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.

Roberts likely the exception at SI

In a recent Washington Post column, Leonard Shapiro writes about the moves of high-profile sports journalists among newspaper, magazine and television. Of Selena Robert's recent move from the NYT to SI, he chronicles the magazine's stay-the-course record of marginalizing women and women's sports. He writes that the addition of Roberts "and perhaps more talented women to come, there's some hope for a little more gender equity in the SI ranks."
Shapiro then comes back down to earth: "Maybe Roberts will just be an exception, albeit a very welcome one, and that would be a great shame." Unfortunately, his afterthought is likely right. When it comes to women in sports journalism, the door tends to be a revolving one.

Despite concerns, revenue-driven model in college sports continues to mushroom

Penn State Professor Malcolm Moran and others in the movement to reform college sports met at a Hechinger Institute event earlier this month to review the ways college sports are pressuring academics -- see the video for a summary. These concerns have been around for a century, but the demands of commercial interests outside the academy are the new wrinkle. A recent article in Forbes outlines just what is on the line: millions and millions of dollars in a system that has taken its cues from the NFL.
The hand-wringing will help draw attention to the topic, but it won't make the solution any less difficult. The model built on revenue production but under the facade of higher education will have to be completely dismantled.

Zirin: Abolish the sports pages

Speaking at the annual conference of the North American Society of Sports Sociology yesterday, sports columnist Dave Zirin said he thinks sports sections need to be a thing of the past and that newspapers instead need to focus on providing news that is intensely local, politically engaging and important to readers' lives.
Zirin added that because sports journalists rely so much on access to athletes for their livelihood, they play along with the institutional sexism, racism and homophobia that have been part of professional sports. "The problem is that there is not more courage to challenge that," he said.
Although Zirin wondered out loud whether sports draws journalists who are conservative, he said that they are generally "anti-political" -- that is, unwilling to acknowledge the politics that are embedded in sports (thus, preserving the status quo). That is one reason what Zirin does is so unusual -- and so necessary.

The slow, steady slide of SI

Josh Levin's latest piece in Slate, What's Wrong with Sports Illustrated, describes the magazine as "passive and uncritical," seeking too much to mimic its cliche-crammed competitors such as ESPN the Magazine. Levin points to the NYT's Play magazine as a smart alternative, although Play doesn't have the influence or the potential of SI.
SI needs to focus on what can really set it apart (and above)most of the mindless, fawning fluff that fills sports-related pages and Web sites: smart, thorough, hard-hitting opinion pieces, and investigative journalism. But both of these mean investing in writers and reporters who can do the work -- not TV brand Dan Patrick.

Jason Whitlock and new racism

Although the days of forced segregation and Jim Crow laws are over, racism has not disappeared but has morphed into a form of discrimination and prejudice that denies racist underpinnings, argues that issues of race are entirely cultural, and emphasizes individualism. We see it in sports with the general demonizing of black athletes coupled with a failure to recognize institutional racism in sports.
It's too bad when a nationally recognized sports columnist blatantly resorts to the sentiments of new racism because it just reinforces false stereotypes.
Jason Whitlock has done just that with his Fox Sports column this week, in which he argues that white football rosters make teams with better character and winnings. I learned of his piece from Dave Zirin, whose response should be required reading for anyone who lands on Whitlock's page.

With Cleveland gone, so are the insults

I was glad to see Cleveland's bid for a World Series spot stifled by the Red Sox -- not that I'm a Boston fan. I just find the imagery surrounding the team's mascot downright sickening. In a Poynter Centerpiece today, Roy Peter Clark challenges Cleveland fans and journalists who cover the team to act. He correctly compares Chief Wahoo to "the blackface Sambo images that polluted American culture in the first half of the 20th century, and Nazi propaganda portrayals of Jews with big noses and wicked sneers." He challenges journalists to reject it in coverage and to challenge the retention of this offensive mascot.
Cleveland isn't the only city with a mascot that should be rejected; unfortunately, this kind of racism is also represented by the NFL team in our nation's capital.

Study of coverage puts perspective on Penn State problems

Aaron Patterson's recent story on Centre County Reports, about the off-field problems of Big Ten football players during 2007, shows that Penn State players make up one-quarter of players in all of the conference who have gotten in trouble with the law so far this year. Although one year can't be used to judge a program, Aaron's report is another reason the Penn State off-field troubles are news.

Answering about off-field behavior

A prominent article in the sports section of USA Today joins coverage about the growing number of off-field troubles for the Penn State football team. The article discusses Joe Paterno's reluctance to answer questions about the situation, a strategy he's employed in the past. But this approach by Paterno is ultimately distracting and fuels speculation about him and team by the media and fans. It may be time to abandon that strategy and speak openly and honestly about how he is dealing with the team's troubles.

Another diagnosis: What ails sports media

ESPN ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber warns at the beginning of her monthly column that it is long and quixotic. I would characterize the column as engaging and thought-provoking. Schreiber effectively uses the recent Gundy-Carlson incident and ESPN's coverage of it to argue that sports news and chatter (to use Eco's term) has become "the molehill on which mountains of opinion are built." She pleads for strong reporting to replace shrill, rumor-driven confrontainment that has unfortunately become the norm. Her column, I think, nicely builds on the arguments made by the Esquire's recent column on saving sports journalism.

More advice on sports: Make it relevant

Austin news director Kevin Benz writes the Centerpiece for Poynter.org today about the trend in local news markets to scrap the sports segment, but he suggests some ways they can instead salvage it and make it attractive. One way, he says, is through coverage of local stories that have impact on parents, children and local participatory athletes. Trying to cover the pros, he says, is a no-win strategy because national outlets do it better.
Benz' advice, I think, is also great advice for the newspaper sports section. Look at the paltry amount of space devoted to advertising in these sections. They need to draw a wider readership to attract advertisers. That means local -- and relevant to women and those who participate in the many sports available in their communities.

