Media Coverage
The media plays a pivotal role in showing, or hiding, the images of strong, healthy female athletes who can serve as role models for younger girls.
Girls derive their sense of self, in part, by what they see on the television and in newspapers and magazines. Most mainstream media show women’s sport only occasionally or not at all, while providing a daily dose of men’s sport.
It’s no wonder girls are often brought up feeling like strangers to sport. For more information on how to engage media bodies, go to the Community Engagement section of this guide.
Our recommendations
In the infographic below you can see some recommendations for dealing with this barrier. You can adopt these to suit your context. You can also download the infographic to use offline.
Case Study
You can see a case study of how other organisations have addressed this barrier by clicking the accordion menu below.
She Is is a collective of individuals, sport sector leaders and national sport leagues working together to grow women’s sport globally. Through partnerships and advocacy efforts, they aim to achieve the following goals:
1. Drive attendance and viewership of women’s sports events
2. Inspire fans to take action through storytelling
3. Centralise resources to contribute to the sustainable growth of women’s sports
Two of their initiatives focus on representation of female athletes in the media. Women Worth Watching is a digital space (#womenworthwatching) that highlights female athletes around the world and across a multitude of sports. Through panel discussions, videos, documentaries and social media campaigns, She Is invites everyone to share and promote stories of female athletes on their social media channels. The other initiative, Stem in the Stadium, highlights female athletes in STEM careers, or who are using STEM to be successful in their sport.
