The photographic representation of female athletes in the Spanish digital sport press during the Rio Olympic Games

Abstract

This paper studies the representation of female and male images in the Spanish digital sport press during the 2016 Olympic Games to show if the visual framework is different for each gender. We conducted a content analysis of 3738 news items through eight different variables: athlete's gender, photographs' quantity and size, sport, image content, action of the protagonist, presence of gender biases or stereotypes and their typology. Findings show that there is an underrepresentation of female visual coverage and a trivialization of women's sports with visual ambivalence in the images. This is because, even though there is not a differentiated context by gender, media tends to represent female athletes in so-called gender-appropriate sports and in a passive way. In addition, we found gender biases and stereotypes derived from frames of sexualization and beauty, degrading images, greater emphasis on female emotions, motherhood, and family life. All of this can impact the audience's perception as they understand that women's sports are less relevant than men's.