A positive review

Media coverage of gays and lesbians in sports is improving, said Pat Griffin, a leading scholar and activist on issues of homophobia in sports during a lecture at Penn State tonight. Griffin said media coverage has started to educate people about homophobia and facilitated greater acceptance of gays and lesbians. Griffin and activist Lea Robinson outlined the ways that conditions are improving for sexual minorities in sports, most notably in the willingness of players to accept gay teammates and the support athletes receive from their families in coming out. At the same time, though, they critiqued image of female athletes that reinforced the hetero-sexy ideal for lesbians and noted that coverage of the Don Imus incident last year didn't focus enough on his homophobia.

High school sports on TV: The price

New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick's column, "ESPN, schools invite trouble," is a little over the top, but it informs a larger point about the increasing commercialization, mediation and exploitation of high school athletics by big-time networks like ESPN. Mushnick sounds the alarm about a 9 p.m. high school game in Jersey City, a place he describes a "very tough town" and no place an ESPN exec would want his child after the game was over.
I think that even though Mushnick pushes the envelope a bit, he points to the way coverage of high school sports at the national level can alter the educational values for which scholastic sports were designed. The price for cheap sports programming will become very high if educators and parents do not protect the athletes and the integrity of their sports programs.

What they make: Sports reporters' salaries

Despite recent stories in the WSJ and the NYT comparing sportswriters to rock stars (I wrote about it in late December), the average salary of a sportswriter at an APSE-member paper is around $47,000, according a phone survey of more than 200 reporters. The minimum salary was $18,000 and the highest salary reported was $150,000. The average for women was slightly less than for men. For a complete breakdown, go to the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism Web site and see the "Newspaper Salaries" report, which was just posted.

Sexualizing the sporting woman

SI's swimsuit edition, the magazine's biggest money maker, was released last week. The magazine, in keeping with a practice that stretches back at least 10 years, features athletes in sexually provocatives poses -- this year, it's Danica Patrick. Although sports feminists have condemned such images as degrading to women, athletes like Patrick argue that it's a sign of their empowerment. Our interviews with collegiate athletes -- many of whom look to women like Patrick as role models -- show they are torn. They see posing as an athlete's right...but they aren't so sure about the "empowerment" part.

Teetering on the Edge of Sports

Dave Zirin fans should love his improved site, which allows visitors to leave comments about his columns. If you're not a regular reader of Zirin's, I urge you to visit his site for commentary that will bring you back.

Minimizing a minimal role

Michael Hiestand's USA Today column discusses comments by NBC's Andrea Kremer about ESPN's decision to marginalize two female MNF sideline reporters. It's unfortunate, agreed. But, as Hiestand points out, CBS has already dropped its sideline reports, so MNF's decision here should not be a surprise. The sideline role has become virtually the only place where women covering big-time sports get face time (which is measured in seconds, not minutes) -- and it has been framed as a dispensable role.
Kremer charges that ESPN's decision "sets back women." I would argue that when it comes to sports TV, they simply couldn't be set back much more than they were before ESPN's announcement. Women have always been on the sidelines in relationship to televised sports -- and that's the bigger problem.

Seeking the 'supercrip'

Beth Haller's new blog, Media-dis-&-dat, includes entries about media coverage of adapted sports and athletes. Her latest entry discusses how wheeelchair athletes are often molded by reporters to the "supercrip" stereotype. She cites a story by tennis player Ruth Harrigan, who was interviewed many times by reporters seeking this type of angle. Haller adds, "I wish more people with disabilities would write about their experiences being interviewed by the news media. Reporters will only start getting it right when enough people tell them what they do wrong."

The Web, women and sports journalism

The Internet has put increasing pressure on sports columnists to write before they think -- in response to "fanatical" sports fans who demand knee-jerk responses to sports controversies. During a panel at the annual AWSM convention, columnists Jemele Hill, Christine Brennan, Jenni Carlson and Jill Painter talked about ways the Web has also enabled them to present themselves in "3-D" -- in text, audio and video, becoming more familiar to sports fans.
The panel was one of a number for women in sports journalism and information over the weekend in Miami. Attendance at the convention was among the highest in the organization's history, signaling AWSM's growth and visibility. But the employment of women in the industry remains low, especially in online media. A top editor with Yahoo!Sports told the group on Saturday that no women are in key roles with sports at Yahoo.

Sports and politics on the eve of Super Tuesday

LZ Granderson's ESPN column asks why black athletes aren't more involved in presidential politics, especially in light of the fact that an African-American has a serious shot at winning. Granderson's informal survey of about 100 black NFL and NBA athletes found that many aren't even registered to vote.
Granderson implies apathy as the primary reason that most black athletes don't speak out politically. That may be the case. But another resaon they don't is that they may risk their livelihoods by doing so. After all, their paychecks are controlled by corporate owners who may not share their views. As Dave Zirin has also pointed out, players who make political statements have also drawn the wrath of journalists and a fan base who'd rather they shut up and play.
It is interesting to note that some high-profile retired athletes have gotten involved in this year's race, including Dominique Wilkins, Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson. So have the team owners and other high-ranking sports executives, including David Stern, Arthur Blank, Roger Goodell and Jerry Jones Sr.

"Women gone wild"?

Mike Downey's Chicago Tribune sports column uses the Dana Jacobson incident to announce that women (surprise!) can "make a complete, utter, politically incorrect jackass of herself, just like a man." He then cites other incidents over the past year to make his case. My question: Why is gender a point of discussion when it is associated with a woman? And why would we expect any differently from women than from men unless we're buying into the myth that women are somehow "purer" than men? That ideology is embedded in sexist notions about the place and abilities of women in society.

