Interrogating inequalities in Sports Media: Examining gender/race representation in ESPN

I chose ESPN because it is my main source for sports news and I thought it would be interesting to examine the gender inequalities evident in the media especially ESPN. I will explore the number of articles written about women and women's sports. ESPN is far ahead of other media outlets when it comes to coverage of female sports. ESPN has set up a site called ESPNW which covers several news stories and major events in female sports. However this ESPNW pales in comparison to regular ESPN which basically strictly covers male sport and male athletes. To keep it simple I chose this past week, (from Monday until today--Friday). I could not come up with an exact number but through a compare and contrast the amount of articles written about men and women differ significantly. Despite ESPN's efforts to create a parallel female site to the original there is just simply way more media covering males than females.

These findings show me that we are still behind in times regarding gender equality, however male sports do have more fans and demand more media coverage than women's sports. The gesture of a female site is good for ESPN's face value and in gaining support from female consumers, but is it really just a lazy effort to give some female coverage and avoid being criticized for not having female coverage?
My findings do support other research on the matter of gender in sport. Female sport and media coverage have always been lesser than their male counterparts and the inequality still exists today. You rarely hear about the WNBA ever on national television until the last round of the playoffs begins. I also feel like during the Olympics I have seen more female names on the front page of ESPN than I ever have before, annual women's sports do not get nearly the same amount of attention.

The things I found regarding ESPN and gender are both encouraging and discouraging. The ESPNW website is great and provides solid coverage of almost every female sport followed in America. And the creation of that site is a step forward for women's sport in the media. On the other hand massive inequalities in the number of cover stories, interviews, and articles in general are still very apparent

Reflecting on the Shame of College Sports: Should NCAA Div 1 Basketball and Football players get paid?

This has been a hot topic for decades now, especially with all these new allegations coming up against Universities on an almost monthly basis. Recruitment and scouting has become so competitive that often times teams are breaking NCAA rules by offering monetary or other material rewards for choosing a certain University to play sports at. There are two sides to the argument with equally passionate and logical arguments. The figures who believe athletes should be paid are the ones who realize how commercial intercollegiate sport has become. The Universities make copious amounts of money through their college spots programs. Every time these players take the field or the court they are pouring money into the school and what is in it for them? a free or discounted education yes, but that compensation would be a decimal compared to how much money they are generating. The argument becomes "If these players are making the college millions of dollars shouldn't they share in some of the spoils?.
The argument against playing players adhered to NCAA rules. Players in this situation should not be manipulated by money. Yes they are helping generate money for the University but they are still college athletes not professional athletes. The rules have always been this way and things have been great. Yes corruption is a problem and schools are still breaking the rules but as long as the punishment stay hard then things will go as they always have.
My opinion is that players should not be payed. The argument for compensation is a stronger one and all arrows point to the fact that player truly should be paid, but it would just be such a drastic change and I do think it would change the game completely. the mentality, the competitiveness, and the overall purity of college sport. Often times when I ask a friend whether they like to watch profession or collegiate sport the answer is normally college. because there us more 'passion' they work harder and it is more exciting.

Sports, Politics and the Olympics

The Summer Olympics in 1964 were held in Tokyo, Japan. Japan which had been a country devoted to militarism and imperialism for decades was now hosting the Olympics. Japan, which had been responsible for starting the Pacific's World War II wanted to establish themselves as a peaceful country devoted to creating new strong foreign relations and a devotion to international sport. Another reason was to create pride in their Country. Japan had not always been interested in Sports as a mechanism for both foreign relations and national pride. Bringing the Olympics to their home country created more support and more interest in Sports.  Besides Japan's strategy at becoming more known as a peaceful country, South Africa was a nation banned because of their apartheid laws. Apartheid was still very much alive in South Africa and because of this they were banned from competing in the 1964 games. I believe that there are two of Sage & Eitzen's political uses of sport evident here. The first is using Sports as a vehicle for change in society. Banning South Africa from the Olympics exposed their out-dated and disgusting societal structure to the rest of the world and also put pressure on them to consider lifting the apartheid laws. And although the this might not have caused them to change the laws right away it began to show that the whole world was against them regarding apartheid. The second use I would consider as a part of this Olympic games would be 'Using sport as a propaganda vehicle". Most often the word propaganda has a negative undertone, however in Japans case I believe that the propaganda they used was very beneficiary both for Japan and the rest of the world. They proved themselves to be a country capable of hosting the rest of the world for a major event despite their image as enemies in the past. Also these games were an attempt to show the people of Japan the changes that has taken place and perhaps to create more pride in a country that had been so war torn recently.

"Sport is pure and devoid of political interference"
This quote is 100% untrue. Especially in modern day sports. There is no need to look far for research because Sage and Eitzen explain the connection of politics and sport. Throughout the past hundred or so years international sporting events have been used politically whether to make a change worldwide, to put pressure on enemies, to create national pride and even to make poorer citizens forget about their problems for a while. examples of Sage and Eitzen's political strategies can be seen across several olympics. sport has been used for societal changes very often with boycotts and statements being made by victorious athletes (black power symbol in mexico city etc.). Often times these sporting events promote peace, and politics is the number one tool for creating peace. Also when looking at the Communist and Nazi games we can see several example of political propaganda to represent the communist and Nazi values as acceptable and successful. even more evidence of Political presence in sport is the fact that there are so many stakeholders involved in America's major leagues today (NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB) that it seems as though it is more politics than pure sport.