“Changing the game”

Inequality in the media coverage for women sports and recent Mass media deviation
towards women sports

In partial fulfilment of
The requirements for the award of

POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS JOURNALISM AND CORPORATE

COMMUNICATION (2018 – 2019)

Submitted by Submitted to
Lakshay Tokas Mr Jai Karan Singh
188025

SRI GURU GOBIND SINGH COLLEGE OF COMMERCE

UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

PITAMPURA, NEW DELHI – 110034

1
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

IT IS IN PARTICULAR THAT I AM ACKNOWLEDGING MY SINCERE FEELING

TOWARDS MY MENTORS WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE ME THEIR TIME AND
EXPERIENCE.

THEY HAVE PROVIDED ME WITH THE VALUABLE GUIDANCE, SUSTAINED

EFFORTS AND FRIENDLY APPROACH. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFICULT TO
ACHIEVE THE RESULT IN SUCH A SHORT SPAN OF TIME WITHOUT THEIR HELP.

I DEEM IT MY DUTY TO RECORD MY GRATITUDE TOWARDS THE PROJECT

SUPERVISOR AND MENTOR MR. JAI KARAN SINGH WHO DEVOTED HIS
PRECIOUS TIME TO INTERACT, GUIDE AND GAVE ME THE RIGHT APPROACH
TO ACCOMPLISH THE TASK AND ALSO HELPED ME TO ENHANCE MY
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROJECT.

I AM ALSO THANKFUL TO MY UNIVERSITY, DELHI UNIVERSITY AND MY

COLLEGE, SRI GURU GOBIND SINGH COLLEGE OF COMMERCE, TO GIVE
STUDENTS OPPURTUNITY TO MAKE A RESEARCH PROJECT.

HEARTFELT THANKS TO MS. MEENU GUPTA (HOD DEPARTMENT FOR

THEIR CONSTANT GUIDANCE DURING MY PROJECT.

Name of Student: Lakshay Tokas

Roll No.: 188025

Course: DBJCC (2018 – 2019)

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 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the dissertation titled “Changing the game”

Inequality in the media coverage for women sports and recent Mass media deviation
towards women sports

Is submitted by LAKSHAY TOKAS, student of DBJCC (2nd Semester). It is an authentic

work carried out by her at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, DU under my
guidance.

The matter embodied in this project work has not been submitted earlier for the

award of any degree or diploma to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signature of Advisor

Mr Jai Karan Singh

(Project Advisor)

3
 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the research work titled “Changing the game”

Inequality in the media coverage for women sports and recent Mass media deviation
towards women sports

is a record of research done by me under guidance and supervision of Mr Jai

Karan Singh for the partial fulfilment of the requirement of Post-Graduation

Diploma in Business Journalism and Corporate Communication degree from Sri

Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce . This is my original work and this

work has not been submitted either in full or part to any other institution for the

award of any other Degree, Diploma or Title.

Lakshay Tokas

New Delhi

23/04/19

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 CONTENTS

S No Topic Page No
1 Acknowledgement 2
2 Certificate 3
3 Declaration 4

4 Table of Content 5
5 Abstract 6
6 Chapter-1: Introduction 7-9
7 Chapter-2: Literature Review 10-13
8 Chapter-3: Research Methodology 14-15
9 Findings 16
10 Role of Media 19
11 Conclusion and recommendation 28
12 Bibliography 30
13 References 31

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 Abstract

The Purpose of this research is to study the past trends of involvement of women in sports
nationally and the media coverage of the events and how these trends have now changed and
more importance is now being given to the women sports in the area of media coverage.

The study seeks to justify the research topic “Inequality in the media coverage for
women sports and recent Mass media deviation towards women sports.”

Many sports fans argue that woman’s sports are generally boring compared to men’s sports.
Simultaneously, women’s sports, compared to men’s sports, are rarely broadcasted in the
media. Therefore, can media be making sports fans believe that women’s sports are also
interesting and desirable by giving them more coverage and it can attract more and more
people by covering it in a much larger scale.

The coverage of female sports is lagging in the sporting world and when they are being
Broadcasted, the focus is more on the athlete’s femininity and sexuality instead of their
achievement in their career. Up till now, this issue has implied that Media companies
repeatedly underestimated female athletes and their accomplishments in their career and
instead highlighted sex difference during their coverage Media plays an important role when
it comes to constructing a perception into the society’s mind.