To stay relevant: Stop imitating the fans

The Esquire's Chuck Klosterman's recent piece, Four Ways to Save Sports Media, tells sports journalists this: Stop obsessing about the chatter and the ratings and focus on the sports. He argues that mainstream sports media still own the dialogue in U.S. culture about sports but they won't for long unless they change course and move away from making stories out of TV ratings and replicating sports-bar arguments on television. His most intriguing suggestion is that media producers consider killing the micro, by-the-minute coverage of off-field sports issues, which he says ultimately kill the effectiveness of sports journalism because such coverage kills perspective. I would agree, especially when it comes to perspectives on crime and athletes.

AWSM stands for all sportswriters

The Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM) issued a press release calling Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy to task for attacking columnist Jenni Carlson in a press conference. Gundy was unhappy with a column she wrote about a quarterback who has been sidelined. In a media conference call, Carlson challenged assertions he made in his public tirade. Gundy's poor behavior has likely driven many more eyeballs to Carlson's column, and the AWSM release is spot on in saying that his personal attack on Carlson is disrespectful to all journalists.

What do women sportswriters have in common with Donovan McNabb?

Dana Pennett O'Neil's column earlier this week related her own experience as a female sportswriter to that expressed by Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb on Real Sports. The outside-the-establishment status shared by women in sports journalism and black men in certain positions in sports provides a common experience, as O'Neil points out. Although certainly accepted in the sports establishment, women and minorities still are not fully accepted as belonging there.

Big-time prep sports: The price of coverage

Robert Andrew Powell's call for a boycott of big-time high school football in Slate magazine should be a must-read for anyone who hasn't thought critically about the implications of putting the national media spotlight on high school sports. Sure, it's cheap programming in comparison to the pricetag for airing college and pro games. High school sports also represent the purest of sports values to many Americans. But adding ESPN to the mix is a sure guarantee that any hope of retaining those values will disappear as quickly as cheap beer at a fraternity party.

Changing the job for sports beat reporters

Robert Weintraub, sports media critic for Slate, argues in the latest CJR (Play (Hard) Ball!) that sports beat writers should be willing to abandon their traditional role as objective scribe and compete more effectively for sports fans who want opinion-laden commentary. Although I like where he is headed, I am not so sure that his solution solves the problem he introduces in the beginning of his piece -- the increasing marginalization of the sports beat writer by teams, leagues, players and even fans.

Blame it on the timing?

Christine Brennan's column in USA Today charges FIFA with doing a disservice to women's soccer by scheduling it at a very busy time on the sports calendar -- with the start of men's pro and college football in the U.S. and pro soccer around the globe. Brennan writes passionately about what she sees as FIFA's lack of respect for women's sports, and she blames the timing for the fact that US media are all but ignoring the women's world cup. She writes, "Competing for space in the newspaper and airtime on TV this month is just not an issue."
In the U.S., coverage of men's football is at saturation levels. (USA Today, for instance, ran football in two sections yesterday), Is it fair to blame the timing when journalists make their priorities for coverage and decide to run multiple stories on men's football and none on soccer or WNBA basketball? (One wonders if that isn't like blaming the victim of a robbery because he or she left a door unlocked.)

Women's sports coverage: Journalists who've made it happen

The always-entertaining-and-insightful Women's Hoops Blog blasts the NYT for its failure to cover the US Women's World Cup (with a reference to George Vecsey's recent column about the dearth of coverage). But that isn't as interesting as the story it tells about the difference journalists can make when they are committed to covering women's sports.

'Rush to Injustice': No 20-20 hindsight here

I just read a book by Duke alumnus Nader Baydoun, "A Rush to Injustice." Unfortunately, however, Baydoun's book reads more like a breathless, inflammatory tirade than a thoughtful study of what went wrong in the Duke case. His tendency toward hyperbole and his failure to adequately address some facts in the case undercuts his credibility. For instance, he claims that the three Duke players accused in the case are themselves still victims of a gang rape that "to date, hasn't ended," although the three have been exonerated. He also fails to adequately explore/explain the infamous "cut their skin off..." e-mail by a team member, and Finnerty's misdemeanor assault charges aren't mentioned (Finnerty is instead described as having "a gentle demeanor").
Perhaps the most misguided assertions, however, are those Baydoun makes to charge reverse racism. He compares (seriously!) allegations from the lacrosse team party to those made about a later party that did not involve athletes but instead involved rape allegations that were made by a white female student against a black man who is not a student. No athletes are involved. Does anyone think these cases are comparable?

Nike and the female athlete

Nike has just launched a new campaign aimed at selling women empowerment through athletic apparel. As the NYT points out, the campaign, designed after Nike interviewed 175 female athletes across the country, uses prominent athletes discussing their views on sexism and sports. Although provocative at the surface level, this campaign still ultimately relies on tired themes (witness the ad featuring Serena Williams, for instance) that won't move women's sports forward -- but it may sell more $9 Nike rubber bracelets.

Saturation coverage of athletes in trouble

The John Curley Center for Sports Journalism just published a report about coverage of off-field issues during 2006 in the Big Ten. One clear pattern that emerged was a hyper-focus on a handful of athletes (and former athletes) who were arrested or charged with crimes (from DUI to assault). The amount of coverage was disproportionate with the actual number of athletes involved in crime-related stories. Less than one percent of athletes were covered in relation to arrests or charges, although each was the subject of several, and sometimes a dozen, stories. For more, see our report.