No diversity? No surprise.

A survey of major sports news sites on the Web posted on The Big Lead bemoans the lack of racial minorities with bylines on sites such as Yahoo and Fox Sports. The numbers are dismal, to be sure, but they need more context, as some of the comments point out. They also point to a larger problem that goes well beyond sports departments in any newsroom (lack of racial diversity in general, especially in the print ranks). The blog entry also focuses on racial disparities when those involving gender are much greater.

Do women watch?

A recent post on the Women's Hoops Blog quotes broadcaster Beth Mowins bemoaning what she believes is a major reason that networks don't show women's sports: women don't watch them. For hard-core fans of women's sports, this is hard to believe. Yet our focus groups with women last year found little evidence that middle-aged women with busy families and careers would take the time to watch women's sports. Our participants indicated that they watched men's sports primarily to connect with husbands, boyfriends, and other significant men in their lives.

More exposure for women's sports

Buried underneath the avalanche of stories about the fiasco at Golfweek is news that earlier this week, Women's Sports Television announced a partnership with Suncastv.com. Viewers will see coverage of National Women's Football Association games along with events in the Women's Pro Racquetball Tour, Women's Professional Rodeo and International Softball Federation, according to a release. Women's football games may also be available on a regional sports network in Pittsburgh. FSN Pittsburgh is talking to the Passion about televising some of the team's home games.

No comment.

Lead from today's Associated Press story about the Australian Open: "Wearing fuchsia bicycle shorts and a headband, a short white dress and dangling, chandelier-inspired earrings, Serena Williams found her form quickly and beat Jarmila Gajdosova, 6-3, 6-3, today in the first match at the Australian Open."

Disability and sports: Defining 'normal'

A colleague pointed out a Poynter.org column posted before Christmas that I had missed, but it is worth noting. Susan LoTempio, AME for Readership at The Buffalo News, wrote about "better-off-dead" framing that is common in stories about injured athletes. The recent example she used is the story of NFL player Kevin Everett, whose spine was seriously injured. She writes:

"In our athlete-as-hero worshipping culture, there seems no greater tragedy for an athlete than to be "normal" one day and "not normal" the next. That's why, when an athlete gets hurt, you get dramatic language in stories and headlines like, "fallen hero suffering the ultimate tragedy" or "waging an inspirational fight for his life."

In other words, we in the media perpetuate the definition of what is normal. And while it makes great copy, it assumes that the athlete's life may as well be over because he will never walk again, never play again, never be "whole" again."

LoTempio provides excellent recommendations for writing about athletes with injuries. She points out that wheelchair-users do lead "normal" lives -- many of them involving sports participation.

Must-see TV: This Nike commercial

Finally! A Nike ad that really says something fresh and important. Watch UW wheelchair basketball player Matt Scott in a commercial that I hope will direct attention toward the U.S. athletes who will compete in the Paralympics this September. The ad airs nationally tomorrow.

Shuffling to TV, inflating salaries as they go: Where's the news?

Both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have, in the past week, published stories hyping the migration of sports journalists (Rick Reilly and Selena Roberts among them) to ESPN and Yahoo Sports.
Where's the news? As Slate's Jack Shafer rightly points out, ESPN has recruited from the print ranks for years. And it's no surprise that Yahoo, which has made no secret of its intention to become a major source of sports news, would pull from print (where else would Yahoo go? And now, of all times, when the anxiety in newspaper sports departments may be at an all-time high) Shafer also points out that the breathless NYT reporting on inflated salaries for sportswriters is also not justified -- inflated salaries for a handful of stars in the business is not new (and, in some ways, mimics the sports system it covers.)
As for its intentions, ESPN may genuinely be moving toward more original investigative journalism (instead of pontificating on the work of others), but it's hard to believe until the proof starts showing up on SportsCenter. ESPN has drawn young, male audiences looking to be entertained (not necessarily informed about what might be wrong with sports) by touting its cozy "insider" status with the sports industry.

What do young sports fans want from newspapers?

A little bit of everything -- and packaged impeccably, from our research. In focus groups with male and female sports fans, most of whom were in their early 20s, we also found that they are skeptical about sports journalism in general and see league Web sites (such as NFL.com) as credible sources for sports news. The demand for coverage of women's team sports (such as basketball) was low, but female sports fans did express an interest in coverage of tennis and participatory sports.

Student journalists covering big-time sports

"The Paper," an Independent Lens documentary that goes inside Penn State's independent student newspaper, The Daily Collegian, features sports reporter Jenny Vrentas. Vrentas, who moved on to Columbia's journalism program and became an AWSM intern, covered the PSU football team for the Collegian. The documentary shows her tenacity as a reporter who doesn't let athletic department bureaucracy or the male culture keep her from getting stories.

Treading a troubled past: Racist coverage?

Richard Prince's Journal-isms column today reviews concerns of NABJ sports journalists about AP coverage of the death of Washington Redskin Sean Taylor. Prince quotes a MLB.com writer who wrote: "To suggest that black men like Taylor aren't dealt with unfairly in the media is to embrace the idea of mermaids as real or that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction." Also taken to task was Leonard Shapiro's latest column, where he suggests that Taylor had it coming.
It's difficult to know if the same kind of coverage would have taken place had this been a white player with a similar background who had been shot. Ultimately, though, it seems that any review of Taylor's troubled past needs to be justified as clearly relevant and newsworthy -- and I'm not sure, at this point, it is.