Women's Sports Coverage

While men and women are deemed equal in today’s world, this is still not true in the world of sports. Professional women sports are not given the coverage that professional men’s sports are given. The blog, “Keeping Score: The media and women’s sports” address the problems women face in the exposure in women team sports. The author of Keeping Score says that professional women sports do not receive the attention the deserve from both the public and the media. Furthermore, she says the media has a responsibility to increase the popularity of female sports. The author of the article stated, “If a media outlet ignores a local women’s sports team because they think no one cares, then many people will not care because they will see that the media outlet isn’t bothering to cover it” (Keeping Score, 1). The author continues on to discuss how the media has an obligation to report and garner interest in women’s team sports.

I disagree with this due to the fact that the reason women’s sports are not covered as much as men sports are is due to the fact that there is no interest in them. The media does not have a responsibility to increase the popularity of women’s sports, but has a responsibility to report what the masses are interested in. The media is a business, and it is their job to sell the most papers, get the best ratings, and make the most money. The author goes on to say about women’s sports, “No one will care if you suck. (Keeping Score, 1)” Yes, that is very true, because no one cares if you win either.

Women’s sports whether it is fair or unfair have an uphill battle to be even mentioned in the mainstream media. As an outsider, it may seem unfair that female sports is trumped by male sports in the media, however it is fair based on the popularity of each. When male sports started, it took years to garner the popularity that they boast right now. It is only fair that female sports undergo the same hardships. Society likes to watch the most talented athletes in the world, which is what male sports gives to the public.

This is not to take away from women’s sports (especially at the High School and College levels) as they are of high quality and are very competitive. However, professional women’s sports have an uphill battle to fight to garner not only the respect but also success in mainstream society. The current state of the economy also hurts the expansion of female sports. In fact, the Houston Comets, the most successful team in WNBA history have recently dissolved and are no longer a team due to the economic crunch. That would be like the Yankees or Lakers seizing to exist, which would not help their respectable sports.

It’s very sad that the most collegiate or professional women’s sports have been discussed about in the past few years was during the Don Imus and Rutgers Women’s basketball team incident. Is that what the author of this article wants, more negative publicity? I mean there is the idea that negative publicity is good publicity, and I’m sure after the Don Imus’ comments, a few more people tuned into a women’s basketball game.

Let the game evolve by itself, which is what every other professional sports organization has had to undergo. If the quality of the product is good enough, the masses will become interested. For example, the MMA has become a huge sport after starting with such a small fan base. The sports media does not have an obligation to progress the sport and they should only present information that the public will find interesting or what the public demands to hear. I hope that professional women’s sports become more popular in the future, however it will be a tough journey.