Daring to call it what it is

The lawsuit filed by a woman who says she was fired after complaining about being groped and fondled by ESPN on-air personalities is a necessary step in addressing misogyny and sexual harassment in the media workplace. Unfortunately, research shows that many women tolerate harassment and don't want to call it out for fear of losing their jobs or opportunities for advancement -- especially in the locker-room environment associated with big-time sports.

Title IX at 35: Attitudes can skew coverage

A new survey of sports reporters by the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism shows that about half of journalists who have written about the law think it hurts men's sports, and about one-third think the law should be changed. This could impact the way stories about Title IX are framed, and, ultimately, how the public sees the law. For the full report, click here.

And you thought this struggle was over

A female reporter who covers major league soccer posted about her experience in a team locker room where a player tried to chase her out. She stood her ground and got an interview but was understandably shaken. Her experience also points to the growing need for reporters who cover sports with Latino players to be able to speak Spanish.

Can't chew gum and walk at the same time?

Frank Deford's latest contribution to SI.com suggests changing Title IX in ways that would reward universities for continuing to allow football programs to devour their athletic budgets at the expense of low-profile sports.
Bad idea.
But what is worse about this column is the assumptions Deford makes about boys and girls. Apparently, boys can't pursue sports and academics at the same time, and the only reason girls "do better academically" than boys is that more boys are concentrating on sports. Studies show that when young people participate in organized sports -- boys or girls -- they generally do better academically than when they don't.

Even so, it is more about "info-tainment"

Denver Post sports reporter Adrian Dater goes on a long rant in his blog today about ESPN sports "reporters," whom he also calls leaches "or something much worse." Dater was apparentely infuriated by the comment from a friend about entertainment trumping journalism in sports. He accuses ESPN of ripping off stories and repackaging them.
No argument with his frustration about ESPN's less-than-stellar newsgathering practices (although the network has finally implemented a corrections column and has hired an ombudsman, to its credit). But Dater's frustration doesn't make it any less true: When it comes to sports, "info-tainment" is the name of the game.

Leave the press box?

In a follow up to the ejection of a Courier-Journal reporter from an NCAA baseball game for blogging in the press box, Poynter's Steve Klein suggests in an E-tidbits entry today that sports writers try blogging somewhere else: from the stands, for instance. That's the problem with the NCAA's policy: Wireless connectivity for anyone makes it possible for anyone, not only reporters , to provide Web-accessible play-by-play.

Zirin on the "athletic-industrial complex"

Dave Zirin, author of "What's My Name, Fool?" and who has been called the best young sportswriter in the U.S., was interviewed on Democracy Now today about his new book, "Welcome to the Terrordome." Zirin was especially critical of NBA Commissioner David Stern for turning the league and its players into "a spittoon for every racial anxiety." As always, the interview is worth a listen, and Zirin's book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand sports in U.S. culture.

Stifling coverage

A reporter from the Louisville Courier Journal was ejected from an NCAA baseball game earlier this week when he was caught blogging for the newspaper's Web site from the game. His editor said the paper is considering an official response because of violation of its First Amendment right to cover the game. It's too bad that economic interests in college sports have come to this -- I hope the NCAA's heavy-handed policy is challenged and eventually changed.

A boost for speedwalking?

A Patrick Healy column in today's New York Times discusses a decided disadvantage for Hillary Clinton in light of previous presidential elections: her lack of a strong connection to sports. As Healy points out, the images of presidential candidates in recent years has been crafted -- at least in part -- around their athletic resume. (Remember where the Bush and Kerry were seen on election eve in 2004? ESPN.) Healy points out the interesting predicament of Clinton -- "speed walking" listed on her MySpace page as her favorite fitness activity and a lack of a strong sports portfolio. Her opponents, on the other hand (including Obama)are already positioning themselves with footballs and hunting rifles. It will be fascinating to see how images of traditional athleticism play into the campaigns in 2008.

The making of another pseudo-event

ESPN2 televised the MLB First-Year Player draft today. In presenting the MLB draft (and others, such as the super-hyped coverage of the NFL draft), ESPN is able to secure cheap programming and use it to promote itself. Pretty slick. Of course, it also benefits MLB, which could use the help of some positive PR (the most recent comments by Gary Sheffield, for instance, expose growing racial fractures in the sport).

Sex and Sports

Two recent news stories point to the ways sexualized images influence coverage of men's and women's sports. The first: coverage of a female high school pole vaulter who has been the object of unwanted attention since a picture of her has made the rounds on the Internet. In a Sunday column, Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell discusses the Post's decision to identify the girl after several readers complained.
AJC ombudsman Angela Tuck's Saturday column addressed a column the paper ran in which it asked a woman who had run a prostitution ring out of her home to rate the "Top Five Sexiest Athletes." Readers had (rightly)complained to the newspaper about its editorial choices.
Images of sex and sports have always been closely aligned -- often in ways that denigrate women. As athletes in the spotlight get younger and younger, the issues involved in the sexualization of sports will increasingly become more complex.

Sex sells? ... Not.

Although conventional wisdom might tell us that female athletes who showcase their sexuality through magazine photo spreads are increasing interest in women's sports, a pilot study by the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport suggests otherwise. Apparently, such coverage doesn't draw men and alienates women's sports fans. As SI's Aditi Kinkhabwala suggests, at least part of the reason for sexualized coverage could be because of the prevalence of men in decision-making positions. Ultimately, the positioning of female athletes as pseudo-cover girls is a losing proposition because it diminishes the sporting value of these women and female athletics in general.

