Despite the position that sport occupies at the centre of public attention, and despite the billions of consumers and immense coverage which it attracts from around the globe, it seems that the media prioritise coverage of only a very small fraction of sporting events, and a few prominent athletes. It goes without saying that sport in the media is dominated by men – they are a large majority among athletes, consumers, journalists, and producers.
This book will shed new light on the long discussed question of gendered sporting coverage, in an era when the Olympics can be dubbed the ‘women’s games’. Some of the contributions present new perspectives such as: the relationship between media and sport in Poland; media presentations of men and women in gender ‘adequate’ and ‘inadequate’ sports; competition between women and men participating in the same events; the presentation of celebrities; and the framing of doping within the context of gender relations. Furthermore, the book focuses not only on athletes, sports and events, but also on consumers, such as hooligans and their brand of masculinity, and on journalists, such as Mike Penner, who attempted to transgress gender boundaries. This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.
Introduction Susanna Hedenborg and Gertrud Pfister
1. Fairy tales? Marion Jones, C.J. Hunter and the framing of doping in American newspapers Gertrud Pfister and Gerald Gems
2. The female ‘apologetic’ behaviour within Canadian women’s rugby: athlete perceptions and media influences Elizabeth Hardy
3. Are women still the ‘other sex’: gender and sport in the Polish mass media Honorata Jakubowska
4. Mike Penner ‘or’ Christine Daniels: the US media and the fractured representation of a transgender sportswriter Lindsay Parks Pieper
5. Hit and tell – Swedish hooligan narratives Aage Radmann
6. Gender and politics at the 2012 Olympics: media coverage and its implications Jules Boykoff and Matthew Yasuoka
7. Constructing gender differences: newspaper portrayals of male and female gymnasts at the 2012 Olympic Games Andrea N. Eagleman
8. The rocker and the heroine: gendered media representations of equestrian sports at the 2012 Olympics Anna-Maria Hellborg and Susanna Hedenborg
Biography
Susanna Hedenborg is Professor in Sport Science at Malmö University, Sweden. She is the author of several books and articles and has gained honorary prizes as an author of textbooks in history, and as a sport historian.
Gertrud Pfister is a Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She has conducted several large national and international research projects, and has published more than 200 articles and twenty books.
