Sport Journalism, a view of the world, or a view generated by the dominant male supremacy?

The media is a powerful tool, which exercises the views and ideas of corporation, the print media is an influential socialise agent in that it informs and entertains the reader and encourages social integration and social reassign by values, ideas and attitudes it presents (Eitzen and Sage, 1995, p78). When the media has such an important effect on society, is it right that manful journalists dominate the media, in a sense serving to maintain and refer patriarchal relationships.Although there have been many changes in the handling of effeminates in society in the past, many fe masculines atomic number 18 still excluded from numerous professions. received origins frown upon the entry of fe staminates, as advancements make by females in society decreases the amount of men in governing positions in society. This is shown by the midget number of male preserves (Elias & Dunning, 1986, p268) left in todays modern society. However, adept institution that seems unable to jibe c hange, for the sake of protecting its male preserve (Elias & Dunning, 1986, p268) is the print media.The media is progressively becoming to a greater extent of a male preserve, due to ever-growing stirity females hit for many mens clubs have vanished, as they would sort of shut than accommodate females, and erase issues of equality. Therefore the print media is an important site for this male preserve, our newspapers argon run like old boys clubs (Stratford, 1992, p130). Even when females have broken in to the sports journalism profession, it is still under the governing ideologies of a male supremacy. entre is possible for women, as long as no attempt is made to alter or even question the status quo (Stratford, 1992, p130). The only instruction females can be involved in the sports journalism world, is to reject the issues that uncover feminine power, in addition they also have to adopt the dominant ideologies of a male society. They wanted the jobs therefore played by the rules in order to get them, the rules were not changed to facilitate the progress of other female journalists after them.Long hours, drinks with the boys and a disregard for childcargon remain the norm (Stratford, 1992, p130). Although females do break in to the media profession, this most commonly comes in the form if a television reporter. As sports journalism portrays the journalists personal opinions, where television reporters be presented with scripts to make up bingles mind the ideals of viewers, the only important thing on television is image, which is more lots than not an attractive female.The profession of sports journalism in the print media is one of the most gender specific in modern society. Sport is a male preserve and at the part it plays, relative to other sources, in the toil and reproduction of masculine identity (Elias & Dunning, 1986, p268). The print media has always been run by a dominant male supremacy producing a masculine identity, with jobs of highes t priority, which shape the views of society such as journalist, more often than not tending(p) to men.This dominance of males in the media raises issues, which are constantly raised over the treatment of females in society, especially over the stereotypical coverage they receive. Therefore, sports journalism in this light can not actually be classed as sports journalism, sports journalism is all about reproducing and portraying the views of society, and giving everyone a equal voice. However, the media is so one sided it clearly cannot achieve this successfully. Although journalists, claim to be reflecting the attitudes of society rather than shaping men, recent national trends indicate that, with respect to womens lives, they lag toilet dismally (Stratford, 1992, p134). Affect of Bias In Sports One major area, which is affected by the dominance of a male hegemony is sports journalism. A large number of achievements are lost in the media concerning female athletes, due to the st ereotypical coverage they receive.This detrimental coverage is the production of having a print media, which is run by men, as they will never be able to write about females from a female perspective. Their ownership by rich, white middle aged men, and their editorship normally by the same type of men, explains the difficulties they have in reflecting recent changes in society in any but the most stereotypical ways (Stratford, 1992, p130). The media frequently directs the reader away from the success and the strengths of female athletes, and towards the typical stereotypes of women. Journalists achieve this by the use of narratives, which is the forming of a story, narratives provide drama, human interest and appeal required to attract and keep viewers (Higgs and Weiller, 1994, p234).Narratives often demonstrate traditional qualities associated with females, females successes are seen to be more challenging due to the struggles of their personal lives. Womens sport is further den igrated in importance by a heightened focus on the athletes personal lives (Duncan, 1993, p234). Furthermore, females are repeatedly represented as being weak and depending on others, more often than not this figure comes in the shape of a man. This shows how narratives often reinforce inequalities in power and gender relations.These inequalities help to construct a hegemonic masculinity, which Humberstone (1990) labels the reproduction of patriarchal gender relations in society (Humberstone, 1990, p235). Therefore, it can be argued that the media is just a site where men are free to repress females, and are free from criticisms. In essence, journalists can be seen as originators of patriarchate in society, as they help it develop and manifest itself on to the large stage of society through their own accounts they present to society.People are inevitably affected by what media present them, if the writers of the media are predominately of one gender, and so there is potential that another side of the story or illustrious athletic accomplishments are being neglected (Urquhart and Crossman, 1999, p199). Conclusion In conclusion, sports journalism is a flawed profession. The whole concept journalism is to illustrate and construct an equal argument, giving no one group priority over the next.However, many accounts of sports journalism demonstrate that the majority of the time, coverage is biased towards men and their male perspective. This bias is especially evident when it comes to the case of females in the media, often females voices and opinions are lost and unequal arguments are created. Research into the absence of female journalists in sport has previously demonstrated that not one single word was compose by a female until 1976 concerning articles surrounding the Olympics, in ii Canadian newspapers.There was also only one article written by a female in the 1992 Olympics, this is one example of a male supremacy in the media. Sports journalism is obviou sly a male stronghold (Urquhart and Crossman, 1999, p199). In addition, a recent count showed that in two normal British newspapers, female journalists still suffer from oppression due to the dominant male operated media. With 100% of sport articles written by male journalists for the Independent, and 96% written by male journalists for the Times.This justifies the argument that sports journalism is essentially flawed, as the codes of sports journalism are rejected. For example, the practice of sports journalism should revolve around a set of essentially ethical concepts freedom, democracy, truth, objectivity, honesty, and privacy (Belsey and Chadwick, 1992, pXi), yet sports journalism does not. Thus, sports journalism cannot be seen as a democratic and truthful process, sports journalism simply is the production of a dominant male society, trying to hold on to one of its ever-fading male preserves.