User:CAMARO/Major Assignment 5

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December 9, 2007 English 375 (Writing as Communication) Final Paper Research Analysis

                                      ‘Sex Sells’ 

Gender bias affiliates more in sports reporting than in any other news reporting

because of the factor of sports. The function of sports and women is based on the gender

boundaries that lead society to act out with gender bias’ in and around the context and

content of sports reporting. New England and in particular Boston, is known for there

sports and the fans that worship them. But in the Boston area it’s the sports reporters that

have truly caught the attention of the public. From NESN’s own Hazel Mae and Kathryn

Tappen to Tom Caron, NESN has proved that gender should play no role in reporting,

but does it matter to the viewers? Historically and as a ritual, men have always reported

on the sports, but since the late 70’s women have become increasingly popular spokes

person for America’s favorite past times. Between the New England Patriots and the

Boston Red Sox response from fans is to see an attractive woman report on their favorite

teams and past times which has clearly been accepted. Enough time has passed with

women in these roles to formulate an opinion on the key question: are female reporters

really better at reporting then men? Or is sex appeal the only reason that female sports

reporters popularity has taken off? Gender bias has become an effect on female sports

reporters due to society being uncomfortable with what can easily be explained as a

gender switch. A female sports reporter doing a man’s job.

To begin my research, I choose to research two different reports, one by a man

and one by a women sports reporter working in the media of television. I identified these

two interviews to be the cultural text. I wanted to compare the content with in these two

interviews by looking at things like, the way they dress, personality, body language and

how their general knowledge of the subject were different. I hoped that after comparing

the differences amongst them I could see the function that makes the audience conform to

these gender biases. I began with an interview done by NESN’s own Hazel Mae. In late

winter of 2006 Hazel Mae interviewed John Fitzgerald a director who was filming a

documentary about the sport of baseball in Ireland. While watching the 5 minute clip,

some things became very evident to me. Hazel Mae was dressed with very tight clothes

that exposed a lot of cleavage. She was very flirty while interviewing Fitzgerald. She

seemed to ask obvious questions such as why, where, and how his topic related to the city

of Boston but focused on considerable attention of his feelings and passion for the

subject. Fitzgerald never took his eyes off of Hazel. But despite the obvious sex appeal

that was being portrayed she did a wonderful job in making a topic that might be boring

to some viewers, interesting to all. Her questions were thorough and easily

understandable, but I have to ask myself, would a man have done it different or better?

(irishbaseballmovie.com-NESN interview (You Tube)

The next report I viewed was by Tom Caron in January 2007 with 3rd base men of the

Boston Red Sox Mike Lowell. Right away I discovered distinct differences between

Caron’s interview and Mae’s. This interview was strictly focused on Lowell, the camera

never panned to Caron, only his voice could be heard. Compared to Mae’s where she was

shot from the waist up and the viewer clearly had the impression of a dialogue or

conversation. Caron’s interview was much longer with more content. He asked personal

questions of Mike Lowell that only related to the “game”. Caron also spoke of his

personal transition. He was honest when he said, “Boston sports reporters focus their

opinions and reports on whether the players can make it here.” He focused on the past

and present proof of that for all of 7 minutes. The differences between these two

interviews are so great; it’s interesting to see how a gender bias from viewers may be

seen by the actions of the reporters themselves. Despite the quality of both reports

Caron’s was well defined and fact based where the viewer focused on Lowell’s response

versus Mae’s where the focus of the interviewer noticed Mae’s presence, appearance, and

purpose.

(www.Boston.com/Partners/worldnow/nesn/landingpage.html?ClipId=1169836&topVideocatNo=80767)

If it is all about attraction, how would most feminists react to this interesting time when

women are in fact making strides in a male dominated profession but maybe not for the

best reasons.

I then decided to browse the internet to see what a feminism site may say about

women vs. men sports reporters. As part of the context, I included sports and

entertainment into the jumbled jargon of gender bias. A site called Media Report to

Women said, “Men dominate the audience not only for sports…But women greatly

outnumber men among those who closely follow entertainment.” (Vol.34, No.3, Summer

2006) But then the question becomes, how do you classify entertainment? As a woman I

would classify sports as part of my daily entertainment. So if both men and women are

successful in sports reporting then why would a general census state that men would

rather watch a report by a women vs. a man even though the men’s report may be more

thorough?

