Media representation of women athletes at the olympic games: A systematic review

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to conduct a systematic review of the literature on the coverage of women at the Olympic Games. A total of 144 records were collected from the Web of Science database which were screened to n = 58 for in-depth examination. A content analysis was performed with the data gathered based on the following thematic categories: evolution of scientific publications by years; types of studies carried out; countries and regions with the longest track record in the topic; citations, authors and main findings, and future research strands. The results showed that the studies were mainly performed in the United States, especially in recent years, and with a strong incidence in 2015, in areas such as the social sciences and communication and with a greater focus on television, albeit with a growing interest in the new digital media. In general, they continue to report a lack of fairness in the amount of coverage, coupled with gender differentiation in the representation of women's sport. Further studies are suggested to reveal whether such imbalances persist or progress is being made towards greater fairness.