The dynamics of race, sports and journalism

ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski covered Morehouse College's Black Athlete Forum, an event this week to kick off the college's new sports journalism program. The forum brought journalists and athletes together to talk about the disparities in minority representation in sports departments and about the oftentimes-negative coverage of Black athletes. Although the most publicized moments of the evening came in a charged exchange between Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer and journalist Jason Whitlock, I hope the lasting impact from this forum is in igniting interest in sports journalism among the students who attended. A greater presence of dedicated, well-trained minority journalists will benefit sports coverage immensely.

Tip of the iceberg?

The cover story on USA Today's sports section addresses point-shaving in college basketball. The story reviews involvement of University of Toledo players in a scheme that involved working against the point-spread in games. The story recounts other major betting scandals in college athletics, including cases at Arizona State and Northwestern during the 1990s.
USA Today's story is a relatively rare look at the influence of gambling on college athletics, especially considering that a study published last year estimates point-shaving as a factor in 5% of games involving large spreads. On top of that, an NCAA study estimates involvement in gambling by male athletes at around 35 percent. Last year, Christine Brennan also pointed to NCAA documentation that about 5% of D1 players say they've taken money to play poorly or knew someone who did.
It was good to see the USA Today story today -- but the issue of point-shaving in college athletics needs a lot more attention.

USA Today on the trouble with Title IX

USA Today ran an op-ed in this morning's edition that considers whether Title IX should be changed (weakened). In an argument against changing the law, Title IX is neverthless charged with compounding the financial pressures faced by college athletics programs. A counterpoint piece written by the counsel to Equity in Athletics Inc. (an anti-Title IX group) challenges the proportionality test for Title IX, a common argument used to sidestep the real reason why Rutgers and other schools have recently cut their athletic programs: to feed men's revenue-generating (but usually not profitable) sports.

Implicit racism in sports: Who knew?

An unpublished research (and not yet peer-reviewed) report finds implicit bias among White refs against Black players in the NBA. The report, which experts hired by The New York Times say is more credible than the NBA's own research, has met a storm of protest from the NBA, journalists and athletes. But research has shown, time and time again, that implicit racial bias (see for yourself) is a reality. The mythology that sports is a great racial equalizer, however, is hard to shake.

Deford on Title IX: a Colbert-style salute

Erin Buzuvis and her colleagues' Title IX blog offers insightful analysis of Frank Deford's NPR commentary this morning about Title IX. Essentially, Deford perpetuates myths about the law but also offers useful insight about how schools could more fairly allocate money for men's sports.

Sports on the business pages

I wrote sometime back about the marriage of sports and business sections. According to an article in Portfolio.com, ProTrade is aiming to launch 'the first real stock market in athletes.' The article makes a good case that trends are pointing the way toward the viability of a financial market "trading in jocks." Truth be told: It really sounds like nothing more than a more sophisticated form of gambling, a practice as old as sports itself.

The (sporting) adventures of new Christine

LA Times sportswriter Mike Penner's column in today's paper reveals his new identity as Christine Daniels. Daniels will be one of the few -- if not the only -- transsexual sportswriters in a U.S. newsroom. Penner is trading in an privileged identity (male) for one (female) that has generally had a marginal status in sports departments. I hope Daniels will consider joining AWSM, an organization that has supported women working in sports media for the past 20 years.

Post-Imus reflections

Nike ran an ad in today's New York Times that opines about the Imus fiasco: "Thank you for unintentionally moving women’s sport forward. And thank you for making all of us realize that we still have a long way to go." Unfortunately, the focus on the racism in his comment almost overwhelmed the ubiquitous-yet-invisible gender politics embedded in it. The most cogent take I've seen on the issue was, predictably, by Edge of Sports columnist Dave Zirin, who writes that much of the reaction to Imus is in "how we are taught to understand sports"

Stupidity or contempt...Does it matter?

Billy Packer's reason for using "fag" -- that he was using a much lesser-known definition of the word, reflects a terrible lapse of judgment by a broadcast professional who should know the power of common language. Meanwhile, Don Imus' comment about female college basketball players can't be construed as anything less than outright contempt for female athletes and women's sports. Do either one of these broadcasters deserve one more minute of airtime?

After the crowds have gone home: Thinking about the future of women's sports coverage

Women's college basketball was in the spotlight Tuesday night in front of a sold-out crowd in Cleveland, demonstrating the drawing power of women's team sports. Yet, still, we all know the lowly status women's sports generally take in media coverage. During a pre-tournament event for aspiring high school and college sports journalists, ESPN's Mechelle Voepel talked about how economic pressures combined with old-fashioned attitudes keep women's sports from getting coverage. She added: "It's not completely a male-female thing...It's a generational thing." Young men realize, she said, "both sexes can share." She also said that recent coverage of problems in programs at LSU and Penn State are ultimately good for women's basketball: "The usually expose something that is difficult or needs to be taken care of in college athletics."

Clark: Sports attracts talented storytellers

Poynter's Roy Peter Clark plugs the Sports Journalism Summit next month and writes about the future of sports journalism, where he predicts great writing -- no matter how long -- will continue to draw readers. He marvels at the success of ESPN's Bill Simmons and writes about the allure of blogs: "The blogger's edge often comes from the rejection of political correctness and mainstream sentimentality. I'm down (or up?) with that. What I can't abide in the feedback loop is crude incivility, expressed by anonymous voices in the form of barbaric racism, sexism, xenophobia, or homophobia."

Shooting from the hip

Margery Eagan of the Boston Herald observed in a column today that while Celtics analyst Cedric Maxwell's comment about a female ref needing to "go back to the kitchen [and] make me some bacon and eggs" may have put egg on his face, it was likely a sentiment shared by many who feel threatened by a woman's ability to bring home the bacon in sports.
Eagan points out that Brian Lam of the NBA referees' association said this kind of comment was a first, unfortunately, about a female ref. Let's also hope it's a last, even if it might reflect the fears of many who believe women really don't belong in sports.

