Reflections on Communication and Sport

In this essay, Toni Bruce considers key cultural and social issues at play in the relationship between mediated sport and women. The treatment reflects on over 30 years of research and assesses not only central tendencies and changes in the way media covers women’s sporting events and achievements but also considers how this coverage interplays with women’s sense of their place in and relationship to sport. The essay opens with core arguments about the cultural importance of the communication and sport intermix. The second section reflects on the author’s personal and scholarly journey with sport, touching on key themes and concerns in a gender- and sport-focused research agenda. The focus section “On Women and Femininities” considers diverse research from across the globe using different theoretical and methodological approaches. Highlighted in this section are research programs that illuminate the media’s central tendencies in covering women’s sports and the cultural and professional barriers to meaningful change. The closing section of the article focuses on the prospects for and challenges to change in the cultural discourses that media rely upon in framing understandings of women and sport.