May 27, 2005
Editors Fail to Gauge Interest in Women's Sports

One reason sports pages provide so little coverage of female athletes may be because some editors believe women are less athletic and not interested in sports, and because many editors have not researched their readers’ interests, according to a Penn State professor.

The research by Marie Hardin, an assistant professor and member of the Center for Sports Journalism within the College of Communications at Penn State, was published in the current edition of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.

The basis of the research was a survey of 285 sports editors in the southeastern United States that found 89 percent were “very confident” or “confident” that their section met reader interests. In addition, 44 percent of editors judged interest to be nil or slight in women’s sports. However, only 42 percent of the editors reported using any kind of formal method, such as a survey or focus groups, to track reader interests.

The survey also asked the editors—97.5 percent of whom were male and 96 percent of whom were white—questions about their beliefs about women and sports.

At least one quarter to one third of the editors said they believe women are naturally less athletic and less interested in sports than men. Roughly half said they believe Title IX has been unjust to men’s sports.

About 84 percent said they “strongly agree” or “agree” that covering women’s sports is part of their obligation, while 59 percent said sports editors should hire women. That left a sizable percentage who said they have no obligation to cover women’s sports or have no commitment to hiring women.

Contact information:
Steve Sampsell
Coordinator of College Relations
Phone: (814) 865-8801
Email:sws102@psu.edu