"Catfights" on the sports pages

Recent musing on the sports pages about the relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter has prompted Newsday's John Jeansonne to compare modern sports coverage to supermarket tabloid fare -- "straight out of the Hilton-Spears playbook." Although such coverage isn't new, pressure from bloggers and other fans-turned-journalists increased demand for sports journalists to cover sports celebrity controversies. If they don't, someone else will - and the news hole has unlimited room for such tabloid fare.

The business of priorities

The Akron Beacon Journal has joined at least one other mid-sized daily in announcing that it plans to tack business news on to the back of the sports section instead of running a standalone section. Chris Roush, in a blog on "Talking Biz News," speculated that it may signal the demise of business sections in U.S. newspapers. He asks: "What is more important to people, knowing information about their jobs and the economy, or knowing whether their favorite sports team won last night? ... At some point, newspapers will have to decide whether they want to improve society or not." The answer to Roush's question may not matter as much as the fact that circulation directors at many daily papers would likely agree that sports, not business, puts money in newspaper racks.

'Most people don't give a flying whatever'

Denver Post columnist and ESPN personality Woody Paige, interviewed by PR Week, said the steroids story has been "overdone" because fans don't understand or care about the story. Stories about T.O., Lebron James and Barry Bonds, on the other hand are never overdone because of the public appetite for those stories, Paige said.
Paige added that journalists haven't done a good job explaining the steroids story. Could that be much of the reason that the public doesn't want to know more? Stories about the exploits of an individual (like T.O.) are easy to write and easy to understand. Stories about steroid use are more difficult to write and don't make easy visuals for TV. But they're far more important and need to be pursued. As fans understand the story, they will care.

Much is gained by losing the ballot

A column by ombudsman Bob Richter of the San Antonio Express-News on Sunday announced that the paper will no longer participate in the AP Top 25 polls for football and basketball. As Richter says, "little is lost." Instead, the paper gains credibility as its sports department better aligns with the job of newsmakers to report news instead of create it.
The E-N is one of a growing number of papers, including the LA Times and Washington Post, that doesn't vote in these polls. Comments by APSE sports editors illustrate the spectrum of opinions and the ethical issues tied up in the process.

ESPN, Amaechi and the NBA

My favorite sports columnist, Dave Zirin, rightly takes ESPN and the NBA (among others) to task for their treatment of the story about John Amaechi. Zirin argues that although ESPN is doing a bit of self-promotion because it published Amaechi's book, the story of his coming out is newsworthy. Zirin also argues that the response of ESPN columnist LZ Granderson is terribly misguided because Granderson, who is gay, does not understand the homophobic world that is men's professional sports. Zirin points to the undercovered story about NFL coach Tony Dungy's affiliation with a homophobic group, for instance, and to the NBA's refusal to post a story about Amaechi on its Web site.

Want the real scoop in Beijing? Turn off NBC, tune into the blogs

The IOC has decided that it -- for now -- will allow athletes to post blogs during the Olympic Games. Blogs by Olympians aren't new, but the IOC's decision not to try to ban them ahead of the Beijing games is significant: It signals a recognition of the new media environment, where athletes can speak directly to fans and where young fans are looking for interactive coverage beyond TV.
There are major concerns, including that of athlete privacy in the Olympic Village,. Another, of course, involves the implications for mainstream media outlets. Missouri Associate Professor Clyde Bentley wonders if this new version of "citizen journalism" will kill the economic media model that has enriched athletes. He wonders, for instance, if cable nets such as ESPN2 will eventually die at the hands of sites such as YouTube as the need for traditional gatekeepers in sports disappears.

Super Bowl ad nauseum

It looks as though this year will set a new standard (you the judge about which direction) for Super Bowl sportainment.
Plenty of Web sites have given consumers a chance to start watching the ads already, and those who want a second -- or third -- look will get the chance on the sites like YouTube after the game. And pre-Super Bowl programming on CBS will, even by Sean McManus' admission, be so long as to even make viewers "nauseated" -- but, as he is quoted in the LA Times: "they will still watch."
Demonstrating the increasing influence of bloggers on mainstream sports coverage, CBS Sportsline has asked the irreverent, gossip-driven Deadspin to provide a no-holds-barred "glog" (live, running blog) during the Super Bowl on the CBS Web site.
Although embedded in all of this media coverage is a football game, the biggest winners in all of the consumer-oriented spectacle will be the advertisers.

Redefining or reinforcing tired stereotypes?

Marketing materials touting "SportsBabes," an online sports show that launches tomorrow, promise a "groundbreaking" program. Why? Apparently because the "super attractive women" who will host the show -- including a former beauty queen, a "Latina-lovely," and a "super-cute Texas native" -- are also intelligent and "super sports savvy." The women will host daily shows that last about 5 minutes, and the creator Smashtube hopes to snag (surprise!) sports fans in the coveted 20- and 30-something demographic through online channels such as YouTube.
Never mind the assumption behind this ad -- that most women are not intelligent or savvy. What's groundbreaking about positioning women in sports-related programming as "eye candy?"

The sports pages meet the First Amendment

Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander, who has been a vocal activist in relationship to the situation facing "Game of Shadows" authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, told Penn State sports journalism students tonight to speak out about threats to the freedom of all journalists. Telander, who helped organize a demonstration in San Francisco by sports journalists last year, said he hadn't paid much attention to issues involving the First Amendment until this one -- perhaps the first involving investigative sports journalism. Telander also told students that he is in favor of a certification or licensure system for journalists.

