Scheduled for Research Consortium Social: Research Consortium Grant Findings and Top-Rated Posters, Wednesday, April 26, 2006, 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall Poster Area I


Internet Coverage of High School Athletic Web-Sites [Sociology]

Bryan Butler and Michael Sagas, Texas A&M University-College Station, College Station, TX

More women and girls are participating in high school and college athletics than ever before, however, media coverage of female athletes still lags behind that of male athletes. Many of the studies of gender and media have focused on differential coverage of college athletics (e.g., Sagas et al., 2000; Shifflett & Revelle, 1994), but even at the high school level, literature indicates that female athletes received less media coverage than males (Pederson & Whisenant, 2002). The purpose of this study was to continue to assess media coverage by gender at the high school level, but extend the literature by specifically assessing the coverage offered by individual high school websites. Previous studies have evaluated the amount of coverage offered by college websites and found greater coverage offered to male athletes than to female athletes (Sagas et al., 2000). We hypothesized a similar relationship to exist for the present study. Six Texas high schools and their associated boys and girls basketball teams were selected to participate in the study. An initial check of each site at the midpoint of the season evaluated six different items including the presence of coaches' names and rosters. Data from eight different dates were then collected throughout the remainder of the season for data relevant to results, length of coverage for press releases, and whether statistics were provided for games. Frequency analyses indicated that males received more coverage in three categories at the midpoint check, similar coverage in two categories, and girls received more coverage in one. Results from chi square analyses of the weekly assessments indicated that the boys received between 4.8% - 20.9% greater coverage across each category during the season (all p's < . 05). Results from the t-test comparing the length of coverage offered in weekly releases also indicated that the boys basketball teams received longer coverage in the number of words (M = 58.62, SD = 158.12) than the girls teams (M = 14.87, SD = 56.99); t (160) = 2.38, p < .05. The findings thus supported the study hypothesis and the recent literature related to media coverage in high school athletics. While future research is clearly needed beyond this exploratory study, the findings do point to potential Title IX violations by individual schools. Additional scholarly inquiry into gender equity issues in high schools seems merited based on our findings and Pennington's (2004) contention that Title IX complaints at high schools outnumber college complaints by five to one.
Keyword(s): athletics/sports, gender issues, sport management

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