Before you watch the documentary, think about your relationship with women's sports. Do you participate in them? Do you watch them? What do you believe drives coverage of women's sports in this country. Does interest drive coverage? Vice versa? A combination of both? Moreover, what challenges, if any, do you believe female athletes face in our culture?
Watch the documentary from the Tucker Center at the University of Minnesota
After you finish, write a blog post where you discuss your initial responses to the "before viewing" questions above. Have your views on women's sports changed or deepened as a result of what was discussed in the documentary? Which evidence or segment(s) was most effective for you? Is there anything brought up in this piece that you feel you need or would like more information on?
Watch the documentary from the Tucker Center at the University of Minnesota
After you finish, write a blog post where you discuss your initial responses to the "before viewing" questions above. Have your views on women's sports changed or deepened as a result of what was discussed in the documentary? Which evidence or segment(s) was most effective for you? Is there anything brought up in this piece that you feel you need or would like more information on?
I watch women's sports occasionally, mostly UConn women's basketball and I believe that while the media doesn't do a very good job of covering women's sports, it is still what drives most its coverage. Interest drives coverage for more of the diehard fans, but media provides attention on the national level. Female athletes are extremely under appreciated, and often treated as lesser due to the lack of attention they receive. After watching the documentary, I know truly understand how unfair the situation is and how female athletes struggle with the problem of media attention and popularity. Rachel Blount was interviewed in the documentary, and her take on how the media is still mostly at fault for the situation was very interesting. Another interesting point was the connection between media attention and money made by the athletes, and how this connection represents interest. The documentary has definitely changed my views on the female world, and I will be an advocate of female sports in the future.
ReplyDeleteI do not participate in Women's sports, because I'm a guy. I do not watch women's sports either. There are several reasons for that. They aren't shown on television much and personally, I don't find it as exciting as men's sports. It really depends on the sport you're watching though. I watch a lot of hockey. Hockey is a very fast and intense sport. When I watch women's hockey, I feel like the game loses some speed and intensity. It's more of a personal preference to me. I think a lot of other people feel the same way. When you watch Men's sports, it tends to be a more intense and entertaining game, although this does not apply to every sport. There are definitely sports that women actually play better than men. In terms of what drives media coverage, I think that both interest driving media coverage and vice versa play a big part. If people are interested, then the media will cover it. The media can also show women's sports to get people interested. I think the biggest challenge that female athletes face is getting the same type of coverage as men. Many times, when watching women's sports or seeing coverage of women's sports, it's about what the girl is wearing or it's some drama that no one should care about. What they should be talking about about is the game that is being played, which is rarely talked about. I think it will be extremely difficult for women to overcome this challenge. In terms of my views, they did not change, and in terms of changing anything up in this piece, I would not.
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ReplyDeleteI watch Women's sports occasionally, mostly UConn women's basketball and Maryland Womens basketball. I rarely can keep the game on for the whole duration but it is interesting to watch sometimes. I believe that while the media doesn't do a good job of covering women's sports, it is interest that drives coverage. I believe if they saw more people interested and watching, they would cover more games. It is hard being a Women in sports because you are always compared to Men. Men might be able to do something on the court that is hard for a women to do because of their stature. What I mean is some might say why should i watch a women game, when the men are dunking on each other. Also in recent years people have not filled out a Womens bracket because they already can predict the winner. I think that Womens sports do have a fanbase it is not as big as mens yet, because if it was they would cover more games. Getting the sport on tv would definitely boost ratings. but one can make the argument that if people wanted to watch they would.
ReplyDeleteI don't usually watch women's sports because they are never really on TV. I believe media and interest really drives coverage on sports. The major problem is there isn't enough media of women's sports to really drive and make it a part of every household. Female athletes face a lot of barriers inside our culture to become the athletes they are and even more once they have reached that level. They are constantly being compared to men and undervalued by what they are doing. In the documentary it showed some people's comments on how men's sports are so much better than women's and they shouldn't be even trying. When in reality if these people faced up against the women they were commenting about they would be crushed in whatever sport they were playing. This documentary has opened my eyes up to a different aspect on the issue and made me want to watch a few games in the future.
