I. Introduction
For over a hundred years, the modern day Olympics has served as a unifying agent
for athletes from all over the world. It is an arena for countries to showcase their best athletic
talent, and a rare opportunity for men and women to compete at the same venue, on the same
telecast, for the same number of medals. The Olympics is not, however, just about athletic
pride. The Games have also been deeply entwined with political issues in the past, most
specifically mirroring the progression of women’s rights into American society. When the
modern day Olympics were first held in 1896, women were excluded in an attempt to
recreate the original games (Bissell and Reichart, 2009, p. 5). Four years later, the first
female athletes made an appearance in the Paris Games (Trbic, 2008, p. 82). Through the
Women’s Rights Movement in the early 1900s, women’s suffrage in 1920, and the Equal
Employment Opportunity Act in 1972, women have continuously progressed and gained
more active roles American political society (Eaklor, 2008). A parallel to this growth, the
number of female Olympic participants has also steadily increased over the years, from 25.8
percent in 1988 to 38.2 percent in 2000 (Bissell and Reichart, 2009, p. 5). These statistics of
female athlete participation directly reflect women’s advancement in both the political and
athletic world.
In turn, interest in watching women’s Olympic events along with the men’s events
has also risen over the years. In 2004, “48 percent of all prime-time coverage was
consistently devoted to women’s athletics within the prime-time Summer Olympic telecasts”
(Angelini and Billings, 2010, p. 364). Although the amount of coverage has certainly
increased, there is still controversy over the type of coverage that these female athletes
receive, and whether it is gender biased or not. This research paper will explore the concept
of gender bias in the media coverage of Olympic events, covering five major sports including
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women’s and men’s gymnastics, track and field, swimming, diving, and beach volleyball
from the Summer Olympics in 2000 to 2008. Coverage of these “big five” sports collectively
represented 94 percent of NBC’s prime-time coverage of the event, later declared the most
watched television event in the U.S. television history (Angelini and Billings, 2010, p. 367).
The research will be conducted through a sport-by-sport approach, investigating whether or
not media coverage is gendered differently within each sport, thus signifying an agenda
setting impact.
Even though media entities do not have direct influence on what the public thinks,
they do maintain power regarding the topics that viewers think about. Thus, “sports media
effectively shapes public agenda and influences the public’s judgment about the world of
sport” (Greenleaf, Higgs, and Weiller, 2004, p. 15). For example, if a network incorporates
subliminal sexism into their broadcast of the Olympic events, they may unintentionally
“determine viewer perceptions and the conversations and interactions they subsequently
share” (Angelini and Billings, 2010, p. 364). Through selection, emphasis and exclusion
functions, few network gatekeepers maintain the ability to frame the Games for millions of
viewers around the world (Angelini and Billings, 2010). Broadcast media operates “through
a clock-time mechanism (determining what sports and athletes are shown), with the athletes
that receive clock-time being framed through the language that accompanies sports talk
narratives” (Angelini and Billings, 2010, p. 364). Their visual and linguistic choices may
inadvertently expose stereotypes and inequalities between male and female sports.
Therefore, the production choices of these few stations reflect and perhaps even reinforce the
ideals of society as a whole.
Through a comparative analysis, this paper will first explore the language used in
each sport’s broadcast, specifically analyzing the commentary of the events. Within the “big
five”, the results of three sports, track and field, beach volleyball, and swimming, are
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determined with objective assessments because the winners cannot be debated due to timed
judgments or a set score. Gymnastics and diving, on the other hand, are subjective because
they deal with an element of human judging. This leaves even more room for gender bias in
their coverage on television, as the broadcaster may inadvertently use sexist or discriminatory
language in an attempt to think like the judge. According to Angelini and Billings, “sports
with objective assessments were far less likely to contain divergences in terms of gender than
sports with subjective assessments” (2010, p. 366). Due to this discrepancy, the verbal
analysis section of the research will be separated based on objective and subjective sports.