This is not limited to just television broadcast but also daily visual prints like the newspapers
or even magazines as well. Gender roles are different when it comes to the sporting world.
More than ever, women are beginning to be seen as equals in daily life, however, on the court
they are still seen as a female first and as an athlete second

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 Introduction

Women have been fighting for equality all throughout history. In sport, specifically, women
were once not permitted to watch sports and were told to do house chores. As the trends have
changed and after finally being permitted to participate in sports, women had to undergo
gender testing to make sure they were not men trying to cheat. To this day, female athletes
still experience significantly less and different media coverage than their male counterparts.

The media can play an active role in promoting women's equality in sport by increasing
coverage of women's accomplishments and successes - so as to help that forge forward
women's equality in sport.

Globally, media is considered to be the fourth pillar of democracy through which every
citizen is aware of what’s happening in the country. It ensures transparency in the working of
the other three pillars i.e. the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. With such a
significant role to play, it is unfortunate to witness that the fourth pillar is trembling in
relation to equal coverage to women’s and men’s sports negatively impacting the craze and
commercial value of the former. In the Indian context, where Right to Sports is considered by
the Apex court to be made as a Fundamental Right under Article 21A, redefining the duties
of media houses is the need of the hour. Nations have to look towards making laws which
legally binds networks in providing equal coverage to women’s sports otherwise any
International or National promotion strategy will remain tall claims.

While the broadcast of any sporting event is universal, the content is discriminatory majorly
focusing on men’s sport. Through comparing newspaper page space and airtime devoted to
men’s and women’s sport, the scanty coverage of women’s sport is a worldwide occurrence.
Even after producing global stars like MC Mary Kom, Serena Williams, Alex Morgan, etc.,
who have proved and continue to prove their astounding athletic abilities at the world stage,
women’s sports struggle with biased and nugatory media appraisal.

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Statement of the Problem

Gender equality has been an issue that society had been trying to figure out for the Longest
time. However, media coverage for female sports is still falling behind in the male
Dominated world. The ambivalence of media coverage when it comes to female sports are
high. The uncertainty of societal perceptions when it comes to watching female sports on
television creates a doubt for the media companies fearing that it might decrease the
percentage of their viewers.

Gender discrimination in Sports itself can be witnessed in various forms such as the gender
pay gap between the male and female athletes, the sexist attitude towards female
sportspersons or even sexual harassment incidents. No doubt facts and statistics endorse
this discrimination, but the key to understanding the reasons for such inequality is
essential.

BCCI’s 2018 retainer contracts for its senior men and women players exemplified the
problem of payouts, where the highest earners, i.e. ‘A’ grade women cricketers (Rs.50 L)
receive half the pay of the ‘C’ grade lowest earning men cricketers (Rs.1Cr).

Also, the men’s team have been offered a salary of 7 crores per annum for cricketers of
the ‘A+’ grade or ‘top performers’, leaving behind no such classification for the women’s
team. The women of the Indian Football team despite their current World ranking of 59 earn
between five to ten lakh rupees, while the men’s team draw around 70 lakhs per year. And
yes, the pinnacle sport of India, ‘Hockey’ also has a ten-fold wage gap between both its
teams.

Why is this important?

Girls and women in India are being denied opportunities for development at all levels due to
limited mobility, poor education, early marriages, high levels of violence, and a lack of
freedom to make decisions. Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable – only 29% study
until grade 10, almost half are married before the age of 18, and over 30% face domestic
violence.

How does sport help?

Sport can be used as a powerful tool to:

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Challenge gender norms

Given that sport is traditionally viewed as a male domain, the participation of girls breaks
deep-rooted attitudes held by boys, families and communities and challenges entrenched
gender stereotypes such as ‘girls cannot run freely outside the house’ and ‘girls cannot be
leaders’.

Provide access to resources

Community and institutional resources are often limited for girls. Sport programs can provide
them with access to mentors, strong female role models and the social support of a team or
group of peers. It can also give them access to public spaces, especially in societies where
their mobility is restricted.