ESPN praised for gay-friendly coverage

Clyde Zeigler, Jr., a founder of Outsports, has written an article for the Web site praising ESPN for what he says is the network's "history of gay-friendly actions that have separated it from much of the rest of the sports world." He cites ESPN's record of stories addressing homophobia in sports, its hiring of gay journalists (such as LZ Granderson at The Magazine) and the network's role as a sponsor of the Gay Games in 2006. He says there is "still work to be done" at the network, but Zeigler presents plenty of evidence that ESPN is resisting the homophobia that often accompanies the locker-room mentality in sports.

The (virtual) reality: Our changing definitions of sports

Early in the spring semester, I talk to my Sports, Media and Society class about the definition of sports. Yesterday, after my class wrestled with whether poker, hunting and fishing, and competitive ballroom dancing are sports, I caught a piece on NPR's Marketplace about another potential "sport" with its own superstar athletes: video gaming, which, as an industry, has more revenues than the NFL, NBA and MLB combined.

From the heart the mouth speaks...

Robert Weintraub's recent article in Slate points to the latest round of racial gaffes by sports broadcasters. The most recent was that by Michael Irvin -- a comment about the athletic ability of a quarterback being owed to the miscegenation of an ancestor. Needless to say, an apology followed.

Commentators aren't just sometimes racist -- they are sometimes sexist (recall Keith Hernandez' comment about women in the dugout) and sometimes homophobic (recall the comment by ESPNU commentator Brian Kinchen)

Weintraub speculates that the reason for so many missteps in the broadcast booth is that so many commentators are former athletes who are untrained in journalism.

But that isn't true of many of the commentators who have spewed racist, sexist or homophobic comments off-the-cuff. They are journalists by trade.

I think these incidents demonstrate the need for sports broadcasters to get far more than training in how to call play-by-play or in the fine art of trying to convince viewers that a lopsided game is still worth watching. They need an education in critical thinking about their own (unspoken unless under pressure) stereotypes color their thinking about race, ethnicity and gender, among other things. Collegiate sports journalism programs must have issues-oriented classes where students can confront the stereotypes they may not even realize that they embrace. Then, those stereotypes are far less likely to spill out in front of a mass audience.

'My Boys": It must be the off-season

TBS' new comedy series, My Boys, will debut Tuesday night. The central character is a female baseball beat writer who "plays a mean hand of poker. ...She would rather down a few brews at the local pub than go shopping for a new pair of shoes." But, of course, she's gorgeous (She does, apparently, enjoy spending time in front of the mirror before heading out to hang with the boys.) It's not a terribly original storyline: a buddy comedy with romantic overtones and sports as the backdrop.
The show has already been
compared to Friends and Sex in the City,. After seeing the first two episodes, I don't think the shows are similar -- although I do think the show may draw viewers also drawn to those shows. If you're looking for a realistic view into life as a woman in sportswriting, though, I wouldn't put it there, either -- Shelly Anderson's recent column on the show points out the cliches and fictions about female sportswriters. You may want to read it before watching "My Boys" Tuesday night.

Find that sports highlight on .... YouTube

Jesse Spector writes in Sunday's New York Daily News about the rising popularity of YouTube for sports highlights. The consequences of these kinds of ungated sites can be powerful -- witness the firing of Lamar Thomas after his infamous stint was immortalized on YouTube. The growing popularity of YouTube is another sign that traditional gatekeepers in sports will continue to be squeezed out as leagues, teams and fans use new technologies for sports entertainment. Sports journalists will have to be nimble in finding ways to work with, not against, these corporate- and fan-driven sports-information outlets.

Covering an unusual grudge match

I read with interest Henry Abbott's blog entry yesterday on truehoop.com about the situation involving the Oregonian and the Trailblazers, one that has deteriorated to the point where a reporter who is not on the Oregonian's regular payroll apparently has been called in to sift through the hard feelings between the paper and the team and come up with an explanation.
As Craig Lancaster, the reporter who Abbott says will cover the story, has pointed out, it's too bad that another media outlet (such as SBJ) hasn't covered this story. Even so, it's commendable that the Oregonian has taken this unusual step. Of course, it owes this much to its readers.

What do women want?

The readership of newspaper sports sections has traditionally been mostly male -- men compose upwards of 80 percent of readers. But if sports sections are to expand their base (and draw more advertising revenue), they need to change that ratio and bring more female readers into the mix.
But how? What do female sports fans want? The CSJ has started a project to compare how men and women read newspaper sports sections -- and the results so far are very interesting. The way women and men see simple features, such as box scores and game stories, is a study in contrasts. We'll provide results here as we conduct more focus groups.

Living dangerously behind the mic

Inflammatory comments from two game announcers over the weekend may cost two broadcasters their jobs, but there's no way to take back what went out over the air (and was rebroadcast over the Internet many times over): comments that condoned violence and racism. These incidents point to the need for training in far more than the mechanics of the game for anyone who gets behind the mic.

Athletics over academics in H.S. coverage

A study by researchers at the University of Minnesota Center for School Change at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs found that media coverage of high school students emphasizes athletes far more than academic achievers. The reasons for this may say more about our public schools than about the media, though: Public schools often do a much better job of showcasing and promoting their student athletes than their academic all-stars. No matter what the reason, though -- the message it sends about scholastic priorities may not be the one we want to send.

Future Paralympians?

An AP story today points out the use of sports programs to help injured Iraq veterans regain mobility and other benefits of sports participation. Many of these new adapted-sport athletes may end up representing the U.S. overseas again someday -- as Paralympic athletes. Unfortunately, they will likely get little attention there, as the Paralympics has traditionally been ignored in the U.S. press. I hope that the recent attention on adapted sports as rehabilitation will move in 2008 to a positive focus on the the world's second-largest single sporting competition.