The second part of the research will explore visual language used in the broadcasts by
analyzing the camera angles filmed in the coverage of the events. Though some seemingly
biased shots could be unintentional, this research seeks to uncover trends in shooting styles
and patterns that may convey subliminal sexism to viewers. Finally, the research will address
the Olympic online coverage of both male and female athletes, once again looking at the
camera angles utilized to portray the Olympians along with the words used to describe them
on three major sporting websites. A combination of the verbal and visual portrayal of
athletes on the Olympic broadcasts along with a close examination of online Olympic athlete
coverage will reveal the difference between the presentation of men’s and women’s sports by
the media.
This study seeks to address the following questions:
1. In what ways do sports broadcaster’s commentary on Olympic sports such as track
and field, beach volleyball, swimming, gymnastics and diving diminish the
accomplishments of female athletes?
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2. Are camera angles biased in their portrayal of men’s versus women’s Olympic sports,
showing each in a different way to attract interest and enforce gender stereotypes?
3. As an agenda-setting agent, how does the media affect way that audiences view
Olympic women’s sports in comparison to men’s sports?
II. Literature Review
A. Verbal Language Analysis
The first section of this research focuses on the verbal language of the Olympic
broadcasters during both men’s and women’s events. Under the surface, biased language can
reveal “embedded social meanings, including overt and covert social biases, stereotypes and
inequities” (Bissell and Reichart, 2009, p. 32). This entails the risk of marginalizing female
athletes, and depicting them as inferior or unequal to their male counterparts. Upon women’s
first appearance in the Paris Olympic Games in 1900, the “media began to endorse a rather
traditional gender order by describing female athletes as belles, nymphs, mermaids, queens,
and wax dolls” (Bivolaru, Graf and Petca, 2009, p. 4). Female uniforms were conservative,
and they typically only participated in socially acceptable sports with little to no contact. The
role of women in society has progressed greatly within the last century, yet research shows
that broadcasters still often use gender biased language in their assessments. By first
analyzing the verbal attributions of male versus female athletes, followed by the commentary
of objective and subjective sports, it becomes clear that the attribution of athlete successes by
sportscasters differs greatly based on gender of the athletes.
The verbal descriptors that broadcasters use to depict the successes of women’s sports
contribute to the trivialization of female athletes. In a thorough analysis of broadcast
language, Koivula found that while references to women Olympians included attributes such
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as graceful, aesthetically appealing, and a focus on femininity or lack of it, the references to
male athletes portrayed them as vein, powerful, forceful, and mentally and physically strong
(Koivula, 1999). These descriptions reinforce the notion of masculine hegemony in the
minds of viewers. Another study found that “male athletes receive increased comments
about the size and shape of their bodies, whereas women specifically receive comments about
their attractiveness,” thus diminishing the accomplishments of female athletes (Billings,
2007, p. 332). These words that focus on aesthetic appeal insinuate that women are
“naturally” less suited for sport, and are also “weaker, more prone to emotional outbursts,
and less able to handle the stress of sports” (Greer, Hardin and Homan, 2009, p. 175). This
hinders equal perceptions of women’s and men’s sports, thus differentiating them into
separate spheres. A study of the hierarchy of naming also supports the assertion that
women’s and men’s Olympic coverage is not equal, as women are often referred to as girls
and young ladies, while men are consistently called men (Macey, 2005). Along with this
overall analysis of broadcast language, it is also important to conduct research through a
sport specific approach to measure the scope and impact of these gender inequities.
Gymnastics, being a subjective sport, is clearly the most marked event in terms of
verbal broadcast gender discrepancies. According to the broadcasters, men are more likely to
succeed because of courage, strength and superior concentration, while the reasons for
success granted to women include experience and athletic ability (Billings, 2007, p. 337).
Though these descriptors are different, they are not as opposing as prior research seemed to
assert. Women athletes, however, are much more likely to be described as “graceful” and
“beautiful”, as opposed to men who are said to succeed because they are “powerful” and
“dominant” (Billings, 2007, p. 341). Similar to gymnastics, a study of Olympic broadcasts
on diving also yields different language usage when comparing coverage of men’s and
women’s events. While women are described as “gorgeous” and “beautiful”, men are
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“clean” and “proficient” (Billings, 2007, p. 39). These descriptors support the thesis that
Olympic broadcasts reveal embedded social meanings, perhaps even marginalizing women’s
athletics.