Develop agency

Sport involves leadership roles such as captaincy, coaching and refereeing that can enhance
girls’ self-confidence. Improved perception of girls’ abilities amongst the girls themselves
and their families also enhances respect for one’s body, a sense of belongingness, ownership,
decision-making skills as well as a sense of identity beyond the domestic realm.

Where then, does India stand?

Well-designed sport programs have shown to prevent disease, increase school attendance and
build skills that promote employment. These benefits are especially important for adolescent
girls given that they are a particularly vulnerable group. Yet, sport as an organized mass-
based activity in India is almost absent, especially for women in sport. It is considered as
either luxury or leisure, leading to unstructured efforts to encourage participation. India lags
behind other countries not just in medals in international sport, but also in promoting a
culture of participation in sport.

What can you do to help?

To begin with, you can spark dialogues to convince those around you about the benefits of
sport. Learn about the sport initiatives in your community, and talk to your local NGOs about
what you know. You can also engage key influencers in your community to provide
playgrounds that are safe and accessible to every girl in your locality. Finally, you must
encourage every girl to come out to play, and by nurturing their talent, help some of them to
become champions and leaders of tomorrow

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 LITERATURE REVIEW

Women have been fighting for equality all throughout history. In sport, specifically, women
were once not permitted to watch sports and were told to do house chores.

Ever since the existence of media coverage both television and print coverage for sporting
events, the tendency has been biased towards male athletes. Due to the action of these media
companies, male athletes are deemed to be more important as compared to female athletes.
This issue does not only exist in the collegiate level but it is also demonstrated at the
professional sports level like the Olympic Games. In a study which reviewed
a newspaper where they would cover the Olympic Games Track and Field event from
1948 till 2004, it was demonstrated that the female athletes were underrepresented and also
conducted a visual study on Track and Field for 2004 Athens Summer Olympics which
showed that 66.3% of the coverage was focused on male athletes while 11
Female athletes received the remaining of 33.7% coverage. An approximate ratio of 2:1
coverage for male/female athletes.

 Gender disparity

Country’s poor performance on women’s empowerment and gender equality says it all. India
is ranked 132 out of 148 countries on Gender Inequality Index as per the 2013 Global Human
development Report. A girl who chooses a sport career, her struggles starts from home. Many
times we have experienced… When a small boy says, I want to become like MS Dhoni, then
parents will praise their son and will ask him to go out and play. But, when a small girl says, I
want to be Saina Nehwal or PV sindhu, parents will laugh and will ask her to either play with
her doll or do the house chores. However, there is no need to be pessimist. More and more
girls are opting sports these days though at slow pace and parents too are supporting them

 Lack of media coverage

Women sports are rarely covered by media and get very little broadcasting time compared to
men’s sports on various TV channels. Boys see number of their role models on TV every
hour, but are there any sport-woman shown on TV, whom a young girl will make her role
model?

Due Lack of media coverage, women sport-person find it difficult to get Sponsorer for them.

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 Sexual Harassment

Some Indian examples of sexism include that of former Indian cricketer, Snehal Pradhan, and
of a female gymnast in the Asian Games of 2014. Snehal Pradhan was a victim of explicit
sexism when she was disallowed to participate in several men’s cricket tournaments,
primarily due to the lack of regular women setups. And in the latter case of the female
gymnast, she was verbally harassed by two coaches (Manoj Rana & Chandan Pathak)
through their indecent comments on her clothing.

Indian sportswomen have also unsurprisingly been victims of sexual harassment, and one of
the most controversial cases was that of the Indian Hockey team. Thirty-one members of the
squad had filed sexual harassment charges against their coach, M.K. Kaushik. In another
case, Karnam Malleshwari, Sydney Games bronze winning weightlifter was criticised by P.T.
Usha for not bringing up the sexual harassment complaint at an earlier stage, the list of such
unfortunate incidents is endless. This problem is so deep-rooted and rotten within every level
of the sports system that many female athletes are reluctant to reach out to competent
authorities. Eventually, they end up accepting this ill environment as their fate. Leaving
behind the fact that women in this industry are regularly subject to sexist jibes and
harassment, they are neither afforded sufficient facilities/opportunities to enhance their sport
nor given an incentive to grow into the sport. In the SAF (South Asian Federation) games of
2016, the Indian relay women’s team was put up in a local institute 20 kilometres away from
the stadium while the men were accommodated in a close by the four-star hotel, or even
when the Sports Authority of India had ignored Dipa Karmakar’s request for her
physiotherapist before her vault finals in the Rio Olympics. The fact, that currently the All
India Football Federation (AIFF) pursued the participation of the men’s team for the
upcoming Asian games in Jakarta-Palembang more than the women’s, manifests the different
forms of discrimination faced.

