Jason Scherr
Gendered Language in the 2007 Men's and Women's Final Four: A Textual Analysis
While quantum strides have undoubtedly been made in society's acceptance of women's sports, it is still extremely clear that the media's coverage of female athletics is second to that of men. In order to pursue this topic, I completed a textual analysis of coverage of both the men's and women's 2007 Final Four NCAA basketball championship. The two events, taking place within one day of each other, provided a unique opportunity to explore how the language that is used within the broadcasts described gender and helped to reinforce gender stereotypes at the same time. More broadly, this paper is a recent investigation of the ramifications of the use of language in sports. The paper begins with a brief review of literature and the history of American women athletics. It then describes the methodology used to complete the analysis. Finally, it ends with a discussion and comparison of my research to similar studies which have already been completed. Overall, my findings suggest that while the use of gendered language in sport has decreased dramatically over the last seven years, there are still intractable problems that must be addressed.