Among the three objective sports studied in this research, beach volleyball was the
most marked in verbal gender discrepancies. According to Bissell and Reichart’s study, “of
the 155 comments coded as being about a physical attribute of a female player or the
women’s team, 64 percent were coded as being about looks or attire compared to 23 percent
for men” (Bissell and Reichart, 2009, p. 24). Research revealed little to no differences,
however, in the words used to describe points won or lost by the athletes based on their
gender. Broadcasts on track and field were completely gender neutral, and in the study of
swimming, there was barely any difference in the broadcasts, although women were said to
have composure slightly more often than men (Angelini and Billings, 2010, p. 366).
Therefore, other than beach volleyball, research did not reveal enough evidence to support
the fact that objective sports are gender marked.
B. Visual Language Analysis
Accompanying television’s audio coverage of the Olympics, visual footage and
images are also a main component of the Olympic broadcast. A crew of relatively few
professionals is granted the rare privilege of filming the top athletes in the world, framing the
event for millions of people to watch in hundreds of different countries. In relation to this
research, visual media refers to the “camera shots, angles, graphics and slow motion, which
relate to viewer interest” (Greer, Hardin and Homan, 2009, p. 178). The amount and type of
coverage in relation to each sport encourages visual excitement, yet also influences viewer
perceptions of the athletes as well. This section of the research will explore the visual
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broadcasting techniques that directors use within three of the “big five” sports. Due to the
nature and setting of the sport, taking place completely within the swimming pool, there was
no research to support any differences between the visual broadcasts of either swimming or
diving for women and men.
Gymnastics, an Olympic sport that depends on composure, strength, and execution,
still withholds the traditional ideals of female gender roles. According to the judges, “talent
counts, but so do beauty, class, weight and clothes” (Greenleaf, Higgs, and Weiller, 2004, p.
14). Since gymnastic events are already considered aesthetic, there were no discrepancies
found within the research exposing differences between men’s and women’s visual
production techniques for the Olympic gymnastic events.
With women wearing minimal coverage bikini uniforms, however, beach volleyball
is clearly the most controversial sport in terms of subliminal sexism and encouragement of
stereotypes within the “big five”. Researchers Bissell and Duke explain that “the Olympics
were traditionally about faster, fitter, stronger, but now in the women’s beach volleyball, it is
all about browner, scantier, skimpier” (2007, p. 37). Throughout the 17 days of coverage in
the 2004 Summer Olympics, Bissell and Duke analyzed and coded the visual camera
variables in the broadcast of American athletes Misty May and Kerri Walsh. They
discovered that “more than 20 percent of the camera shots were found to be tight shots of the
players’ chests and just over 17 percent of the shots were coded as buttock shots, which
leaves viewers with lasting memories of players’ bodies rather than memories of athleticism”
(Bissell and Duke, 2007, p. 36). Many of the initial shots before each point also began tight
on the buttock, then panned back to a full body shot before the ball even came into play.
These types of shots behind the players are appropriate while the other team is serving, but
they were also shown after the play ended and even when the players were off the court
(Bissell and Duke, 2007). Other shots were found to focus on the buttocks while the players
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were adjusting their swimsuits. Although there was no research comparing these camera
shots to those of the male Olympic volleyball players, it is clear through the statistics of
camera angles in the women’s coverage that the broadcasting techniques rely heavily on the
sexuality of the female athletes to attract viewers. The focus, therefore, is not only on the
game, but rather the image of the female athletes as well.
Unlike volleyball, which consists of a bracketed tournament with only one victor,
Olympic track and field consists of multiple different events. For women, however, only the
events that do not violate social norms, involving little physical contact or lifting, are shown
during prime time television hours. Female Olympians who participate in shot put, discus
and javelin do not appear during prime time like the racers and high jumpers (Greer, Hardin
and Homan, 2009, p. 176). Once again, this differentiates male and female athletes into
different spheres, ultimately revealing the social bias that women should only appear in
aesthetically appealing sports.
