The presence of female athletes and non-athletes on sports media Twitter

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyse "how much" and "what" coverage of female athletes there is on Twitter and, for the first time, to identify whether female athletes share space and stereotypes with female non-athletes. A multi-method approach (quantitative/qualitative) was used. Out of the 5.260 tweets posted in the general media (@ElPais_Deportes and @ABC_Deportes) and specialised media (@Marca and @MundoDeportivo) analysed in Spain, only 1.6% (N = 84) included tweets concerning female athletes. In addition, an analysis of the tweets posted confirmed that the probability of media coverage of female athletes in specialised media, 56.38% (N = 84), is similar to the probability of mention being made of a female non-athlete, which is 43.62% (N = 65). However, this is not the case for general media. A qualitative analysis confirmed that tweets in sports media cover failures, sanctions and the undervaluing of female athletes' achievements more than other stereotypes, whereas gender stereotypes and objectification/sexualisation characterize tweets concerning female non-athletes to a greater extent. In conclusion, female athletes suffer more discrimination in sports media ("how much"), whereas in terms of the "what", female non-athletes suffer the most sexist stereotypes in tweets.