Global Connections

Media Monitors recently won four medals at the 2010 International AMEC Awards. The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication ( AMEC ) has 103 media analysis / research companies as members from 38 countries. At the 2010 Awards there were 92 submission across 11 categories. This blog talks about the analysis for the Gold medal we received for Best use of communication measurement within the public sector for the Australian Sports Commission.

View our other award wins

The Towards a Level Playing Field: sport and gender in Australian media report was a challenging, fascinating and unique media content analysis project to work on, due to the scope, scale and depth of research it presents. It is one of the most ambitious studies we have conducted in the analysis department at Media Monitors, and makes a unique contribution to studies of gender in media. I am thrilled that the report has been recognised internationally through the Gold medal for Best use of Communications Measurement: Public Sector at the AMEC awards in London, and being part of the report marks a high point in my career as a media analyst.

To begin with, some background: the Women and Sport unit of the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) works toward greater recognition of, and improved leadership opportunities for, women’s sport and female athletes in the media.

The ASC commissioned the Journalism and Media Research Centre at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and Media Monitors (MM) to provide it with comprehensive research to aid the development of new initiatives for the promotion of women’s sport.

The ASC’s brief initially was deceptively simple and had two main objectives.

Firstly, we needed to identify the percentage of coverage of female sport versus male sport, mixed sport and other sport in all media in Australia.

Secondly, the Sports Commission also recognised that the figures alone would be meaningless without an understanding of what the coverage was like. The nature and mood of the coverage, its quality was just as important as the quantity, and identifying trends in the tone of media coverage of male sport versus female sport, mixed sport and other sport formed the second objective.

Following extensive consultation with the client, the initially simple proposition was teased out and took on new dimensions. The final approach integrated multiple, complimentary methodologies combined to answer both of the ASC’s key questions as comprehensively as possible.

Our collaboration with UNSW required some innovative approaches to retain consistency across the two organisations’ approaches to the research and to this end I had the privilege of working with Professor Catharine Lumby (UNSW) on the final version of the report.

The research found that female sport receives a disproportionately low amount of coverage in Australian media compared to male sport (women’s sport was discussed in 9% of the television news reports analysed, compared to 81% for male sport, with the remainder devoted to horseracing and, to a lesser extent, mixed sports). For the first time, research showed that television news reports on female sport also had the lowest average duration of all types of sport. This provided one of the more sobering sound bytes associated with the research: horseracing alone receives more airtime than all women's sport combined, in Australian television.

Percentage of all sports coverage

The evening news is generally one of the higher rating programs, and is a major platform from which journalists describe Australian society to itself. That’s why we chose to analyse it. The relatively low proportion of reports on women’s sport on these programs highlights that despite the accomplishments of women’s sporting organisations in increasing the volume of media reporting on female athletes, there is considerable work to be done in securing media coverage of women’s sport in television news media in particular. And for my client having this quantitative data was incredibly valuable information to use as evidence, and as a benchmark.

But discussion of the quantity only tells half of the story, and only answers one of the client’s questions.

In terms of the quality of coverage, the study found that the coverage of women’s sport on television in Australia, while relatively scant, is more favourable than that of men’s sport.

However, the comparatively favourable tone of media coverage of women’s sport is a double-edged sword, as it also reflects the fact that female athletes must win in order to secure coverage, whereas male athletes tend to be discussed in media coverage regardless of their success, between matches and between seasons. Moreover, consistent throughout the report, gender stereotyping in coverage of women’s sport was minimal; in fact, coverage of sport in Australia would appear to challenge key aspects of both male and female gender stereotypes.

Sport in Australia was represented as a traditionally male culture that draws on a rich spectrum of narratives, with female sport as its less-complex, more-novel other. Television news coverage of male athletes was multi-faceted, in that it was subject to more consistent levels of reporting year round, with journalists and networks exhibiting a more sustained interest in the activities of male athletes between games, and even between seasons. Coverage of female athletes was comparatively one-dimensional, in that it was largely event-driven and confined to the reporting of results.

The tenor of coverage of women’s sport is therefore a positive basis for growth, for those with a vested interest in the promotion of women’s sport. The report provides evidence upon which women’s sporting organisations can build and develop their media relations strategies to better address the gaps in media coverage of their athletes.
As with all research, answering the question is really only the beginning. The Towards a Level Playing Field was publicly launched in May this year, and has been the starting point of a number of conversations among stakeholders to work towards more equitable coverage of women’s sport in Australian media.

The report is groundbreaking on a national and international platform, and is something we are incredibly proud of. It is a unique project for us as media analysts at Media Monitors, and demonstrates our ability to provide customised research for a diverse range of client needs, and to answer a wide range of client questions, no matter how sweeping or targeted those questions are.