Prof. Judy George's Analysis of Women's Sports Coverage Cited in Philadelphia Tribune

October 25, 2004

October 25, 2004, Greencastle, Ind. - A survey "conducted in 1999 by DePauw University['s] Judith George [seen at left] and Ashleigh Griffin, found that coverage of women's sports made up just 8.6 percent of the Indianapolis Star's sports coverage and just 6.7 percent of the sports coverage in the New York Times, notes Chris Murray in today's Philadelphia Tribune.

Murray writes of what she calls a disparity between coverage of women's and men's athletics. "Even though it was broadcast live on ESPN, media coverage of the Seattle Storm's victory over the Conneticut Sun to win the WNBA championship was as about as significant as the arrival of a new telephone book. In fact, as I was fleshing out this column, I had to go to WNBA.com to find out who won and when the game was played."

Murray's column continues, "On the sports pages and on the sports news shows, ESPN included, the story was not as much a priority as the NFL scores or Major League Baseball playoffs. It was played as a secondary story or 'Oh, by the way.' As I recall on the Sunday SportsCenter, the story didn't run until about 20 or 30 minutes in. While I like to think that I am pretty progressive, I am a complicit member of a predominantly male institution that does not have too much regard for women's athletics, except during certain events, such as the Grand Slam Tennis tour, the Olympics, the NCAA women's basketball tournament and a few select golf tournaments."

Read the entire text by clicking here.

Judy George is a professor of kinesiology at DePauw; Ashleigh Griffin is a 2000 graduate of the University. Learn more about her analysis of media coverage of women's sports here.

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