Similarly, while there is no difference in the types of camera angles used to portray
male and female athletes in the track and field domain, research shows that the men’s events
contain many more camera angles per minute than the women’s events. This relates directly
to the issue of viewer interest, as more camera angles per minute generates greater
excitement for the men’s events than the women’s. For the 2004 Summer Olympics, Greer,
Hardin and Homan conducted a study of camera angles filmed during the track and field
events, which they later coded into separate categories of long shots, extreme long shots,
medium, close-up and extreme close-up (2009, p. 182-183). There were 23 events for men
and 21 events for women. The researchers discovered that “of the 243 segments, 66.3
percent focused on male athletes, and 33.7 focused on female athletes,” with men
experiencing more angles per minute at 11 versus 6 (Greer, Hardin and Homan, 2009, p.
183). Not only were there more segments on the men’s events, but “this study found that
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coverage of male athletes used more of everything: more time, more segments, more
variation in field of view, more slow motion, and more use of rail-cam” (Greer, Hardin and
Homan, 2009, 184). Although the American men did win twice as many medals as the
American female athletes, United States women were still finalists in most of the events.
There is no concrete or justified reason for them to receive less coverage. This research
supports the conclusion that men’s track and field is portrayed as more visually exciting than
women’s, thus generating more viewer interest and influencing public perception of the
Olympic events.
C. Online Athlete Image Analysis
Subliminal sexism is not only a part of televised forms of the Olympics, but is
prevalent across the media board, reaching to the online forms of media on the internet as
well. The final section of this research paper explores the Olympic coverage of athletes on
three of the largest websites that cover the Games, looking specifically into how the athletes
are portrayed to the public based on their gender. Many female athletes are just as well
known and respected as male athletes today, and “although recent years have brought a
quantitative balance with respect to the visual online representation of male and female
athletes, a shift towards more subtle mechanisms of stereotyping has also taken place”
(Bivolaru, Graf and Petca, 2009, 6). This research will examine both visual and verbal
coverage of men and women Olympians online, concluding with the effects of female
Olympic athletes who use their sexuality to gain attention from viewers, rather than their
athletic talent and number of medals alone.
Similar to the results yielded by research on televised media, Olympic women
athletes are portrayed as inferior and stereotypically weaker than men online as well.
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Bivolaru, Graf and Petca researched online coverage of Olympic athletes throughout the
2004 Olympic Games, looking specifically sportsillustrated.cnn.com, espn.go.com, and
nbolympics.com (2009). In their analysis of the photos accompanying articles, the
researchers discovered that “the majority of men were depicted in active roles, in an upward
camera angle, whereas almost 90 percent of women were depicted in a straight or downward
angle (Bivolaru, Graf and Petca, 2009, p. 5). Though this may not be obvious to the average
website viewer, these angles are clear marketing tactics by the photographers and editors,
which also inadvertently send subliminal sexist messages. Like a video camera, upward
angles of athletes in photographs exaggerate importance, emphasize superiority, and “convey
the impression of grandeur” (Bivolaru, Graf and Petca, 2009, p. 6). Downward angles have
quite the opposite effect, making the viewer feel above the subject, portraying weakness and
creating an air of detachment from the subject. Males also received 71 percent of dominant
photo coverage, and were “portrayed three times more than females in contact sports and
almost four times more frequently in strength sports” (Bissell and Holt, 2005, p. 16). In
regards to the verbal coverage of the athletes, female Olympians are also almost seven times
more likely to be referred to by their first names than men (Bissell and Holt, 2005). These
differences in photo angles and coverage based on the gender of the Olympians hinder the
advancement of female athletes towards equality within the Olympic sporting realm.
Reinforcing the ideals of society, media also reflects stereotypes. Many sports and
marketing companies invest their money selling the sex tactic with female Olympians in
order “save” women’s sports and enhance athletes’ images with the media. Bissell and Duke
refer to this tactic as borrowed interest, fully aware of the fact that “female athletes appear to
get more coverage if they are physically attractive and scantily clad, which tends to
deemphasize their athletic prowess” (Bissell and Duke, 2007, 50). This may generate more
viewer interest, but it also shapes viewer’s attitudes about women’s athletics by highlighting
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their sexuality above sheer talent, yet again differentiating them from the male Olympic
athletes. According to Billings, Angelini and Duke, the 2004 Athens Games were considered
“oversexed Games, in which sex appeal and athletic prowess became inextricably merged
with pop culture” (2010, p. 13). By 2008, tennis star Anna Kournikova earned approximately
11 to 15 million dollars through modeling and endorsement contracts alone (Bissell and
Duke, 2007, p. 38). Olympic softball gold medalist Jennie Finch was voted ESPN’s “hottest
female athlete” that same year, and Olympic high jumper Amy Acuff posed for Playboy,
Esquire and other men’s magazines to gain more media attention (Bissell and Duke, 2007, p.
