ABSTRACT
Introduction Differences in the media coverage of male and female athletes have been the topic of a number of publications in different countries (e.g. Duncan 1990; Daddario 1994; Duncan and Messner 1998; Messner 2002; Duncan, Messner, and Willms 2005; Billings 2008; Messner and Cooky 2010). According to the available studies, with reference to female sports, the media (1) devote less space or time to the coverage of women’s events than men’s events; (2) pay little attention to sports dominated by women, e.g. rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming; (3) depreciate the achievements of women by focusing on the appearance of sportswomen or their roles outside sports rather than their sports skills and results; and (4) infantilize sportswomen by emphasizing childlike qualities or their roles as daughters (frequent in women’s female tennis), as well as through naming practices (use of terms such as ‘girls’, ‘our ladies’, the informal use of first names) (Daddario 1994; Fuller 2006).
