An investigation of the attitudes of sports media towards women's sports

Abstract

This study aims to examine the attitudes of sports media employees and sports managers toward women’s sports. The research universe includes the sports media employees in Istanbul and academicians in the field of sports while the research sample includes Skorer tv, Fanatik newspaper employees and academicians of Esenyurt University and Istanbul University. Descriptive research model in the research, “Attitudes of Sports Media towards Women’s Sports in our Country” survey consists of two sections with 16 items and 28 questions. A total of 161 people were selected by random method [n = 80 media employees; (F = 50, M = 30), n = 81 academicians; (F = 48, M = 33)] SPSS package program 22 was used in the data statistics and the data were evaluated with frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, single factor variance analysis (Oneway ANOVA) at 0.05 level. It was found that female and male sports media employees disagreed with the following two statements with the highest average: “News reports about female athletes are credible and convincing”(F; x̄ =3.9987, M; x̄ =4.379); “The number of female sports media employees is sufficient in the sports media”(M; x̄ = 3.746, F; x̄ = 3.9045). It was also found that male sports media employees disagreed with the following two statements with an average higher than that of female sports media employees: “Articles of sports columnists about female athletes are convincing” (M; x̄ = 4.379, F; x̄ = 2.5005); “In our country, there is a Women’s sports media which provides professional press services” (M; x̄ = 3.113, F; x̄ = 2.2798). The statement with the highest average (M; x̄ = 3.68) of disagreement from the male was “Government makes sufficient use of media instruments to encourage women to start sports” while the statement with the highest average (F; x̄ = 3.9944) of disagreement from the female sports media employees was “Sports media considers demands from readers when determining editorial policy for women’s sports”. The female participants who participated in our study disagreed with the statements in our survey on “the attitudes of sports media on women’s sports” and the statement that “the sources of women’s sports and athletes are sufficient” with an average higher than that of male sports media employees.