ReplyDeleteBefore viewing the film, I was unaware of the extent of women’s sports undercoverage in the media. I was shocked to find that only four percent of women’s athletic events are covered on television. My views on women’s sports have not changed much, beside the fact that they are misrepresented and undercovered in the media. Many female athletes shown in newspapers of magazines are sexualized and often not shown playing their sport. Unfortunately, this is one of the only way for female athletes to get covered in the media. As large media corporations control the entertainment industry, they are ultimately decide which teams will be covered. Teams with more media coverage get bigger paychecks consequently. This is one of the reasons why female athletes are not payed as much their male counterparts. Personally, I do not watch women’s sports, unless it is the Olympics. But, to increase viewership of women’s sports, it is at the hands of media companies, as they control the entertainment industry; which may prove to be difficult to change, given the current status.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think there is much of a drive for women’s sports in this country. The only time there is would be because of media pushing a particular group in a large competition such as the olympics, world cup or national title. I think the media drives the interest because if there is a lot of hype for a particular team then it spreads more and people talk more and will actually support and watch the games. After watching the documentary I thought it was really interesting that although 40% of athletes are women, they only get 2-4% media coverage. Also, of that coverage majority is off the court in magazines focusing on how they look because “sex sells women’s sports". I think it would be interesting to have more information on the break down of media coverage and attention based on each sport. There are many different elements to specific sports that could come together and find better ways to fix the inequality.
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ReplyDeleteBefore viewing this documentary I can say that I didn't know much about the woman's sports world. I do not follow any teams or leagues, talk about it with my friends or watch any of the events. I only know about a few women sporting news coverage. Last year there was a lot of talk about the Nascar driver who was doing very well as a woman. Additionally, recently there has been talks of the Uconn Basketball team because of their dominance in the league. After watching this documentary, there were a few times that really impacted the way I think about the women's industry. The segment about the Minnesota Gophers undefeated season was really interesting because I hadn't heard of their historic season. I think that everybody can agree that if there was a men's hockey team that went undefeated and won a national championship that more people than not would know about it. The women's final four game wasn't even televised. I also think the reoccurring idea of the girls as a sex image throughout the entire documentary was pretty interesting. I agree with it to some length but I think they blew it a little out of proportion.
ReplyDeleteI typically only watch women's sports once in a while, but I love watching women's olympics for all sports. However, this is only once every couple years, so I really don't watch women's sports often. In order for sports in this country to get interest, there must be media coverage. Without it, the sport obviously and simply can't grow. Of course interest plays a role, but that can't be prevalent without proper coverage. Women certainly face many issues when it comes to sport discrimination: women don't get as much media coverage as men, people don't legitimize the strength and athleticism of the women, and men have always culturally, socially been portrayed as better at sports then women. There are many more issues in addition to what I mentioned, and it's undeniable that it has been hard to get past the barrier. My views on women's sports have absolutely deepened from watching the documentary. The documentary highlighted many issues regarding media coverage, sexual discrimination, sexual pictures with women players, and women being marginalized. The segments about Minnesota players being marginalized and women being oddly pictured with nudes struck me the most. It's time these two socially accepted habits stop. Lastly, I'd want to know the statistics of viewers that watch women vs men sports on the same night with the same coverage. It's only fair that coverage is equal and that women are given fair opportunities.
ReplyDeleteI don't typically watch women's sports. However, I will sometimes turn on the occasional softball game and I actually watched all of the American women gymnastics competition in Rio. While I think that for the most part interest drives coverage, I also think that sometimes coverage can increase interest. I think that women's sports are not covered a lot and because of that they often get treated like they are not skilled athletes. The documentary really opened my eyes to the lack of coverage across women's sports. The fact that women's sports get a total of 2-4% of total tv coverage is astonishing. Although I do think that a lot of this has to do with their being fewer people who watch women's professional sports, I also think that it has to do with the fact that 90% of editors are male. This could drive coverage to be more about male professional sports leagues specifically the NFL, NBA, and MLB. However, I think it is also important to note that what gets televised is typically what gets a lot of viewership and thats not just between girls sports and boys sports, but also just within boys sports. You will not see a lot of boys water polo games getting televised, just like you won't see a lot of women's field hockey because they don't tend to get a lot of viewership. I think Michael brought up a very interesting aspect of the documentary when talking about the sex image for women. I completely agreed with what he said about them blowing it a little out of proportion. While I do completely agree that a lot of the time the sex image is created and that they are trying to sell that instead of selling the image of an accomplished woman athlete, they also do this with a number of male athletes. For example ESPN does a body issue special where they take male and female athletes and they take pictures of them completely nude. I don't believe they are trying to create the sex image in a special issue like that because they are taking some athletes (Vince Wilfork for example) that wouldn't exactly portray that image for most people. Overall it is still clear that many changes need to be made for women's sports coverage and that an increase in sports coverage would create more interest in women's sports in general.
