Skip to main content

Abstract

The dramatic shift in sports media representation and interaction to online environments has significant implications for feminist research and activism. No longer limited by traditional media gatekeeping, the voices of sportswomen and women’s sport fans are now visible and actively contributing to public understandings of women’s sport. What impacts does this shift have on feminist media methodologies? In this chapter, we map the historical trajectory of methodological approaches for investigating representations of physically active women, identifying important knowledge gained over the past half-century, as well as limitations and gaps in the research corpus. We then explore the use of conventional methods in online environments and discuss emerging methodologies and methodological issues that are not only enabled but also theoretically necessary in a digitally mediated world.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 299.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alvermann, D. E., & Hagood, M. C. (2000). Critical media literacy: Research, theory, and practice in “New Times”. The Journal of Educational Research, 93(3), 193–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Antunovic, D. (2014). “A female in a man’s world”: New media discourses around the first female NFL referee. Journal of Sports Media, 9(2), 45–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Antunovic, D., & Hardin, M. (2015). Women and the blogosphere: Exploring feminist approaches to sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 50(6), 661–677.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Antunovic, D., & Linden, A. D. (2015). Disrupting dominant discourses: #HERESPROOF of interest in women’s sports. Feminist Media Studies, 15(1), 157–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, A. (2002). Is it time for a victory lap? Changes in the media coverage of women in sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 37(3–40), 415–428.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billings, A. (2014). Power in the reverberation. Why Twitter matters, but not the way most believe. Communication & Sport, 2(2), 107–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Billings, A. C., & Hardin, M. (Eds.). (2014). Routledge handbook of sport and new media. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, T. (1998). Audience resistance: Women fans confront televised women’s basketball. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 22(4), 373–397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, T. (2002). Supportive or hostile? Teasing or professional? Women sportswriters categorize locker room interactions. Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, 11(2), 49–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, T. (2013). Reflections on communication and sport: On women and femininities. Communication & Sport, 1(1/2), 125–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, T. (2016). New rules for new times: Sportswomen and media representation in the third wave. Sex Roles, 74, 361–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, T., & Hardin, M. (2014). Reclaiming our voices: Sportswomen and social media. In A. C. Billings & M. Hardin (Eds.), Routledge handbook of sport and new media (pp. 311–319). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, T., Hovden, J., & Markula, P. (Eds.). (2010). Sportswomen at the Olympics: A global comparison of newspaper coverage. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, T., & Stewart, A. (2015). As Kiwi as? Contestation over the place of men’s football in New Zealand culture. Soccer & Society, 16(5–6), 710–725.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brummett, B., & Duncan, M. C. (1990). Theorizing without totalizing: Specularity and televised sports. The Quarterly Journal of Speech, 76(3), 227–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnett, C., & Merchant, G. (2011). Is there a space for critical literacy in the context of social media? English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 10(1), 41–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chawansky, M. (2016). Be who you are and be proud: Brittney Griner, intersectional invisibility and digital possibilities for lesbian sporting celebrity. Leisure Studies [Online First]. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2015.1128476

  • Clavio, G., & Eagleman, A. N. (2011). Gender and sexually suggestive images in sports blogs. Journal of Sport Management, 7, 295–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clavio, G., & Kian, T. M. (2010). Uses and gratifications of a retired female athlete’s Twitter followers. International Journal of Sport Communication, 3, 485–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coche, R. (2014). What women’s soccer fans want: A Twitter study. Soccer & Society, 15(4), 449–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooky, C., Messner, M. A., & Musto, M. (2015). “It’s dude time!” A quarter century of excluding women’s sports in televised news and highlights shows. Communication & Sport [Online First]. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479515588761