I decided to attack our book assigned for my communication English class. I

found an article by Susan Douglas titled “Signs of Intelligent Life on TV”. The article

does align with my topic, but Douglas brings out some great points about

women on television. In her opening paragraph she says, “Douglas still finds the telltale

signs of cultural bias against women in such programs, especially a bias against strong

professional women.” (pg.270) I would define cultural bias as biases towards other

cultures central to social and human sciences. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_bias)

Some of these telltale signs are manners that exclude the understanding of a woman in a

professional standpoint in the context of a man’s “job”. In this statement it brings out

another estranged topic at hand. In women sports reporting, most of the staff is men.

However, these women hold a professional broadcasting job and are in competition with

their peers. A cultural bias on television, especially that against women reporting on

sports, which in the past was based on men and their physical abilities. For women to

relate to men must mean that she has learned and or grew up with the knowledge that is

embedded in a man’s mind. An example of this may be that when Tom Caron was

interviewing Mike Lowell he used sport jargon along with the history of Lowell himself

and the commentary about sport reporters and their opinions on athletes in Boston. Some

of this could have well been researched as it is the job of the reporter to have knowledge

about the one they are reporting on. However with Caron, it seemed to be natural, the

understanding of questions dealing with sports did not seem forced as it would be with

someone that would have to learn about sports background from the beginning as it was

with Mae. Douglas continues to say, “But in too many ways, the women take a backseat

to the boys.” This tends to be true when you relate the importance of the interview.

Meaning, if a Hazel Mae reports documentaries, but a Tom Caron interviews a

leading sports athlete, the competition between the importances of these two interviews is

a battle to be broadcasted to the nation by a man or women. In this respect I would say

no, but it is possible that a professional women sport broadcaster are still dealing with

bias’s related to the way they work, trying not to come across as tough, inflexible, or less

attractive. Douglas again points out,

“Watch out for female characters who “don’t want to talk about it,” who can’t say no, who don’t speak up. They make it even harder for the women who do speak their mind, who are, of course, depicted as “bitches.”(pg.272)

Women sports reporters can be looked at in two ways, as thorough and knowledgeable or

difficult, pushy and shrill. Perception is reality in some professions and this one clearly

undermines their intelligence. In any light, the audience looks at a sport

reporter as character, not as a real person. They are more or less playing a role in the

media that is based within the context they report in. But that does not allow the audience

to undermine their intelligence. From the outside, this is not seen by most viewers as they

don’t realize what women had to do to be in such a prominent position today. However,

the road to success was through the entertainment aspect of sports. This assured women a

place where their acceptance was based on appearance and the entertainment value they

could bring. What is most interesting is that with the rise in real women sports fans, the

movement toward a neutral gender approach to reporting is becoming more real.

Mostly evidently when you look at blog posts about the anchors, it is evident that some

people have a personal connection and about the individuals that report to them about

their favorite sports. One of these blog posts, which I can only assume is on wordpress

under the name, seanlmccarthy says,

“This is Hazel Mae. Maybe you've seen her on NESN. More and more, though, you're seeing her pop up everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Not only does Ms. Mae get a puff piece from her colleagues over at the Globe (which holds ownership in the sports cable channel), but also, now, apparently, Hazel is busting out all over the place in life-sized cardboard cutouts, shilling (not Schilling) for Coors Light and dressed in a softcore softball uni with NESN tag. What's that all about? And when can you remember seeing a TV personality -- anchor, reporter, sportscaster -- hawking items in such a manner?”

But have women influenced a change in the way men report?

“that some men have been humanized by the women’s movement, that they have become more nurturing…patriarchy is being altered by feminism.” (pg.274)

This can easily be shown while interviewing. Within the context of sport reporting,

starting in the late 70’s, the quest for a sports broadcaster to find the perfect sports

interview was based on the athletic performance. However, today when a male reporter

interviews an athlete he can’t help but ask a few personal questions, maybe to lighten

the mood, or maybe because when I women asks about the family before the interview

begins, the athlete is more willing to speak about his sport and at the same time seem

more interesting to the audience. It can only be said that men are now asking female

questions as well as co workers learning from each other. However as Douglas says,

feminism in the work place has altered the patriarchy of sports broadcasting. The

men themselves have stepped it up a notch, more or less with their own sex appeal. To be

accepted by all audiences one must have a certain sex appeal, look talk and walk the

part as the character we see them to be. So for my last examination of the different

gender biases in sport’s reporting I choose to look at article by Virginia L Ordman and

Dolf Zillmann in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues entitled, Women Sports

Reporters: Have they caught up? I believe this to be the clearest explanation of gender

biases with in sports reporting.