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ReplyDeleteGenerally, people who make more revenue succeed. The men's sports generate millions of more dollars and can use the revenue to promote the sport unlike female sports. Men sports also generate more views, so sponsorships and advertisements like to focus on big name players. Under Armor sponsors Steph Curry and pays for advertisements promoting him wearing the shoes while companies promoting female athletes might not have the money to spend for ad times. Interest also has a huge impact due to men watching men sports and women watching women sports because it is more relatable and they understand a game that they play. Men at Staples don't watch men field hockey nor watch female field hockey because they would not understand the game as well and could negatively affect the amount of viewers. Also, there has not been lots of promotion of a future in women sports that can allow the female athletes to have a substantial career playing that sport. Except for male sports, the future at the professional level can make these athletes very successful and allow players be more motivated to reach higher goals after the college level. Female athletes have challenges having recognition in their sport and are judged to be not as good as men. For example, some people believe that the WNBA and women basketball is a joke, but in reality, people like Maya More and Britney Griner can be better than some male athletes. Also, another challenge is there are no previews for the games, no pregame show that could inform the viewer what is going to happen. Female athletes compose 40% of college athletes and only receive 2-4% media coverage. That coverage is also being a model for sports illustrated so that media coverage of the actual game is very minimal. One way that women sports receive recognition is during the Olympics where there is equal opportunity on the television to watch. One of the story was also insane how two swimmers were competing for the world record and their only recognition is that she stole the other girls boyfriend. Also, people generalize that female sports, the people who are involved are either homosexuals and act manly instead of the generic stay at home mom. Women athletes should not have to pose in bikinis just to have their sport recognized and make most of their money on these advertisements. My view has changed dramatically that these athletes work just as hard as male athletes but get paid less, have extremely less air time, and not only have to succeed in their spot but to have the body image that would be necessary to attract more viewers. I would like to learn more about how comparable the most successful female sport is to any male sport and compare.
ReplyDeleteI don't really have a relationship with women's sports. I don't watch them on TV at all except for the women's world cup. I don't have a sister, so I don't go to any girls games. I believe that coverage drives of women's sport drives interest. I feel like if I see a cool women's game on TV I might watch it. But I will never have any interest in hunting down a game on TV. I think all athletes face challenges. I think women face different challenges like not getting the respect and TV coverage they deserve. After watching the documentary my view has definitely changed on women's sports. There was a staggering fact in the beginning of the documentary that women sports only get about 4% of coverage. That is such a small number because 40% percent of athletes are women. After hearing many stories in the film of how hard female athletes work and how they get little to no recognition for what they do. At the end of the video they explain “Effective strategies for increasing media coverage and creating images which reflect the reality of women’s sports participation and why this is so important.” The documentary was very informational and changed my viewpoint on women’s sports and how they get treated.
The only women's sport I have watched was gymnastics during the Olympics because of Simone Biles being number one. I do believe that they deserve more coverage by the media because women work just as hard a men do. In media coverage interest defiantly has to be there, but the coverage there will help get interest up. A perfect example was staples hockey last year. Being that I never watched sports, I didn't know a thing about it. But when Good Morning Staples started to cover it, then that caught the interest of me and I wanted to know more about them. You can't not cover something and expect people to have a interest. People need to be informed about something to be able to know about it. Also with the magazines and the way they are portraying women in sexualized ways doesn't help. It put women back in the view of they should only be in the kitchen and not playing sports. When you show pictures of them playing sports and on the field that is what makes people want to go see them.The should be viewed as athletes not sex symbols.
ReplyDeleteI never really think to watch women's sports when I am trying to watch a game of soccer, a game of hockey, or any game in general. Maybe for the women's world cup or women's march madness finals I might tune in for a little bit. That sums up my interest in women's sports. Obviously women's sports are under covered and men's sports dominate the TV. TV stations work off of revenue... as bad as I feel for the women players and as empathetic as I am that they do not have the same chance as men for sports, these stations just want to make money to pay their employees and grow the company. The general public would much rather watch a high-intensity, high-impact men's game of hockey than a fairly slow women's game of hockey. Surely hockey is an obvious example of male dominance over a sport but if you look at sports like diving and gymnastics, females dominate these and the athletes like Gabby Douglas have a lot of recognition. I definitely believe women deserve more coverage for sports, morally, but I do not think this is feasible unless the TV companies want to lose money.
