Media coverage and gender during the 2004 Olympics : the Norwegian mapping

Media coverage and Gender during the 2004 Olympic Games The Norwegian mapping. In this paper we will present results of a study, which is part of the international project: “The Global Women in Sports Media”. This project is an international comparative project conducting in–dept analyses of media coverage of the 2004 Olympic Games. The paper will focus on the Norwegian media coverage and highlight analyses which determine the amount of media coverage in terms of space, stories and images of female and male athletes during the Olympic Games in Athen. The results presented are based on the coverage in one newspaper. The newspaper chosen was the highest profiled newspaper on sport in Norway. The analyses include coverage from the period of one week before the Opening Ceremony to one week after the Closing Ceremony. This time frame allowed for the inclusion of stories leading up to the Games as well as for more evaluative stories that assess the overall impact of the event. The preliminary results seem to indicate that the coverage of female athletes during the Olympics compare to everyday levels of coverage increases extensively and particularly the days before and under the competitions of the best Norwegian athletes involved. Thusthe Olympics provide an opportunity for females to get a lot more media attention. On the other hand the analyses reveal that outside the Olympic coverage we find coverage of almost entirely men, focussing mainly on men’s football (soccer), and the amount of this coverage in terms of space is higher than the Olympic coverage.