The document analyzes the coverage of men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments on the Fox Sports website. Researchers found that while men received 53.8% of coverage and women 46.2%, the quality of coverage differed, with men's articles focusing more on personal stories and women's articles only recapping game facts. The study suggests media needs to improve coverage of women's sports by including more in-depth stories and photographs to better engage readers.

1. Is It Equitable Online? The
Media Coverage Of The 2007
NCAA Basketball Tournament
On Foxsports.com
An article by SMART Journals
By Chris Ostrow

2. What Happened This Week In Sports?
• Opening day of baseball and the
opening of new baseball stadiums in
New York.
• The Men’s Final four took place.
• Plaxico Burress Cut From New York
Giants.
• Am I missing anything?

3. Title IX
• Title IX, is a law that was enacted on June 23rd,
1972 that states: “No person in the United
States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded
from participation in, be denied the benefits
of, or be subjected to discrimination under
any education program or activity receiving
Federal financial assistance.” Here we are 37
years later and how much has really changed?
Women in sports are allowed to compete, but
are they getting the fair amount of coverage?

4. How Do You Define Equal Coverage?
• It's not just when the media gives an
article or a photo about women's
sports, but also by not showing
female athletes as sex objects, but as
gifted and skilled athletes. Maria
Sharapova was once the first ranked
tennis star. When typing her name on
google the first image that pops up is
her in a bikini. “This could also take
place when the media shows women
as talent less and portrayed as
masculine” (Grappendorft Line 3,
Paragraph 2).
• There is nothing wrong with women
wanting to look feminine and
attractive in my opinion, but I think
female athletes deserve the same
respect for their athletic abilities just
as males get.

5. What Is Missing? Lack Of Coverage
• Many Times a box
score isn’t just
enough but to
actually get the
story behind the The men's college final four is constantly talked
team or the coach about on sports radio, television, and
newspapers. The women's final four has a
is what is left team that is going for a third perfect season in
missing when the University of Connecticut who will be
playing against Louisville in the championship
covering female and many people aren't even aware of it. “As a
result of the lack of coverage the games
sports. receive it is almost impossible for fans to
connect to the games and the athletes that
participate in them.” (Grappendorf)

6. Historic Events
• According to womensports.com the
number one event in women’s sports
history was Billy Jean King taking on
Bobby Riggs in the challenge of the sex’s
competition. Over 50 million people
tuned into the event to watch it. Some
other events I found interesting was
number two the passing of title IX in
1972, and with it the participation of
women’s sports has grown from 300,000
to 3 million today.
At number ten was during the war in 1948
where the All American Girls Professional
baseball league drew at its height over three
million fans. At number nine in 1996 is when
Softball and soccer make their Olympic debut
and women dominate. The Americans win
gold in softball and soccer, as well as
basketball, gymnastics and synchronized
swimming.

7. I agree with this because if something is talked about often enough it can be viewed as a larger than life spectacle. Something as simple as selectin
photo to capture the image of the summary of the story can make a big difference in which the light of the story is viewed in.
How Can The Media Improve Its Coverage?
• The types of language, print,
broadcast, and online media have an
immediate and future impact on
society’s view of female athletes. “The
Media has a huge responsibility and
power in not only what it chooses to
cover but how it covers an event. The
way that sports are covered
determines how they are viewed by
society as a whole.” (Grappendorf)

8. Background Of The Study
• The study was done on
foxsports.com
• Foxsports.com is the 3rd largest
sports online website trailing
only espn.com and mlb.com
• The study researched does
foxsports.com give a fair amount
of quality and quantity research
on the 1st and 2nd round of The
men and women’s NCAA
Basketball Tournament in both
photos and text?

9. Historical Coverage Of Women’s Sports
• Throughout History Women
have not received the same
amount of coverage as men
through newspapers and
television.
• The Olympics has been the
one exception where both
men and women have
received similar amount of
coverage
• The Internet is the newest
form of communication will it
be different from the past?

10. Research on the 1st and 2nd rounds
• Two Researchers went through every paragraph
and every picture to not just have one opinion on
the matter
• Schedules were collected from NCAA.com and
read over the websites at 8 a.m, 1 p.m, and 7 p.m
• They did this routine to get the media reports
from nights before, projections, and then what
occurred during the day.
• After the research was checked over it was put
into an Excel Document

11. Results and Differences
• Men Received 53.8% of the coverage and Women
Received 46.2%
• The main difference between the coverage of the
two genders was that men articles tended to
cover the personal stories behind the game and
the women’s were just facts from the game.
• Its good the games got covered but if women’s
sports want to draw a fan base they are going to
need more out of the articles.

12. Problems With The Lack Of Coverage
• It is difficult in my opinion for
women’s sports to grow when they
just simply aren’t being covered
enough as male sports. Sports
News Feeds such as ESPN barely
scroll any of the league scores.
• Advertisers won’t spend money on
events that they feel aren’t giving
there product the most exposure.
• It is up to the internet being the
newest form of media
communication to develop and to
garner interests in new and
creative ways.

13. How Can Foxsports.com and other
websites improve the coverage of
women’s sports?
• “Photographs provide a visual interest and cues to
capture an audience. It is important for women to be
represented because photos entice the reader to read
the article.” (Grappendorf Paragraph 4 Line 1)
• If a photograph looks dull and boring nobody will read
the article. Photographs summarize what you are
about to be reading and represent the story. With
fewer photos on the foxsports.com website it
continues the notion that women are still being under
represented even on the internet.
• It is important for females to have an outlet in sports
and to have role models to look up to.

14. Were there any limits on the study?
• Some limitations that may have occurred in
my opinion during this research study are that
it only covers the 1st and 2nd rounds of the
NCAA basketball tournament on
foxsports.com. This may limit because the
researcher can not fully know the extent of
the results. Some possible ways for the
research to get a definitive answer is by
expanding their research to the whole entire
tournament.

15. In Conclusion
• In conclusion “While athletic accomplishments
are being reported, a balance between
accomplishments and personal athletic
information must be reported to attract and
connect readers with players and or teams.”
(Grappendorf Paragraph 1 Line 1)

16. My opinion
• In my opinion it is not simply enough to give
the box score and a three sentence summary
of the game. “Potentially, owners, editors and
reporters have the ability to change the
coverage provided for women’s sports.
Whether as commentators or sports
writers/editors, more women in the field
could potentially decrease the inequitable
coverage leading to more interest.”
(Grappendorf Paragraph 1 Line 2)

17. • As future sports managers I think it is
important to break down stereotypes and
ethically decide what should be covered.
With more of a significant following this could
generate higher income for the women’s
sports events and spending by advertisers. It
is up to us to correct the mistakes that have
been made in the past.