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 Recent trends

In the last 3 years, there has been a lot of talk about Indian sportswomen making the nation
proud in world events in their respective sports and activities. In spite of them not getting
enough support from the fans, their families, friends or lack of money and most importantly
the media back home comparing them to male side the women have somehow managed to
steal the attention, thanks to their outstanding performances in International competitions like
recently held rio Olympics and commonwealth games and other various competitions and
events.

The T20 World Cup 2016 saw an unprecedented spike in Indian media coverage of
the women’s T20 matches. Social networking sites buzzed with posts about the women’s
match against Pakistan and slogans like Chak De India and Jeetay ga bhai jeetay
ga reverberated in the stadium, just like they do for any other match. Complementing this
spirit was the advertising campaign by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
featuring women cricketers and their male counterparts as equals.

In a country where sport has historically been associated with masculinity, it remains to be
seen whether we have reached a turning point for women’s sport, but the conversation around
it has certainly grown louder.

It all started at the Rio Olympics a couple of years ago when among 117 athletes that
represented the country - 63 men and 54 women - only 2 players went on to finish on the
podium, both of them women, namely Badminton sensation PV Sindhu and Wrestler Sakshi
Malik. A year later, the Indian Women's Cricket team reached the final of ICC Women’s
World Cup 2017 in England, falling agonizingly short in the summit clash.

This year the girls have continued with their remarkable displays on the global stage. Last
month 18-year-old sensation Hima Das from Assam made history as she became the 1st
Indian to win a Gold medal at a global track event and she became the sports ambassador of
Assam state promoting the sport and most importantly the women and encouraging them to
play more sports. The Women’s Hockey team reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup. PV
Sindhu reached the finals of the BWF World Championship in Nanjing but unfortunately
settled for a Silver medal.

The rise of the Indian women has not come out of the blue. In Tennis, Sania Mirza has been
winning Grand Slams and we have been watching her since we were small kids while in
Boxing, Mary Kom has been winning the continental and world titles regularly over the

12
course of her career. The Pullela Gopichand-coached Hyderabadi girls, Sindhu and Saina,
have been winning titles consistently, including Olympic medals at the last 2 Games. In
Cricket, Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami are the top run-getter and wicket taker. There have
been women from every part of the country who have won accolades and made the nation
proud. The fans should take notice of the fact that these girls are only in the limelight and get
the media attention when they win at global events but the journey to the top is full of
challenges.-taker respectively in One Day Internationals.

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RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY

Research methodology deals with the various methods of research. The purpose of the
research methodology is to describe the research procedure used in the research. Research
methodology overall includes the research design, data collection method and analysis
procedure which are used to explore the insight information form the research problem.

The purpose of this chapter was to review the methods used to review the topic mentioned
above. In order to gather valuable articles for this topic certain keywords and phrases were
used when searching the details.

The first keyword searched was gender inequality of sports media that resulted in 7 relevant
links. Next, a more detailed key phrase “media coverage” was entered which narrowed down
to 13 articles. For this research, 10 articles were used to help guide this paper. Art. When
selecting articles for use in this paper it was important that each article selected had valuable
information regarding the existence of media coverage of female athletes and how female
athletes were perceived in media. Specific criteria were used in order to be a part of the
literature review. All of the articles were based on the inequality of media coverage for
female sports. For this synthesis, a total number of 10 articles were used to compile data on
the topic regarding inequality treatments that were given to female athletes and how they
were perceived by society on media. Articles came from a variety of journals including The
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Women in Sport and Physical Activity
Journal, Sport in Society, Journal of Sport & Social Issue Volume 27, International Journal of
Sport Management Volume 13, International Journal of Sport Communication, and Body and
Society.

14
Within the 10 articles used for the literature review there was a total of 1,101 males and 613
females that were mentioned in the articles. Majority of the athletes that were mentioned in
the articles for this project were regarding those who competed in the Olympic Games.

