Were Women Really Underrepresented in Media Coverage of Summer Olympic Games (1984–2008)? An Invitation to Open a Methodological Discussion Regarding Sex Equity in Sports Media

Abstract

In previous literature, there is an important heterogeneity in how to proceed to determine whether media coverage of the Summer Olympics in relation to athletes' sex is equitable. Therefore, the aims of this study are to determine the most appropriate standards for this comparison and to use them to assess whether there are biases in the journalistic coverage of the Summer Games, using data from previous studies (n = 18). Results show that media coverage is far from being detrimental to women: They are either equitably represented (28.79%) or significantly overrepresented (46.97%). Indeed, all modalities combined, women are only underrepresented in 22.24% of cases. In most cases, these results significantly differ from those of previous research and stress the importance of and the need to take methodological precautions in this type of study.