Fairer, Not Equal: Elite Professional Female Athletes And Women's Sports Media Coverage

Objective: This study examines the perceptions held by elite professional female athletes in regards to the media coverage of women’s sports and explores how these athletes view themselves as members of society. Method: Data were collected by individual semistructured interviews between the primary researcher and 12 members of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). A qualitative descriptive thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: The athletes interviewed indicated being an elite professional female athlete has its challenges and sacrifices, but agreed they hold an important role in attempting to change society’s view of female athletes and women’s sports. Conclusions: The coverage of women’s sports by media organizations, in general, is low and the athletes interviewed for this study feel those in society do not see them as athletes.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sport and Fitness Administration

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Daly, Raymond

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Cottingham, Michael

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Walsh, David
• Pearson, Demetrius
• Kwan, Samantha

• Female athletes
• Women's sports
• Media coverage
• Media
• Mass communication

Statement dc:rights

• The author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10657/1759

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/1759