15
 FINDINGS

Media companies play an important role when it comes to affecting the mindset of their
audiences. This issue should not be ignored by media companies as this might lead to the
decrease of participation of female in sports. They should also create an unbiased coverage
for the female athletes to help decrease the obstacles for female athletes and at the same time,
simply focus on being fair to all the athletes out there.

In recently held World Radio Day, Audrey Azoulay, the Director-General of UNESCO,
stated that merely 4% of sports media is dedicated to women’s sport. Unfortunately, this 4%
majorly covers relationship status, their attires in-competition and out-of-competition and
other “not-so-athletic” attributes of women athletes. Sociologists explain this bias as the by-
product of how a major section of the society portrays women that is vulnerable, dependable
and weak even after they have rightfully invaded sports which are considered as men’s
domain.

On the other hand, media corporations argue that the rationale underlying is two-fold,
audience preference and survival through revenue generation. The excuse of audience
preference was answered by the 2015 Women’s World Cup final between USA and Japan
which attracted a total viewership of 25.4 million viewers across the globe. With a record,
764 million in-home TV global viewership and 86 million views through computers and
mobile phones, the tournament are now second only to men’s World Cup in worldwide
viewership. The above-mentioned data makes women’s sports lucrative and takes care of the
issue of survival through “enormous” revenue generation.

But the issue is regarding the role of media and the duty and impact attached to it. The FIFA
Women’s football strategy is a prime example of the role of media and the impact it carries in
uplifting women’s sport. The exclusion of any women sportsperson in the 2018 Forbes list of
Highest Paid Athletes is another unfortunate example of biased media coverage and how it
affects commercial value of an athlete. Lack of coverage directly breeds commercial
downfall which upsets women athletes’ ability to earn on the field and through endorsements.

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MEDIA DESERVES THE BLAME FOR LACK OF ATTENTION ON
WOMEN’S SPORTS

 Only 17% of Viewers follow any women's sport and the lack of media coverage is
blamed for the lack of interest in women's sport

 When asked why women's sports often receive less attention, the most common
reason given is simply that the media doesn't give them enough airtime (42%).

 38% of viewers also said that it was because men's sports have greater tradition
and 25% believe it is because women's sports are too unknown among the wider
population. 23% believe that it is because women athletes are not as good as male
ones, while 19% say that the lack of attention is a result of sexism.

17
What is interesting about this decline is the way it seems to correlate with a kind of gender
respectability politics. “In 1989,” the study notes, “TV news shows devoted only 5% of their
time to women athletes. And when they did cover women, it often was commonly either in
the role of comical object of the sports anchor’s joke or as sexual object.”

The study reports that the decline in “insulting and humorously sexualized stories about
women athletes” is both a byproduct of the coverage decrease but has also caused the decline
in coverage. Women have been covered less, it seems, because sports announcers are no
longer allowed to turn them into sexual objects with impunity.

18
 How Mass Media is helping in promoting the women in sports

Media coverage of sporting activities performs a role in shaping attitudes of the society with
regards to women’s sports and giving them the equal coverage. This is largely attributed to
the thousands of hours or sports recording undertaken by the television network record each
year. But for many decades, men’s sports activities have dominated. The domineering nature
of men’s sports has led to women sports receiving little to no airplay; this is in large parts
attributed to the lack of equal coverage between the two genders. A recent survey in the
United States affirmed that women sports only received 1.6 percentage airplay across all
television networks as compared to 96.3 percentages given to men’s sports. This explains that
the position that the mass media is not doing enough when it comes to encouraging women
sports. The lack of adequate media coverage with respect to women sports has dealt a
negative impact on the growth of the game.

Social media is now an integral part of modern sports broadcasting, which combines old and
new media into a redefined and multidimensional experience for fans. The popularity of
social media has particular implications for professional women's sports due to this
convergence, and may be utilised by organisations to address some of the issues women's
sports face from a lack of traditional broadcast coverage.

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 Some major women sports personalities

1. Sania Mirza
She recently won a doubles grand slam title at Wimbledon and two others titles this
year with Martina Hingis establishes her as the most dominant female athlete of our
country.
She is currently at a career-best No 1 WTA rank in doubles, the first Indian female to
achieve the feat. Sania, who is set to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna for her
exploits in women's tennis.

