Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

The #metoo movement has created a ripple effect in various parts of the globe but in Australia, there has been a significant cultural shift in the reporting of women’s sport. The social media-driven #metoo campaign generated a reactive approach to male leaders, who had taken advantage of women in unbalanced work environments and led to intensive media investigations and follow-up reporting. A number of high-profile Australian male celebrities have fought legal action since the fall of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. The emergence of the national women’s Australian football competition in 2017 has also generated an unprecedented rise in media coverage. After years of lobbying and fighting for a slice of the Australian media landscape, women’s sport leaders now have a powerful voice. This paper will show that content analysis of Australian newspapers will reveal the Australian Football League Womens (AFLW), the national women’s cricket team and other women sporting teams have significantly more newspaper and digital news space and air time compared with three years ago. The attitudes of senior sports executives have changed remarkably since the development and presence of strong female leaders in politics and media. With strong support from Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper and broadcast products, News Corp Australia and Fox Sports, there has been a more balanced approach to covering sports of both genders. As a result, the increase in women’s sports coverage has created a sustainable commercialised market, with sponsorship creation for both men’s and women’s sporting teams in major club structures.