Feminine Framing: Framing Theory and the Media's Portrayal of Female Athletes

The biased portrayal of female athletes by the media has been studied and discussed extensively. The Framing Theory hypothesis is used here to identify a correlation between the way female athletes are portrayed by the media and the way consumer's frame their opinions based on these portrayals. A brief public opinion survey was given to a random sample of the student population at Coastal Carolina University. Of the 66 consumers surveyed, 51 (77%) stated that they believe there should be more media focused on female athletes. Of the 66 consumers surveyed, 55 (83%) stated that they believe the media portrays male athletes differently than female athletes. Results suggest that consumers are aware that the media is biased in their portrayal of female athletes. Results also suggest that male athletes are better known than female athletes and are described differently by participants. The results of this study provide interesting correlations between the way female athletes are portrayed by the media and the way consumers perceive them. The results of this study may be beneficial to media consumers, athletes, product promoters and the media alike. FRAMING THEORY AND MEDIA'S PORTRAYAL OF FEMALE ATHLETES 3 Feminine Framing: Framing Theory and the Media's Portrayal of Female Athletes Based on research dealing with the media's portrayal of female athletes, it is possible and even likely that female athletes are portrayed in a different marmer than male athletes, in a number of ways. This study seeks to find out what possible effects this difference in portrayals may have on media consumers. The study will use the framing theory, which suggests that the way people feel about news stories is based on the media's depiction of the events (Scheufele, 1999). This study suggests that the way people feel about female athletes and about coverage of female athletes is influenced by the way athletes are portrayed by the media. Framing theory thus may help to explain if there is a correlation between media consumption and perception of female athletes. The research that follows suggests that female athletes are portrayed in the media less frequently than male athletes are. When female athletes are portrayed, they are generally shown participating in gender appropriate sports, shown in passive poses and are more sexualized than male athletes. This research will determine what effects these factors may have on the people who consume different types of media relating to male and female athletes. This research is important because, if viewers are negatively affected by the media's portrayal of female athletes, such results will illustrate that a change in coverage is needed. The following research proves that there is a difference in the media's coverage of male and female athletes but most of it does not explain what this means to consumers. Review of Literature Previous research that will be discussed in this section has focused on the mass media's portrayal of female athletes in the areas of television, magazines, newspapers, and as product endorsers. There are several common phrases used in many of the articles to describe media coverage of female athletes, such as underrepresented, gender appropriate sports, passive poses, sexualization, and traditional gender roles. Underrepresented refers to the lack of coverage of female athletes in FRAMING THEORY AND MEDIA'S PORTRAYAL OF FEMALE ATHLETES 4 comparison to male athletes. The term Gender appropriate sports refers to sports that fulfill gender roles. For example, female athletes are portrayed as participating in gender appropriate sports when playing tennis, golf, or figure skating. Passive Poses are poses in which the athlete is standing in a nonactive position, not actually playing a sport. Sexualization refers to athletes being depicted based on sexuality rather than on skill or talent. Title IX is an important milestone in relation to this topic. Title IX was passed in 1972 and sought to put an end to discrimination in schools based on gender. Title IX states, ""No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid. " Much of the following research examines advancements in relation to Title IX. The legislation promoted equality among participation in sports but many researchers such as Gran, Roselli and Taylor (2007) hypothesize that this as far as it went. Title IX did not include equality in coverage by the media. The following shows that while female participation in sports has increased since the passage of Title IX, in 1972, media attention continues to be scarce and biased concerning female athletes. Some research has examined effects that such coverage can have on media consumers. However, this area is lacking which creates a need for a study on the way it affects consumers. Much previous research has examined specific magazines, events, people, and television broadcasts. The research can be divided into three main themes based on type of coverage. Television Previous research dealing with the way female athletes are portrayed through television acknowledges that there seems to be some sort of bias. However, different articles vary on whether or not they believe coverage in general has increased. Angelini (2008) discuss how women are underrepresented in televised sports because they are perceived as non-athletic or lacking competitive spirit. Angelini studied how male and female athletes are portrayed differently by commentators, and FRAMING THEORY AND MEDIA'S PORTRAYAL OF FEMALE ATHLETES 5 mainly what effects this had on audiences. The research question dealt with whether similar levels of physiological arousal would be measured while viewing sports featuring the opposite gender. The fmdings showed that physiological arousal decreased for both sexes while viewing female sports. This source is important because it somewhat explains why mass media feel the need to depict female athletes based on sexuality rather than talent. If neither gender is as physically aroused by viewing female sports, this may explain the perceived lack of necessity for media coverage of female sports. Media representatives can simply say that female sports do not provide as much entertainment. Shugart (2003) examined media coverage of the 1999 US Women's soccer team and found that female athletes were gendered by the media using sexualizing strategies. The author stated that when female athletes are covered by the media, it is generally when they are playing "sex appropriate" sports that emphasize curves and sex appeal, thus demonstrating that female athletes have been portrayed based on sexuality rather than performance. Angelini, Billings and Eastman (2008) discussed biased television commentary associated with golfer Michelle Wie in regards to her gender, age, and ethnicity. This article's main research question asked: "Were differences in explaining Wie's achievements attributable to the gender ofthe announcer? " The findings showed that female golfers were spoken about differently than male golfers and that Wie was treated like other female golfers in areas such as word choice and coverage. Daddario (1994) uses the 1992 Olympics as an example of how rhetoric and portrayal of female athletes can reinforce a masculine sports hegemony. The author's research question was, what strategies do the mass media use in fashioning a masculine sports hegemony? The article focused on the area oflanguage and visual footage in marginalizing female athletes. Daddario stated that female athletes were "blamed for their failings" and male athletes were treated as more of "movie stars" or were "idolized. " Carty (2005) stated that many recent "textual portrayals" of female athletes have questioned the FRAMING THEORY AND MEDIA'S PORTRAYAL OF FEMALE ATHLETES 6 gains in participation in traditionally "non-feminine" sports. Textual portrayals refer to the messages in advertisements that Cary refers to as "ambiguous" and "contradictory. " The main research question of this study focused on whether coverage of female athletes emphasized sexuality rather than talent or skill. Most of the examples discussed and analyzed in the study deal with television commercials during important events. Carty states that the main problem with coverage of female athletes is a focus on sexualization rather than on skill or talent. The articles all claim that female athletes are more highly sexualized by the media than male athletes. Further, there are certain sports that are seen as "more traditionally feminine" and are covered more often by the media. The articles also offer gender roles as a possible reason for why coverage of female athletes differs from that of male athletes. Several studies (Angelini, Billings & Eastman, 2008; Angelini, 2008) examined the impact on viewers and found that sexualization offemale athletes had a negative impact on viewers (2008). The study by Angelini, Billings and Estrnan concludes: "Communication theorists have argued that the impact on viewers of repeated bias in announcing can be immense" (2008, p 64). Magazines The next theme deals with media coverage of female athletes in magazines and as product endorsers. Fink and Kensicki I (2002) looked at Sports Illustrated to determine if there have been any changes in the coverage of women in the magazine. The authors also examined Sports Illustrated for Women to determine if it depicted women based on "feminity" rather than talent. They asked whether women were portrayed in a more passive manner than men in Sports fllustrated. This article examines how when female athletes are portrayed in media that is aimed towards females, the media does a much better job in portraying female athletes based on their talent rather than sexuality but this has still not crossed over into male-aimed media. Grau, Roselli an