Paper short abstract:

The aim of this research is to identify women journalists' perceptions of their roles in Spanish sports newsrooms. This research uses a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews with ten female sports journalists from different Spanish media.

Paper long abstract:

-The authors would like to clarify that, in case the abstract is accepted, it is possible that one or both may have to participate online.

-The abstract without the reference list has less than 250 words, as requested in the “call for papers”.

Abstract

Football and sports journalism as spaces of male hegemony (North, 2012) have always limited the incorporation of women (Bernstein & Kian, 2013). Female sports journalists are a rarity worldwide (Boczek et al., 2023; Organista & Mazur, 2020). Antunovic (2019) and Bentley-York (2018) review sexist structures since the 1970s, finding verbal harassment in newsrooms and an audience that questions the credibility of women journalists. Brown (2020) recovers experiences that criticise hyper-sexualisation and harassment in social networks.

In Spain, as in other parts of the world, the working conditions in which women have been incorporated into the journalistic profession advise caution when referring to feminisation processes (Soriano et al., 2005). The aim of this research is to identify women journalists' perceptions of their roles in Spanish sports newsrooms. We look for meanings instead of numbers (Bryman, 2017) and we are interested in how and why they perceive their experiences and how they understand and interpret the world (Willig, 2017). This research uses a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews, as did studies such as Everbach (2018) or Spiliopoulos et al. (2020). The interviewees were ten female sports journalists from different Spanish media. The results confirm a) that women suffer harassment from peers, sources, and audiences, b) the existence of a "glass ceiling" that limits their access to leadership positions.

References

Antunovic, D. (2019). “We wouldn’t say it to their faces”: online harassment, women sports journalists, and feminism. Feminist Media Studies, 19(3), 428–442.

Bentley-York, J. (2018). Women in Sports Journalism: Is there still a stigma? https://social.shorthand.com/JBentley_York/ny6u50UW7cx/women-in-sports-journalism-is-there-still-a-stigma

Bernstein, A., & Kian. E. M. (2013). Gender and sexualities in sport media. In P. Pedersen (Ed.), Routledge handbook of sport communication (pp. 319–327). Routledge.

Boczek, K., Dogruel, L., & Schallhorn, C. (2023). Gender byline bias in sports reporting: Examining the visibility and audience perception of male and female journalists in sports coverage. Journalism, 24(7), 1462-1481. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849211063312

Brown, D. (2020, July 30). Meet the Badass Black Women Combating Gender Inequality and Hypersexualization in Sports Journalism. Coveteur. https://coveteur.com/2020/07/30/black-women-sports-journalism/

Bryman, A. (2017). Quantitative and qualitative research: further reflections on their integration. In J. Brannen (Ed.), Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research (pp. 57-78). Routledge.

Everbach, T. (2018). “I realized it was about them… not me”: Women sports journalists and harassment. In J. R. Vickery, & T. Everbach (Eds.), Mediating misogyny: Gender, technology, and harassment (pp. 131-149). Palgrave Macmillan.

North, L. (2012). The gendered world of sports reporting in the Australian print media. JOMEC journal, (2). http://doi.org/10.18573/j.2012.10232

Organista, N., & Mazur, Z. (2020). “You either stop reacting or you don’t survive. There’s no other way”: the work experiences of Polish women sports journalists. Feminist Media Studies, 20(8), 1110-1127. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1690020

Soriano, J., Cantón, M. J., & Díez, M. (2005). La pseudofeminización de la profesión periodística en España. ZER: Revista De Estudios De Comunicación = Komunikazio Ikasketen Aldizkaria, 10(19).

Spiliopoulos, P., Mastrogiannakis, D., Kokkina, L., & Tsigilis, N. (2020). Working in a male dominated universe: Stereotypical attitudes towards Greek female sports journalists. PANR Journal, 685-700. https://www.panr.com.cy/?p=7398

Willig, C. (2017). Interpretation in qualitative research. In C. Willig, & W. Stainton (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research in psychology (pp. 274-288). SAGE.