2. Saina Nehwal
Saina Nehwal is the first women in India's sporting history to reach the World No 1
rank in Badminton.
She has won over 23 international titles. She is the first Indian badminton player to
have won an Olympic medal, along with being the only Indian to have won the BWF
World Junior Championships or to have reached to the final of the BWF World
Championships.

3. MC Mary Kom
Mary Kom is an Indian Olympic boxer from Manipur. She is the only woman to
become World Amateur Boxing champion for a record six times, and the only woman
boxer to have won a medal in each one of the seven world championships.
Nicknamed Magnificent Mary, she is the only Indian woman boxer to have qualified
for the 2012 Summer Olympics, competing in the flyweight (51 kg) category and
winning the bronze medal. She had also been ranked as No. 1 AIBA World Women's.
She became the first Indian woman boxer to get a Gold Medal in the Asian Games in
2014 at Incheon, South Korea and is the first Indian woman boxer to win gold at the
2018 Commonwealth Games.

4. PV Sindhu
Pusarla Venkata Sindhu is an Indian professional badminton player. She became the
first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal, and one of the two Indian

20
 badminton players to ever win an Olympic medal – the other being Saina Nehwal.
Sindhu won silver in Women's singles at Commonwealth Games 2018. She was also a
silver medallist at the 2017 BWF World Championships and 2018 BWF World
Championships consecutively. She was also a silver medallist in Asian Games 2018,
which were held in Indonesia.
Her silver medal win in the women's singles event of the 2016 Summer Olympics
made her the first Indian shuttler to reach the final of an Olympics badminton event
and the youngest Indian to make a podium finish in an individual event at the
Olympics.

5. Mithali Raj
Mithali Dorai Raj (born 3 December 1982) is an Indian cricketer and the captain of
the Indian women's cricket team in Tests and ODI.Often regarded as one of the
greatest batswomen to have ever played the game, she is the highest run-scorer in
women's international cricket and the only female cricketer to surpass the 6,000 run
mark in WODIs.[3][4] She is the first player to score seven consecutive 50s in
ODIs.[5] Raj also holds the record for most half-centuries in WODIs. In June 2018
during the 2018 Women's Twenty20 Asia Cup, she became the first player from India
(either male or female) to score 2000 runs in T20Is, and also became the first woman
cricketer to reach 2000 WT20I runs.

Raj is the only player (male or female) to have captained India in more than one ICC
ODI World Cup final, doing so twice in 2005 and 2017.

6. Geeta Phogat
Geeta Phogat, India's first woman wrestler to qualify for the Olympics, in 2012, said
she and others have had to overcome hurdles men simply do not face. "When I started
wrestling my family had to face a lot of criticism from community elders," Phogat,
26, said. She won the gold in freestyle wrestling at the Commonwealth Wrestling
Championship of 2009. She became the first Indian woman to bring home the
Commonwealth Games wrestling gold in 2010. She achieved this amazing feat in the
freestyle 55 kg. It also made her the celebrated golden girl of India.

21
 FILMS

Bollywood has played a small role in promoting Indian women in sports through
movies and can do so much more.
Indian women have been slowly but steadily building their reputation as skilled
sportsperson on the international platform and bringing medals to our country. A few
well-known names include Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom.
Personally I feel that our country does not give much importance to sports and the
administration and management of this particular field is in shambles. As a country,
we have immense passion for cricket, but even in this game the women’s team does
not get the kind of exposure they should. Sports and especially women in sports are
not given the kind of credence they should.

1. Chak De! India

An iconic movie on the national women’s Hockey team, Chak De India was a
major hit when it released. The movie follows the story of Kabir Khan, a hockey
player, who was branded as a traitor when he lost an important match. While
grappling with his personal demons, he also takes up the mantle to coach the
Indian hockey team of women .Based on a true story, the movie shows how a
ragged bunch of girls from the economically weaker strata of society unite
because of their passion for sports. Each girl has her own story and her own
battles yet they put their issues behind and get together to emerge as world
champions.

