An examination of the coverage of Oregon22
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Date
2023
Authors
Heisen, Aaron
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
The World Athletics Championships Oregon22 marked the first World Championships held in the United States. Track and field officials hoped this event would help increase the support of track and field in the United States. These officials created marketing plans and expected American media covering Oregon22 to frontline this growth movement. This researcher set out to explore the coverage of Oregon22 to test if the coverage provided by American publications was equal for female and male athletes. Oregon22 was an “equal-participation event1” that had 24 events featuring female athletes and 24 events featuring male athletes. This researcher conducted an intensive descriptive analysis of 17 articles published by four prominent American publications — The New York Times, ESPN, NBC Sports, and The Los Angeles Times — as well as 11 articles published by the governing body’s website, World Athletics. The researcher chose to examine events featuring top American athletes, so that included the 100 meters, 400-meter hurdles, shot put, javelin, and pole vault. The researcher also set out to test if these four major U.S. publications and World Athletics employed a similar number of female and male journalists at Oregon22. In addition to examining the gender equity of the competitors and journalists at Oregon22, this researcher wanted to see if Oregon22 did help to increase the support of track and field in the United States. These findings could help to indicate that the quantity of coverage of female and male athletes on these four major American publications and World Athletics was equal. This research also found that American publications did not employ an equal number of female journalists, although World Athletics did. However, each of these findings are far from concrete as the researcher struggled to find articles covering these five events on the four major American publications. The researcher also found articles published by The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times discussing that lack of coverage of Oregon22, as well as track and field officials’ dismay with the support of casual sports fans. These findings led the researcher to believe that Oregon22 might not have increased the following of track and field in the United States.
Description
61 pages
Keywords
Journalism, Sports Media, Women's sports, Track and field, Gender equity