Sportswriters, steroids, and regrets

An online E & P article about coverage of the steroids scandal in baseball has sportswriters admitting what has been obvious since the BALCO story broke several years ago: They failed to cover a story that has been right in front of them for two decades. Here's hoping that the lesson from this debacle for sports journalists is learned in stronger, more courageous coverage of other issues of corruption in sports, including the influence of gambling on college athletics.

Sure beats sportsjournalists.com

Young people interested in advice about sports writing from some of the best and brightest may want to visit a new Web site affiliated with the Sports Institute at Boston University. The Web site, sportsmediaguide, includes transcripts of interviews with sports journalists such as Dave Kindred, Michelle Kaufman, and Gene Wojciechowski. One of my favorite quotes is from Bryan Curtis: "There's a false assumption that you can't write sports unless you go the conventional route. I read the "Best American Sportswriting" anthology every year and half the pieces come from writers who aren't conventional sportswriters – they're just writers who have interesting minds."

The wrong signal

The ruling yesterday that will send reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, the San Francisco Chronicle investigative team on the BALCO story, could have a chilling effect on investigative journalism. Although we've seen other similar decisions recently (such as that involving NYT reporter Judith Miller), this one involves a sports-related story. More strong investigative reporting in sports is sorely needed -- and this decision won't help. See columns by Wright Thompson and Rick Telander, among others.

Oasis in Orlando

An article posted on Women's enews discusses the Orlando sports media market as an unusual one for women -- they are employed in both print and broadcast sports reporting in larger number than the national average. One reason may be that although Orlando is a large metro area with many media employers, it has just one pro sports team, making it a less risky place for outlets to alienate male fans with female reporters.

No comment.

Really, I can't find the words to describe my disgust with the ad campaign recently launched by SportsNet New York. My only comfort is that this ad campaign is so stupid (on top of being offensive) that it won't last long.

Still...no guarantees

News Journal writer and AWSM member Jane McManus posted this blog earlier this week about being blocked from Andre Agassi's locker room at the U.S. Open. She also points out that a male reporter at the tournament was ridiculed after seeking access to a women's locker room. When will locker room access stop being an issue?

Toeing the sports/military line

One of my favorite sports columnists, Dave Zirin, recently wrote a piece for The Nation magazine on the use of injured soldiers by the USA Basketball team to "fire up the troops," as it were, on the court. He quoted NBA player Etan Thomas (with the Wizards), who saw the military display on NBA TV and believed it was wrong. Etan has been a critic of U.S. military action in recent years.
But when it comes to politics and social justice, the message for athletes who don't readily buy the prevailing line is "look at your contract" (or: "shut up") as a recent Washington Times column attests.
It's ironic: We like to think of athletes as "heroes" and "role models" -- as long as they play well and open their mouths only to drive us to the mall to buy shoes. But when they speak out in ways that betray their status as symbols of American (military) supremacy, we'd rather they just shut up and perform.

Protecting the rights and work of journalists

A colleague of mine, Scott Reinardy at Ball State, sent me the following letter from Rick Telander, a senior sports columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times. The investigative work of sports journalists is too critical not to protect.

Dear fellow sportswriters, sports columnists, sports editors:
I think you all know the situation that San Francisco Chronicle sportswriters (or writers in the sports venue) Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams find themselves in—that is, they will go to jail if they do not reveal private sources to a grand jury. They have a chance of winning on appeal, or, possibly, the case might move to the Supreme Court for a ruling.
But the threat to freedom of the press and the basis of investigative reporting is very real, not to mention the threat of jail time for those two men.
We as sportswriters have a unique chance to show we care about this situation and about our colleagues, who—even if you disagree with their premise in ``Game of Shadows'' or other writings—are men of integrity and diligence and conscience, working under the long-established foundation of American journalism and the freedom the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution so clearly provides to the press.
No, we cannot have our grand juries constantly undermined by leaks.
And yes, there is room for interpretation here, for courts to look at each case individually.
But journalists cannot be agents of government at any level, nor of governmental law enforcement agencies, and sportswriters—any journalists—cannot be afraid that their promises of anonymity to informants will be undermined by subpoenas to tell all.
On Wednesday, Sept. 6, I and as many sports guys and gals as possible will meet in Washington, DC before the shield law hearings—a journalism protection bill proposed by bipartisan U.S. Representatives and Senators—to show our support for Fainaru-Wada and Williams and, by extension, the free press we so enjoy but often take for granted. Williams will be voluntarily testifying Fainaru-Wada hopes to be there, too), but he and Mark have nothing to do with this show of support. Indeed, I barely know either man.
More details will be coming, but, by God, if you can come and be counted on the steps of the Capitol, it will be a wonderful thing. The more columns, debate, passion, spirit we bring to this, the better. All ideas are welcome. Please stay in touch.
This has absolutely no political overtones whatsoever, no further implication than the belief that making a stand on freedom of the press is not only an American duty, but a joy. And for us sports people it is a rare chance to show we stand for something other than paychecks, free food, and crabbiness.
If you agree with this premise, but cannot come to DC for whatever reason—Dig deep, brothers! Don't count on editorial funds!—consider signing your agreement (via email or fax or passed-along paper) with the following statement and get it to me or somebody else who will be there on Sept. 6:

I am opposed to the subpoena of Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams to reveal their private sources, and I support their right, and the right of all journalists, to be fully protected by the First Amendment and its clear provision for freedom of the press.

Your name, signature, affiliation, and date underneath.

Could sports participation be a factor?

I'm listening right now to a Talk of the Nation piece about new research that indicates that Latina teenagers are in trouble -- they are more likely to drop out of school, to use drugs, to attempt suicide. One fact that also springs to my mind: Latina teenagers lag behind other groups in a key area: sports participation. I can't help but think there's a connection, when we know about all of the positives sports participation brings to girls in relation to their bodies and outlook. It seems that programs that help young Latinas experience the joy of sports could make a huge impact.

