Twenty-third International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

In 2021, Dr. Cheryl Cooky’s research reported that women’s sport only get 4% of televised mainstream coverage. The popularity of women’s sport has been steadily on the rise in the last few years. Arenas and stadiums have been filling up for tournaments and even pre-season games. In May 2023, the WNBA held a pre-season game in Toronto, Ontario and on March 8 (International Women’s Day) a pre-sale release of lower bowl tickets sold out in less than 10 minutes. As the Women’s World Cup quickly approaches what methodologies will be employed to ensure that proper coverage is offered to supporters around the world, while discussions about race, gender expansiveness and sexual identity are included in conversations by media? Moreover, what is the role of sports media personnel in this space? Should journalists be sports activists or advocates? How can they maintain their objectivity? The author is a practicing multiplatform journalist who has researched women in sports media and will interrogate how sports media can report accurately and fairly while levelling the playing field for women’s sports. This paper offers an opportunity for academics to understand how anti-oppression models of journalism are impactful in the current media landscape when traditional social media platforms used for information dissemination are disrupted.