In the article Women Sports Reporters: Have the caught up? Ordman and

Zillmann’s article examines sport reporters competence and persuasiveness as a function

of their ‘gender’ in a communication medium. The idea of the investigation was to

research gender and persuasiveness as a measure of creditability in sports reporting with

four factors. Credibility, being a standard that Ordman produces, allows the audience not

only to believe in what you are saying, but to trust what you are saying. Ordman and

Zillmann where under the impression that these four factors influence the perception of

others including; gender of the communicator, gender of the respondent, gender of the

athletes in the reported sport, and communication medium. These four factors where

suppose to report whether competence and gender played a role in the persuasiveness of a

sports reporter. As Ordman and Zillman report,

“The analysis of the results of the experiment showed that female reporters were granted significantly less overall competence than were male reporter.” (Feb 94, Vol.18 Issue 1, pg.66-75)

I began to think that this has some relations to the idea that, boys play sports and girls

play with dolls. This function only meaning that women can paraphrase on sports but not

interview, research, and be on the front line of what they don’t know. After participating

in Women Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for 2 semesters it has

come to my attention that when women go against their gender norm ideas of

competency are brought up as probable cause as to why a women will not be taken as

seriously as a man would. Gender norms of course meaning, playing the role of a women

in a set standard, the housewife. Of course, none of this takes into account of other

genders including metro sexual that both have high levels of estrogen and testosterone in

their systems which allows feminine and masculine ideologies. Anatomical science is

part of a larger context because it effects how a female or male operate especially with in

a corporation such as NESN. With all the biological ideas put aside it does come to one

conclusion that Ordman and Zillmann discovered,

“Also Female reporters were perceived as less informed about sports generally and specifically. The conclusion is that gender is an asset for a man seeking acceptance as an expert reporter but liability for woman regardless of whether the reported sport involves men or women.” (Feb 94, Vol.18 Issue 1, pg.66-75) This last quote clearly utters the words of my findings and conclusion. Ordman and

Zillmann have discovered what I have been trying to define. Gender bias affiliates more

in sports reporting than in any other news reporting because of the factor of sports. Sports

in past history has been seen as a man’s knowledge, the fact that a women could

understand something that is second nature leaves not only co workers to be dismayed

but the audience as well. In numbers we have seen that an audience whether it be female

or male would rather see a woman reporting despite the fact that the knowledge is not as

concise as a report done by a man. Yet the audience outrages in blogs about the ‘bitchy’

and ‘no it all attitude’ that women exude in their reports. It seems that these biases do not

relate to the athlete whether she or he be male or female but yet the gender of the

reporters themselves and the liability and acceptance they have for women.

Works Cited Blogger. "Hazel Mae Overload." Popular Thinking by: seanlmccarthy. 10 Dec. 2007

   <http://popularthinking.blogspot.com/2006/07/hazel-mae-overload.html>. 

John Fitzgerald, and Andreas Viklund. "Interview with Hazel Mae." The Emerald Diamond: The True

   Story of the Irish National Baseball Team. 2 Dec. 2007
   <http://www.irishbaseballmovie.com/>. Link to you tube.com  
   Interview with NESN/ Hazel Mae 

Maasik, Sonia, Jack Solomon, and Susan Douglas. Signs Of Life In the USA "Signs of Intelligent Life

   on TV". Boston, MA.: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006. pg.270 

Media Report to Women. "News Gender Gap Distinct and Persistent, Pew Study Says:." Media Report to

   Women Covering all the Issues Concerning Women and Media 34.3 (Summer 2006). 

NESN. "NESN Red Sox Coverage with Mike Lowell." NESN: New England Sports Network. 14 Dec. 2007

   <http://www.Boston.com/Partners/worldnow/nesn/
   landingpage.html?ClipId=1169836&topVideocatNo=80767) >. 

Ordman, Virginia L, and Dolf Zillmann. "WOMEN SPORTS REPORTERS: HAVE THEY CAUGHT UP? ." Journal of

   Sport & Social Issues 18.1 (Feb. 1994): p66-75, 10p, 2 charts. 

Wikimedia Foundation Inc. "Cultural Bias." Wikipedia. 13 Dec. 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

   Cultural_bias>.