2. Mary Kom
A biopic on the life of the Olympic medal winner, the movie traces the trials and
tribulations of the young boxing champion – Mary Kom. The movie also exposes
the sorry state of sports administration in our country. It displays the grim
determination and courage displayed by the protagonist which makes her a winner
despite various obstacles and personal tragedies. Mary Kom is an inspiration for
many young athletes of our country and this movie shows the reason for it.

22
3. Dangal
Aamir Khan’s Dangal is based on the Phogat family, telling the story of Mahavir
Singh Phogat, a wrestler, who trains his daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita
Kumari to become India's first world-class female wrestlers.
Mahavir decided to train his daughters in the year 2000, when Indian weightlifter
Karnam Maleshwari became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal and
he was also influenced by his own coach, Chandgi Ram, whose centre (based in
Delhi) was one of India’s few places for women wrestlers.

Phogat eventually quit his job with the Haryana State Electricity Board and began
training his daughters, Geeta and Babita, who used to practice with boys since
there were no other girls to practice with. This, of course, became a talking point
in the village and he was severely criticized; but Mahavir did not budge. He later
took them to local dangals where, unfortunately, people didn’t allow them to fight
due to their conservative world-view. The tough taskmaster eventually took them
to the Sports Authority of India Centre in Sonipat where they could train further.

23
 ADVERTISEMENT CAMPAIGNS

1. Nike India, the sportswear brand has launched a new music video aimed at girls,
urging them to go out and play a sport. The video, which features Nike’s brand
ambassador Deepika Padukone and several female athletes, stands for girl power
and marks a departure from past women-centric sports advertising in India.
"Da Da Ding" finds its stars practicing some of the most popular sports in India—
cricket, boxing, badminton, and field hockey. The spot sets them not in traditional
arenas, but on crowded streets and abandoned urban blocks.
It features sportswomen like
Rani rampal
Joshna chinnapa
Namrata purohit
Jyoti Ann burret
Smirit mandhana
Subhalakshmi Sharma
Ishita malviya
Harmanpreet bhullar
Tanvie Hans
Shweta hakke

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2. Blush, the digital channel from the stables of the digital media company Culture
Machine, has along with Unilever's personal care brand Dove, launched a new
digital film. Titled 'Is that You?', the video, which features Indian women athletes,
has been launched under the new campaign #ChangeTheRhyme.
The famous nursery rhyme 'Chubby Cheeks, Rosy Lips...' is used as the
background score for the video
Capturing the efforts and dedication of fine sportswomen in this video with the
cheeky rhyme playing in background, Dove captures the essence of excellence.
Culture Machine’s digital channel Blush said, “Every woman is a hero who needs
to unleash her inner fighter to win over the world. Through this video, we aspire
to break up the monopoly that ‘light’ skin, ‘coloured’ eyes, ‘lustrous’ hair etc. are
supposed to have over our sense of value.

3. Star Sports #CheckOutMyGame

Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmakar, Mary Kom and PV Sindhu - the leading
sportswomen of India - come together in this commercial by Star Sports.

Sports have been viewed as a male bastion for far too long. But the stellar
performances by our sportswomen at the Olympics, women's world cup, and
various individual championships bear testimony to the changing times.

They have conquered the ring, the pitch, the tracks and the court. The ad is an ode
to all the Indian sportswomen saluting their strive, their will, their determination
and power.

The focus of the ad is to convey the message that women are more than just a
pretty face. Stop and check out the records she has broken, the medals she has
won as it is her achievements that make her the person she is today.

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4. JSW GROUP: During the Rio Olympics 2018, JSW Group launched a new brand
campaign titled ‘Rukna Nahi Hai’. As a tribute to the sporting spirit of the Indian
women athletes, the campaign cheers the Indian contingent who were chosen to
represent the nation at the sporting event. The two-minute long film talks about
the athletes’ journey, challenges, opportunities and their undying spirit of
perseverance.

5. JSW ANOTHER CAMPAIGN: Last year, the brand launched their campaign
titled ‘Will of Steel’ featuring real life sportsperson Geeta Phogat who is the first
Indian woman to win a Gold medal in wrestling at the Delhi Commonwealth
Games in 2010. The ad, conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather, showed how Phogat
overcame societal norms, busted several myths, fought severe resistance and
wrestled her way to success, all because she had inner strength and the will of
steel to achieve her dreams. It saluted her inner strength. The TVC highlighted
how Phogat fought against patriarchy and societal pressure and still managed to
emerge as the winner because she had the inner strength to do so. The campaign
won several accolades as award shows.