  • Cooper, R., & Tang, T. (2013). Gender and predictors of multiplatform media uses: A case of the Super Bowl. International Journal of Sport Communication, 6(3), 348–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Creedon, P. (2014). Women, social media, and sport: Global digital communication weaves a web. Television & New Media, 15(8), 711–716.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, L. R. (1997). The swimsuit issue and sport: Hegemonic masculinity in sports illustrated. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, M. C. (2006). Gender warriors in sport: Women and the media. In A. Raney & J. Bryant (Eds.), Handbook of sports and media (pp. 247–269). Mahweh, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, M. C., & Brummett, B. (1993). Liberal and radical sources of female empowerment in sport media. Sociology of Sport Journal, 10, 57–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Filo, K., Lock, D., & Karg, A. (2015). Sport and social media research: A review. Sport Management Review, 18(2), 166–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gee, B. L., & Leberman, S. I. (2011). Sports media decision-making in France: How they choose what we get to see and read. International Journal of Sport Communication, 4, 321–343.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hambrick, M. E., & Mahoney, T. Q. (2011). “It’s incredible – Trust me”: Exploring the role of celebrity athletes as marketers in online social networks. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 10(3/4), 161–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, M. (2011). The power of a fragmented collective: Radical pluralist feminism and technologies of the self in the sports blogosphere. In A. C. Billings (Ed.), Sports media: Transformation, integration, consumption (pp. 40–60). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, M., & Shain, S. (2005a). Female sports journalists: Are we there yet? “no”. Newspaper Research Journal, 26(4), 22–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, M., & Shain, S. (2005b). Strength in numbers? The experiences and attitudes of women in sports media careers. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 82(4), 804–819.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, M., & Whiteside, E. (2009). Token responses to gendered newsrooms: Factors in the career-related decisions of female newspaper sports journalists. Journalism, 10(5), 627–646.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, M., & Whiteside, E. (2012). How do women talk sports?: Women sports fans in a blog community. In K. Toffoletti & P. Mewett (Eds.), Sport and its female fans (pp. 152–168). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardin, M., Zhong, B., & Corrigan, T. F. (2012). The funhouse mirror: The blogosphere’s reflection of women’s sports. In T. Dumova & R. Fiordo (Eds.), Blogging in the global society: Cultural, political and geographical aspects (pp. 55–71). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Heinecken, D. (2015). “So tight in the tights, so loose in the waist”: Embodying the female athlete online. Feminist Media Studies, 15(5), 1035–1052.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hepp, A. (2013). Cultures of mediatization. (Keith Tribe, Trans.). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heywood, L., & Dworkin, S. L. (2003). Built to win: The female athlete as cultural icon. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horky, T., & Nieland, J.-U. (2013). Comparing sports reporting from around the world – Numbers and facts on sports in daily newspapers. In T. Horky & J.-U. Nieland (Eds.), International sports press survey 2011. Norderstedt, Germany: Books on Demand GmbH.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchins, B., & Rowe, D. (2013). Digital media sport: Technology, power and culture in the network society. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Weigel, M., & Robison, A. J. (2007). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Chicago, IL: MacArthur Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, D. (2006). The representation of female athletes in online images of successive Olympic games. Pacific Journalism Review, 12, 108–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, D. (2013). Women’s sports coverage: Online images of the 2008 Olympic games. Australian Journalism Review, 32(2), 89–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kane, M. J. (2011). Sex sells sex, not women’s sports. The Nation, August 15/22, pp. 28–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khomutova, A., & Channon, A. (2015). “Legends” in “lingerie”: Sexuality and athleticism in the 2013 Legends Football League US season. Sociology of Sport Journal, 32(2), 161–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kian, E. M. (2007). Gender in sports writing by the print media: An exploratory examination of writers’ experiences and attitudes. The SMART Journal, 4(1), 5–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kian, E. M., & Clavio, G. (2011). A comparison of online media and traditional newspaper coverage of the men’s and women’s U.S. Open tennis tournaments. Journal of Sports Media, 6(1), 55–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kian, E. M., Clavio, G., Vincent, J., & Shaw, S. D. (2011). Homophobic and sexist yet uncontested: Examining football fan postings on internet message boards. Journal of Homosexuality, 58(5), 680–699.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lebel, K., & Danylchuk, K. (2012). How tweet it is: A gendered analysis of professional tennis players’ self-presentation on Twitter. International Journal of Sport Communication, 5, 461–480.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lebel, K., & Danylchuk, K. (2014). Facing off on Twitter: A generation Y interpretation of professional athlete profile pictures. International Journal of Sport Communication, 7, 317–336.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonard, D. J. (2013). Eye candy and sex objects: Gender, race and sport on YouTube. In B. Hutchins & D. Rowe (Eds.), Digital media sport: Technology, power and culture in the network society (pp. 111–123). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lowes, M. D. (1999). Inside the sports pages: Work routines, professional ideologies, and the manufacture of sports news. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Loza, S. (2014). Hashtag feminism, #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, and the other #FemFuture. Ada 5. Retrieved 30 April 2016, from http://adanewmedia.org/2014/07/issue5-loza/

