A New Age for Media Coverage of Women's Sport? An Analysis of English Media Coverage of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup
Women’s Football in a Global, Professional Era
ISBN: 978-1-80071-053-5, eISBN: 978-1-80071-052-8
Publication date: 9 March 2023
Abstract
This chapter examines English print media coverage of the England national women's football (soccer) team during the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. It draws on a content analysis of five English national newspapers from 24 May to 14 August 2015. A wide body of research has demonstrated that women's sport continues to be greatly underrepresented in the media but our findings are important as they demonstrate that during this tournament, women's football received a significant amount of print media coverage and that this coverage was largely positive. We argue that we have entered a new age of media coverage of women's sport in the United Kingdom, with a shift towards greater gender equality, and position this within the context of emerging professionalisation in the sport.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Professor Tony Chapman, Professor Patricia Vertinsky, Dr Peter Millward, Dr Pippa Chapman and Professor Rose Barbour, Dr Alex Culvin and Dr Ali Bowes for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Citation
Petty, K. and Pope, S. (2023), "A New Age for Media Coverage of Women's Sport? An Analysis of English Media Coverage of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup", Culvin, A. and Bowes, A. (Ed.) Women’s Football in a Global, Professional Era (Emerald Studies in Sport and Gender), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 205-219. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-052-820230014
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023 by Emerald Publishing Limited