The Internet and niche sports

One thing I love about the reach of the Internet is its ability to bring us news of sports that don't get mainstream press coverage (of course, this can also be used as an excuse by journalists for not covering certain sports -- not good). One of my graduate students, Kelly, sent me the link to a Web site with day-to-day coverage of underwater hockey -- check out the world championships.

Unfair mandate or gender-equity model?

A blog post by my colleague Liz Matson about an Australian column that disparaged women's sports got me curious about a proposal Down Under that coverage of women's sports be required for broadcasters. The proposal was presented during Senate hearings about women's sports,and has backers including Football Federation Australia, Women in Sport Media Group and the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
The media response to the proposal has been interesting and has demonstrated that we still have a lot of work to do in coming to terms with women's sports, how they challenge gender socialization, and how uncomfortable that makes many people.

Local TV sports: Going, going, gone?

The Center for Sports Journalism today published results of a survey of sports anchors, directors and reporters at local newscasts in the top 50 U.S. demographic markets. The survey found that a majority of the 216 survey respondents believe that the importance of television sports is diminishing and that it could disappear from the local newscast someday. With the rise of the Internet and RSNs, along with ESPN, the sports segment on local newscasts likely isn't as relevant to viewers.

Coverage of the other part of the APSE report

Finally, a story acknowledging the shortage of women cited in the APSE report. Miller does a good job of exploring many angles of the issue.

Postscript on sports dept. demographics

It occurred to me as I was looking through the columns that appeared after the APSE study was published in June -- all I've seen focus on the lack of minority journalists in newspaper sports departments. What is curious about that is that the low numbers of minority sports journalists mirror the rest of the newsroom. In other words -- the lack of minorities in sports departments is part of a newsroom-wide problem.
What surprises me is the lack of attention the news about women in sports departments has generally received. Women in sports departments are outnumbered 3-to-1 by women in other parts of the newsroom. In other words, the big problem in sports -- uniquely -- is the lack of women.
I can't help but think that the uproar over the lack of minorities and the silence about the lack of women plays into invisible (but ubiquitous) stereotypes: minorities "naturally" belong in sports, and women don't.

Getting athletes ready for the spotlight

With football season around the corner, hundreds of college athletes will soon be under the glare of media scrutiny -- and they may not be ready for it. As Lauren Reynolds points out in "Media training aims at producing scandal-free athletes," an increasing number of athletic directors are hiring sports media trainers (such as Sports Media Challenge) to prepare athletes to project the best possible image. This trend is one that will likely become routine for colleges around the U.S. Penn State's Center for Sports Journalism is tracking reporting of off-the-field incidents in the Big Ten to learn more about how such incidents are covered by both the collegiate and mainstream press.

Team Web sites, network innovate content

Two recent articles in Sports Business Journal caught my interest: one reports that the YES Network (with DirectTV) is launching an interactive TV service. YES, affiliated with the Yankees, will the first for a U.S.-based regional sports network. The U.S. continues to lag behind other countries in offering interactive television. As YES (and last year, the NFL Network) introduce fans to this technology, they'll continue to rise in legitimacy as sources of information and news for fans -- possibly displacing more traditional media.
The other article reports that two NHL teams,the LA Kings and Anaheim Ducks, are considering hiring their own "beat writers" in the face of news that the LA Times is cutting back on hockey coverage. As more teams and leagues hire their own "journalists" to supplement or compete with newspapers and more traditional outlets, the line will continue to blur between sports PR and traditional journalism.

The X Games: Save the ink

Sports editors around the country have experimented with coverage of action sports to draw young readers. It may not be worth the effort. In focus groups with teenage sports fans from around the U.S. here at Penn State this week for its Sports Journalism Institute, participants say any interest they have in action sports will be satiated by watching the X Games (which begin next week) -- they don't want to see it in the paper. They see it more as entertainment than as a competitive sport that should get traditional sports coverage.

The other global cup competition

Although soccer's World Cup competition has received massive global media attention, another elite sporting competition has received almost none in the U.S. and little anywhere else. The Gold Cup World Championships for wheelchair basketball are coming to a close in Amsterdam. The U.S. women's team has made the finals, and the men's team will play for a spot in the championship this weekend. Coverage in the U.S. has been confined to the sparse local-angle feature,. Adapted sports suffer from lack of media exposure in the U.S. -- a lack often driven by ignorance and stereotypes about disability.

Squeezed off the sidelines

During the past several seasons, we've seen an uptick in the number of women covering college and professional football -- from the sidelines. Sideline reporters don't get the same exposure as those in the anchor booth or calling the game; they're on screen for literally seconds. But the sideline job was proving a break-in ground for some female talent. But the sideline reporter may be on the way out. Both CBS and NBC have announced plans to cut back on sideline reporters. When sideline reporters are cut from men's pro and college sportscasts, so are the on-camera opportunities for women, who must often settle for that role.
Meanwhile, however, a sideline pioneer -- Lesley Visser-- will be the first woman to receive pro football' Hall of Fame media award.

Drudging up jock news

A new Web site, modeled on the Drudge Report format, is another bookmark option for sport junkies. The site, Jock Report, doesn't offer anything particularly original -- but it does offer a comprehensive list of links to other sports news sites. Another new sports media offering (in the works): SI Edge, a fitness magazine with tips "from the pros" aimed at male sports fans. SI is a little behind in the emerging market for men's aesthetically oriented body mags -- Men's Health and others are already established. But there is room for more, most likely, as attitudes about men's fitness are evolving into a much more consumer-oriented model.