patriarchal society, the dominant stereotypes that exist in the world of sports the effect are seen in the news media coverage and published materials. Female athletes have been exposed to scrutiny from the dominant philosophy of bias. Society has put expectations on the males and females to believe, adopt, and fulfill some gender roles and stereotypes that have been set up ( Sherry, Osborne, & Nicholson, 2016) . It is therefore not required for one gender to creep into the roles or else there rises uproar and discomfort. The sports arena has not been left behind as such prejudices and stereotypes have been extended to that part of the society.
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Women in athletics have been exposed to discriminatory and prejudicial practices that have given rise to stereotypes, imagery, and preconceived roles within sports ( Martin et al., 2016) . Their push for masculine roles has been seen to rattle the social order and thus becoming a danger to the society. As sports upholds the power of toughness and ability to play through pain, the society views women as unfit for such roles as they have been attributed to weakness and softness ( Leiknisdóttir, 2006) . Of importance is that the formation of these roles has been championed by inappropriate remarks from professional athletes, public figures, spectators, as well as commentators ( Kareithi, 2014) . The roles are social ideologies that continue to influence the perspectives and conduct of individuals in the society. They direct people on how they should act, look, and even what a person should be interested in. gender roles are dependent on cultures and are cultivated in the minds of individuals from birth. What has affected the women athletes is the overall ideology that has been presented from different published media content. This comes as a result of the idea that competitive sport participation should be encouraged and expected more by men than women.
Theoretical Discussion
The media, particularly television, plays a significant role in the reproduction of messages, opinions, and images that legitimize the dominant ideology of the society. By the ideology, this paper means the perspectives of hegemonic culture. The theory of cultural hegemony describes the power that the most powerful economic groups assume through their consent for their roles in leadership by using the ideological and political norms that are carried around through the media. It is a term that was coined by Antonio Gramsci to refer to the way one social class dominates over others through development of explanations, values, perceptions, beliefs and construction of norms to impose the worldview of the ruling class ( Mouffe, 2014) .
In the case of this paper, the Western culture has ran the narrative that masculinity is an accepted major characteristic that makes women be placed below men. The society has created masculinity as the standard through which everything is measured. The ideology that masculinity is the accepted characteristic that stands above everything else is the outright justification that economic, political, and social status quo is a natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial construct of the society that only revolves around men. It normalizes the effects all the other characteristics should be compared to those of men ( Mouffe, 2014) .
Synthesis of Scholarship
The media has been successful in reinforcing the differences between the genders by presenting sports in a masculine hegemonic way. The ideas have been driven in different ways that reach millions of people hence making it the new normal. The synthesis part of the paper will take the topical format of writing the several ways in which the media has advanced the narrative of women sports.
Minimal coverage
First, the media has served to disseminate the hegemonic ideology by providing minimal or no coverage at all on the female athletes and women sports. In a research conducted by Amy Godoy-Pressland (2014), it was found that women athletes were indeed underrepresented in the media. Through analysis of five British Sunday national newspapers, the study found out that the reports on women athletes only accounted for a mere 3.6 percent (826 articles) as compared to the males who were covered in 93.8 percent (21,531 articles ( Godoy-Pressland, 2014) ). This was a deviation from the various studies that were only focused on gender reporting during the weekdays (which also mirrored the results in this case).
Social stigma and stereotypes
Secondly, the minimal or no coverage that the media provides make people to underestimate the number of women who take part in competitive sports or doubt whether there are any female athletes at all ( Sullivan & Evans, 2014) . In some cases, the notion that a woman is participating in sports raises social stigma due to the way the media downplays the phenomenon. Discrimination based on the perceived sexual orientation is persistent in the sports arena as the female athletes are branded names such as “gay” when they show their masculinity. The fear of being tagged such names has increased the rate at which the girls in adolescent stage drop out of sports as compared to the boys ( Sullivan & Evans, 2014) .
Few female journalists
Thirdly, when there is coverage of any sports concerning women, it is done in such a way to only further the stereotypical images and portrayal of the sports women as feminine. This is evident in which the reporting of sports in the media houses is carried out. The media surrounding sports has more male reporters than females. In a study conducted by the International Sports Press, it was found that the articles which are written by male journalists account for 90 percent and out of these, over 85 percent focused on male sports (Horky and Nieland, 2011). The reports written by female professionals only accounted for a mere 8 percent. This segregation in the reporting media has been an influence in how the sports concerning women have been covered. In retrospect, the coverage that the women journalists have been doing is largely attributed to feminine roles.