ReplyDeleteI watch a limited amount of women's sports. I only watch them if there is a major competition going on like the Olympics. However, that doesn't mean nobody is interested in them. I believe that, to a certain extent, interest drives coverage in women's sports. They are highly competitive and can be very exciting which draws in a significant fan base. In addition to the fans of women's sports, fear of sexism results in coverage as well. Many TV channels cover almost 100% men's sports (women only get 2-4% of coverage), but it seems to me that the only reason women get any coverage at all is because the show doesn't want to be accused of not covering any women's sports. After watching the video, my understanding of women's sports has not changed but I now understand the problem much better. For example, I knew that women make less money than men, but an interesting statistic the documentary gave is that the average women in the WNBA makes $72,000 while the average man makes $5,000,000. In sum women have a significant disadvantage in sports in terms of pay and many other factors solely because of their gender.
ReplyDeleteThe only woman's sports I have watched was track and field in the summer Olympics and sometimes Tennis. The main reason why I don't watch woman's sports is because I never really see them on TV. Most of the time it is mens sports on TV. I believe that women do not have enough coverage for their sports. I think in woman sports coverage drives interest and interest drives coverage. If there was more coverage on woman's sports I think more people would watch it because it will build interest. And, if there was more interest in the sports there will be more coverage. After watching the documentary my thoughts didn't change much but it made me think more about how woman are stereotyped. In the documentary a girl mentions how the reporters don't always talk about performance and sometimes get off topic. This shows how there is not much interest in the sport and more about other things for woman. I feel in woman sports, woman do not get enough coverage and when they do it is not always not on topic.
ReplyDeleteI don't really watch woman's sports besides the World Cup every 4 years. I think that both coverage and media work for each other in some cases. I hear about sports that I am interested in from coverage and media most of the time will show it. The one big thing that the media doesn't show that I really enjoy watching is college soccer. They only show the semi finals and finals and that will be on a channel that a lot of people won't get on their TV. I think that it was a stunning fact that only 2 percent of the sports shown on television are from women. I think that women don't get the same type of recognition as men's sports do. Football is the number 1 watched sport by far. Woman don't get the same chance because there isn't a league that gets covered. Right now, the Uconn Women's basketball team hasn't lost a game in about 3 seasons. But they aren't getting nearly as much coverage as if a men's team were to do that. There are some outliers though. In tennis, the average salary for a woman tennis player is about $80,000 more than the average salary of a men's tennis player. In general though, I feel that women don't get nearly equal coverage to men.
ReplyDeleteOver the years I have participated in various sports. Whether it be soccer, basketball, or track, I had never noticed the difference between women's sports and men's sports until I was older. Personally, I don't watch women's sports, until the world cup rolls around. I believe that a mix of coverage drives interest and interest drives coverage results in the current recognition that women sports get. The media has the ability and skill to hype just about anything up and if that practice was applied to women's sports, I'm sure interest in them would increase and they would be covered more. I think that female athletes face many challenges such as unequal pay, and a lack of recognition. After watching the documentary, I also realize how big of a role sexualization plays in women's sports. While I obviously knew beforehand that women are objectified and over-sexualized frequently, I didn't realize how much they were so in the sports industry. The examples such as Ronda Rousey's sports illustrated cover and the football Lingerie League really highlighted this. I think it would be interesting to see the difference between interviews of male and female athletes.
ReplyDeleteAs far as connections to women's sports, I have a younger sister who is a extremely advanced gymnast and also plays lacrosse. I often go to her gymnastic meets and lacrosse games. The meets that I have seen are extremely intense, but not nearly as intense as the practices that she endures every day. I remember one day she came home telling me that she had to do a 23 minute plank. I consider myself a skilled athlete, yet a 23 minute plank sounds unfathomable. To say the least, seeing my sister put herself through all the work that she has, has given me an appreciation for how hard not just her, but many women put into their sports. This being said, it saddens me to see the lack of coverage of women sports. While the interest level is not as high as mens, I do believe that to some degree coverage drives interest, and there is very little coverage of women's sports. I think that this must change. It really does not matter than their sports are not as exciting or explosive, they deserve the coverage. Even if the interest level is not significant, I truly believe that they should get more coverage. Who knows, maybe with the increased coverage, the interest will rise as well. After watching the documentary, my opinions on women's sports only became stronger. The fact that 40% of athletes are women, yet only receive 2-4% of coverage is a travesty. Also, the role of sexualization in women's sports is very interesting. I didn't realize how objectified these women were until watching this documentary. Overall, it is definitely necessary for women sports to see increased coverage.