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 Advertisement endorsement

Saina Nehwal
Saina Nehwal is the highest paid sportsperson outside cricket. She has bagged
multi-crore deals with Kellogg’s, Edelweiss Group, etc. Saina signed an
endorsement deal worth Rs 25 crore with IOS Sports and Entertainment. She
signed around Rs 4 crore deal with Edelweiss Group

Sania Mirza
As per the 2015 Forbes Celeb list, Sania's earnings from endorsements and BWF
World Superseries stood at Rs 13.25 crore. Mirza is the brand ambassador of
Adidas, Wilson, FabB, Vencobb Chicken and now Telangana.

P V Sindhu
As per a report in Times of India, Olympic silver medallist badminton player PV
Sindhu bagged an Rs 50 crore endorsement deal for three years from various
companies.

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 Conclusions and Recommendations

Female athletes have continually received less coverage than males despite major
societal alterations, specifically the passing of many acts which led to increased
numbers of women's sport opportunities and participants nationwide. Print
journalism has been slow to adapt to the ever-growing number of female athletes
and has lagged in the quantity and quality of female depiction in the media.
Framing of the media has led to journalists deciding what the public will be able
to obtain from certain media outlets. Because reporters and editors control what
and how athletes are depicted on magazine covers, they heavily influence the
minds of readers. The inadequate portrayal of female athletes on the fronts of
magazines needs to be further evaluated in order for more progress to be made for
women in sports.

 Media companies play an important role when it comes to affecting the mind-
set of their audiences. This issue should not be ignored by media companies as
this might lead to the decrease of participation of female in sports. They
should also create an unbiased coverage for the female athletes to help
decrease the obstacles for female athletes and at the same time, simply focus
on being fair to all the athletes out there.

 One way to improve women’s representation in spoprts media is through

commercials and sponsorships. There has been some progress in this area, but
commercials representing men still remains mainly male centric.

 TV companies should be focused on supporting both male and female’s

participation. By not providing for the women who do have an interest in
watching women’s sports leagues, the companies are missing out on money
that could be made from this kind of sport coverage. These TV should produce
a “Sister” company for women’s sports coverage, it would benefit them
financially and also make a great impact on young girls and increase their
interest in sports.

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The purpose of this chapter was to review the conclusion that are found that are
related to the study of why there is an existence of gender inequality when it
comes to media coverage and how female athletes are perceived in media and how
the things have finally started to change and more and more representation is
given to the female athletes now by providing them endorsements and more media
coverage.

Recommendation

In relation to the articles that were reviewed in the project, there are multiple
recommendations for future researchers to help collect more valuable data. The
data for the research paper were collected through media broadcasting and print
media. Future researchers could conduct a survey of various sportswriters and
sport reporters so that they could understand deeper reasoning of their selective
athletes to highlight in their coverage. Moreover, future researchers could also set
up a survey or interview with sports fans to determine their level of interest when
it comes watching and supporting women sports on media coverage.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thesportjournal.org

Ukessays.com

Tandfonline.com

Juntendo.ac.jp

Bartleby.ac/ Essays

Timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Womenswomen.in

Gurumavin.com

CNBC.com

Sportskeeda.com

Womeninsport.org

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 REFERENCES

 Adams, T., & Tuggle, C. A. (2004). ESPN’s SportsCenter and Coverage of

Women’s Athletics:

“It’s a Boys’ Club. ” Mass Communication and Society”

 Travis scheadler, Audrey wagstaff,( 2018 ) The sportjournal.org

 Cooky, C., Messner, M., & Hextrum, R. H. (2013). Women Play Sport, But
Not on TV:

 Scholars research library (2012) , the role of mass media in women’s sport

 Daniels, E. A., & Wartena, H. (2011). Athletes or Sex Symbol: What Boys
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 Universal Journal of Educational research, (2019), An investigation of attitude

of sports media towards women’s sports.

 Shaller, Jessica. “Female athletes in the media: Under representation and

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 Media Coverage for Female Sports ( 2018 ): A Review of Literature Hsu Zen
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