38). These types of messages from female Olympians focus on sex over power and pure
athleticism to attract attention, thus furthering the gap in equality and viewer perception
between men’s and women’s sports.
III. Conclusion
In conclusion, this research found that Olympic sports with subjective judges like
gymnastics and diving were far more likely to evidence the use of gender stereotypes than
sports with objective judges. A study of verbal analysis revealed that broadcasters tend to
focus on words that praise women for their aesthetic appeal and words that praise men for
their power and strength, thus depicting women as overall inferior competitors. In regards to
the visual analysis of the televised coverage of the Games, beach volleyball contained the
most subliminal sexist references, with a large focus on the athletes’ “scantily clad” bodies
rather than simply the sport itself. The larger amount of angles filmed per minute within the
men’s track and field events framed the men’s events as more visually exciting, once again
diminishing the accomplishments of the female Olympian athletes. Finally, online coverage
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of the Olympic athletes also contained subtle stereotyping, as women were much more likely
to be photographed from a downward or straight angle, implying their inferiority.
While certain athletes like Kournikova, Finch, and Acuff rely on their sexuality to
attract fans and make money, producers and sportscasters in turn “render an Americanized
version of the Olympics that will result in higher ratings and, consequently, more advertising
dollars” (Angelini and Billings, 2010, 364). As opposed to selling the sexuality of the
athletes, another key tactic NBC uses to boosting ratings is the personalizing their coverage,
using storytelling methods for the athletes in an attempt to build emotional identification with
the audience (Greenleaf, Higgs and Weiller, 2004). This may warrant a strategy of televising
where the broadcasters specifically appeal to the female viewing audience. One source
asserted that NBC extended their coverage in the 2000 Olympic Games of “events perceived
as appealing to female viewers”, increasing coverage of gymnastics by two days and holding
a champion gymnastics gala in order to appeal to female viewers (Greenleaf, Higgs, and
Weiller, 2004, p. 15). Though gymnastics is already an aesthetic sport, as research has
deemed socially acceptable for women, this shows that producers now see women viewers as
an equal audience. Therefore, sports are no longer a completely male dominated domain.
Determined for equality, liberal feminists set “goals including incorporating women to an
equal degree into the mainstream of public life” (Greenleaf, Higgs, and Weiller, 2004, p. 15).
Sports, especially the Olympics on an international level, are one of those main facets of life.
The Olympics are quite unique in the fact that “unlike virtually all other forms of
media sport, people watch the Games en masse regardless of whether the athletic events
involved male or female athletes” (Angelini, Billings and Duke, 2010, p. 9). In the last
Olympic Games held in 2008, male and female athletes both won 53 medals each (Angelini,
Billings and Duke, 2010, 9). A underlying symbol of equality, women have clearly
progressed a great deal within the sporting world since their first emergence into the Olympic
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Games in 1900. The results of this research, however, expose just how far female athletes
still have to go in their race towards complete equal treatment, free from sexism. According
to the Olympic Charter, “any form of discrimination with regard to a person on the grounds
of gender is incompatible with the Olympic movement” (Bivolaru, Graf and Petca, 2009, 3).
The media should consider this in their portrayal of the Games to the public.
For further research, it may be helpful to uncover how many Olympic broadcasters
and camera operators are male verses the number of female workers. If there is a correlation
between the genders of the broadcaster and their production decisions, that may reveal even
more subliminal sexism within media’s portrayal of the Olympics. Also, it may be
interesting to consider the relationship between verbal and visual language of broadcasters
instead of researching them as separate entities, because in the sources referenced within this
paper, “comments were made independent of the camera shots as announcers watched the
games live from a press box” (Bissell and Duke, 2007, p. 48). There was no research at this
level available to fuel the conclusions for this paper.
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