ReplyDeleteI do not tend to watch women's sports unless it is during the olympics. I personally believe that the viewership is what is driving women's sports, if the network knows that there will be viewers they will cover the sport. I do believe that it is interest that drives coverage because if the networks do not believe that people will watch then they have no reason to show it. Like this is why I believe they cover the olympics because they know there is so much interest in the sports so they will cover it to make money. I believe that females are currently being challenged by our culture as seeing them more models in magazines than athletes such as whenever they are shown in magazines they are usually not clothed and trying to be appealing to the reader. My views on women's sports have changed completely, seeing that even though 40% of athletes are women, but only 2-4% of their sports are covered is a sad statistic to see. These women are doing the same thing as the men and train just as hard but don't get nearly anything close to the reward that the male athletes are receiving. Something I would like to receive more interest on is what the 2-4% coverage is mainly, meaning like which sports are televised the most and maybe even watch something to see how they cover it and possibly compare it to how the other announcers and stations cover mens sports.
ReplyDeleteI do not generally watch women's sports, as there just isn't enough coverage of women's sports in general. I feel like the only prevalent women's team at the moment is the Uconn Women's team but only because of what they've been able to accomplish. If they had not bee able to win 4 titles and win over 100 games, I would most definitely not have watched any women's sporting events. Having watched the documentary, I think that certain women's sports should certainly have the same coverage as men, and should at least get a significant raise in pay. It's unfair that women's sports teams (particularly in the olympics) perform at arguably the highest level in the world, and get paid much less than the mens teams. I believe that coverage most certainly drives interests, as if there was more coverage of women's sports in general, I would definitely be drawn to any women's sport, which obviously doesn't happen, as they are seldom covered on any major network.
ReplyDeleteI have never really watched women's sports. To be honest, I believe and obviously it is shown that the coverage on women's professional and collegiate sports is poor. But I strongly agree after class that coverage is based on interest and what drives people. I've really only been interested in following the Uconn Women's basketball team and the USA women's world cup when it happens because it is actually covered and interests many people around the world. After watching the documentary, I believe that the coverage of both men and women's sports should be equal (and it sort of goes against equal rights based on gender). There are still fan bases for certain women's teams and sports but with more coverage and passion in what they are actually reporting on, I don't see there being a drive or expansion in coverage any time soon unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteAll facets of media are driven by interest—flip on ESPN, and there's a very good chance the analysts will be talking about football in some form. Why? Because football is the most popular sport in America. The fact is, women's sports are less popular than men's, and as a result they are shown less. Major sports networks are going to show the NFL over the WNBA 10 out of 10 times, because mathematically the average American cares more about football. But what ends up occurring is a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts; the media shows little women's sports because it believes viewers do not care, and as a result viewers, see predominately men's athletics and therefore do not display interest in the women's games that are not available to them. It's displayed in the opening of the documentary: women account for 40% of athletes in the U.S., but they receive just 4% of sports media coverage. Female athletes at the pinnacle of their sports receive a fraction of the attention given to their male counterparts. One facet of women's athletics the documentary opened my eyes to is the sexualization of women in sports. I never really thought about how they are portrayed off the court, but the differences between males and females are huge. The juxtaposition is clear—LeBron James is shown on the cover of Sports Illustrated, muscles rippling as he dunks a basketball, while a female tennis player displays herself in a sexual manner on the front of a lesser known magazine.
ReplyDeleteI rarely watch women's sports to be honest. Besides Uconn Women's Basketball, I don't really hear much coverage on or about women's sports. I think coverage for women's sports should be at a higher rate because I think one of the reasons most people don't watch is because its not aired on TV a lot. I believe coverage drives interests, so if major networks like ESPN or CBS sports, were to cover womens basketball or softball or any womens sport, then more people would be interested and want to watch and keep up with games and seasons.
ReplyDeleteWomen's sports are definitely under covered by the media but that is simply because the media is looking to make money and the best way to make money is to air shows that they know will receive views. Women's sports have not been as prevalent in our lives and on TV as men's sports are, which is why people just naturally have more interest in men's sports. Also, men's hockey and men's lacrosse are just two examples of sports where men's matches dominate the women's matches in terms of intensity (this could be opinionated but there are rules in both sports that limit certain collisions and contacts on the women's side). All in all, the media wants money and they won't be making any money at all if they show a WNBA game over an NBA or NFL game.
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