  • MacKay, S., & Dallaire, C. (2012). Skirtboarder net-a-narratives: Young women creating their own skateboarding (re)presentations. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 48(2), 171–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacKay, S., & Dallaire, C. (2013). Skirtboarders.com: Skateboarding women and self-formation as ethical subjects. Sociology of Sport Journal, 30, 173–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacNeill, M. (1996). Networks: An ethnography of CTV’s production of 1988 winter Olympic ice hockey tournament. Sociology of Sport Journal, 13, 103–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Markula, P. (Ed.). (2009). Olympic women and the media: International perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merrill, K., Bryant, A., Dolan, E., & Chang, S. (2015). The male gaze and online sports punditry: Reactions to the Ines Sainz controversy on the sports blogosphere. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 39(1), 40–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mewett, P., & Toffoletti, K. (2012). Introduction. In K. Toffoletti & P. Mewett (Eds.), Sport and its female fans (pp. 1–12). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olive, R. (2013). “Making friends with the neighbours”: Blogging as a research method. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 16(1), 71–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pavlidis, A., & Fullagar, S. (2012). Becoming roller derby grrrls: Exploring the gendered play of affect in mediate sport cultures. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 48(6), 673–688.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pegoraro, A. (2010). Look who’s talking – Athletes on Twitter: A case study. International Journal of Sport Communication, 3, 501–514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pope, S. (2013). “The love of my life”: The meaning and importance of sport for female fans. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 37(2), 176–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pope, S., & Kirk, D. (2014). The role of physical education and other formative experiences of three generations of female football fans. Sport, Education and Society, 19(2), 223–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reichart Smith, L., & Sanderson, J. (2015). I’m going to instragram it!: An analysis of athlete self-presentation on Instagram. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 59(2), 342–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott-Chapman, S. (2012). The gendering of sports news: An investigation into the production, content and reception of sports photographs of athletes in New Zealand newspapers. Unpublished PhD thesis, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silk, M. (2001). Together we’re one? The “place” of the nation in media representations of the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games. Sociology of Sport Journal, 18(3), 277–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silk, M., & Amis, J. (2000). Institutional pressures and the production of televised sport. Journal of Sport Management, 14(4), 267–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Theberge, N., & Cronk, A. (1986). Work routines in newspaper sports departments and the coverage of women’s sport. Sociology of Sport Journal, 3, 195–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thorpe, H. (2011). Snowboarding bodies in theory and practice. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thorpe, H. (2016). Action sports, social media, and new technologies: Towards a research agenda. Communication and Sport [Online First]. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479516638125

  • Thorpe, H., Toffoletti, K., & Bruce, T. (2017). Sportswomen and social media: Bringing third-wave feminism, postfeminism, and neoliberal feminism into conversation. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 41(5), 359–383.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thrift, S. C. (2014). #YesAllWomen as a feminist meme event. Feminist Media Studies, 14(6), 1090–1092.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toffoletti, K., & Mewett, P. (2012). Sport and its female fans. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuchman, G. (1978). Making news. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vann, P. (2014). Changing the game: The role of social media in overcoming old media’s attention deficit towards women’s sport. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 58(3), 438–455.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Von der Lippe, G. (2002). Media image: Sport, gender and national identities in five European countries. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 37, 371–395.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weigert, M. (2015). The rise of Instagram, an app that has hardly changed for 4 years. Meshedsociety.com . Retrieved from http://meshedsociety.com/the-rise-of-instagram-an-app-that-has-hardly-changed-for-4-years/

  • Wheaton, B. (2003). Lifestyle sports magazines and the discourses of sporting masculinity. In B. Benwell (Ed.), Masculinity and men’s lifestyle magazines (pp. 193–221). Keale: Sociological Review, Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wheaton, B., & Beal, B. (2003). “Keeping it real”: Subcultural media and the discourses of authenticity in alternative sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 38(2), 155–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolter, S. (2015a). A critical discourse analysis of espnW: Divergent dialogues and postfeminist conceptions of female fans and female athletes. International Journal of Sports Communication, 8(3), 345–370.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolter, S. (2015b). A quantitative analysis of photographs and articles on espnW: Positive progress for female athletes. Communication & Sport, 3(2), 168–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • WordPress. (2016). WordPress activity. WordPress.com . Retrieved from https://wordpress.com/activity/

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Bruce, T., Antunovic, D. (2018). Gender, Media and New Media Methods. In: Mansfield, L., Caudwell, J., Wheaton, B., Watson, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Feminism and Sport, Leisure and Physical Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53318-0_17

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53318-0_17

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-53317-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-53318-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics