Female athletes and journalists in television sport news programmes...

Introduction: This research article examines the sport news programmes broadcast by the main television networks in Spain, in order to achieve two objectives: first, to analyse the representation and informative treatment of female athletes in comparison to their male counterparts and, second, to evaluate gender equality in sport journalism. Method: The study adopts a quantitative approach based on the content analysis technique. Results and conclusions: The results show a scarce presence of female athletes in comparison to their male counterparts, as well as the presence of certain journalistic mechanisms that subordinate women’s sport to men’s sport. Moreover, men also predominate in all roles involved in sport journalism. Therefore, the results suggest that television sport news programmes reinforce and perpetuate the idea of sport as a field made by and for men.