Commentaries
Lastly, sports professionals cover the women athletics by trivializing or minimizing their accomplishments through their choice of language and commentaries. This is a means of reinforcing the notion that sports involving women is not as interesting as the men’s and thus does not need the seriousness it deserves. When such commentaries come from influential people in the society, it easier for them to be heard and what they say followed ( Musto, Cooky, & Messner, 2017) . In this era of social media where the popular people are just clicks away, reaching them is easy and thus making them reachable to fans. When the followers see the posts and opinions, it can be easy to manipulate their beliefs. This narrative is evident in the manner various commentators have viewed the women sports as uninteresting. The individuals do not describe the female athleticism with the same words they use on the male one. The ability of men to carry out competitive skills in games has been described with the best words possible. Commentators assign those adjectives like “amazing,” “incredible,” “perfect,” or “beautiful ( Musto, Cooky, & Messner, 2017) .” Such words lack in female sports and this makes a significant impact on the ticket sales, salaries, and sponsorship deals.
Commercialization of the male bodies
The coverage of sports as a hegemonic feature has been influenced by the rise of the industrialist-capitalist era where it was separated from the community for the purpose of commercialization. It developed into an industry that is supposed to attract as much profit as possible. With this said, it is imperative to note that the media plays a significant role in the reinforcement of capitalist ideas such as individualism and respect for authority, hard work, and individual sacrifice for the benefit of the team. These characteristics are likewise attributed to the ideal “able-bodied” man that is masculine enough to fit the bill of the description that the capitalistic ideologies require.
Conclusion
It is evident that the media has been successful in advancing the hegemonic culture in the sports media. This has been done through providing little or no coverage to the female sports, media being dominated by male journalists, social stigma, inappropriate language from commentators and professionals, and commercialization of male body. The strength of this study is that it offers the societal biases that exist in viewing sports concerning women. Also, it points out the effect of the patriarchal culture which has crept into the sports sector. One weakness of the study is that it only considers the society perspective and does not take into account the personal attributes of women like generally hating sports and aggressiveness. The gap in this study is the role the consumers of the sports media (fans) play in the segregation of women in this field. Thus, further studies are required to investigate the extent to which they contribute to the underrepresentation in women. Despite the weaknesses, the media has pushed the ideology of women sports as uninteresting and this has been successful due to the factors aforementioned.
References
Godoy-Pressland, A. (2014). The weekend as a male entity: how Sunday newspaper sports reporting centres around male activities, interests and language (2008 and 2009). Leisure Studies , 33 (2), 148-163.
Horky, T. and Nieland, J.U. (2011). ISPS 2011 – First results of the International Sports Press Survey 2011. Presentation retrieved April 16, 2018 from http://www.playthegame.org/fileadmin/image/PTG2011/Presentation/PTG_NielandHorky_ISPS_2011_3.10.2011_final.pdf
Kareithi, P. J. (2014). Hegemonic masculinity in media contents. International Association For Media And Communication Research. Media and gender: a scholarly agenda for the Global Alliance on Media and Gender. Paris: UNESCO .
Leiknisdóttir, A. M. (2006). Sports, media and stereotypes women and men in sports and media.
Martin, T. G., Suh, Y. I., Williams, A. S., Locey, J., Ramirez, J., & Alea, M. (2016). Comparative Analysis of female and male coverage on ESPN‟ s SportsCenter. Global Sport Bus. J , 4 (1), 14-22.
Mouffe, C. (2014). Hegemony and ideology in Gramsci. In Gramsci and Marxist Theory (RLE: Gramsci) (pp. 178-214). Routledge.
Musto, M., Cooky, C., & Messner, M. A. (2017). “From Fizzle to Sizzle!” Televised Sports News and the Production of Gender-Bland Sexism. Gender & Society , 31 (5), 573-596.
Sherry, E., Osborne, A., & Nicholson, M. (2016). Images of sports women: A review. Sex Roles , 74 (7-8), 299-309.
Sullivan, B., & Evans, A. (2014). “Whatever you are gay, straight whatever...” stereotyped from the outside: an exploration of women footballers’ gender barriers and experiences.
