An Analysis of Sports Illustrated Feature Articles, 1954–1987

Abstract

All Sports Illustrated feature articles between 1954-1987 were examined with reference to sport, gender, race, role of the person featured, length of article, author, number of pictures, individuals pictured, and descriptive characteristics. The sporting achievements and lives of males were acclaimed in 90.8% of these 3,723 articles. Males authored 91.8% of the articles. Baseball (21.6%), football (16.2%), and basketball (13.1%) appeared most frequently, followed by boxing (7.5%), track and field (6.5%), and golf (4.7%). Blacks were featured in only 22.4% of the feature articles. Athletes (83.9%) and their achievements, rather than coaches, owners, or administrators, were the focus of these articles. As expected, pictures of the featured individuals predominated (mean of 3.01) over those of others (mean of .677). Articles about males and whites were longer on average than those about females and blacks (66 to 55 and 67 to 58 column inches, respectively), as were those for boxing (77), football (69), baseball (60), and men’s basketball (58). Written descriptors characterized females in blatantly sexist terms.

Sacrificing Dignity for Publicity: Content Analysis of Female and Male Athletes on “Sports Illustrated” and “ESPN the Magazine” Covers from 2012-2016

“…In a study on sports illustrated covers, Martin and McDonald (2012) found that a majority of females were portrayed in passive poses and were frequently sexualized, ultimately trivializing their athletic prowess and accomplishments. Since media serve to reflect and shape our culture (Kane, 1988), the main goal of the current study was to determine if pressures emanating from a plethora of research studies showing that female athletes are framed in ways which down play their athletic accomplishments (see Bishop, 2003;Duncan & Messner, 2005;Fink & Kensicki, 2002;Duncan, 1990;Hardin, Dodd, & Lauffer, 2006;Kuhn, 1985;Lumpkin & Williams, 1991;Messner & Cooky, 2010;Messner & Duncan, 2005), have improved. An exhaustive search of published literature on this subject clearly shows that up through the year 2012, sports media continue to sexualize and demean the treatment and athletic accomplishments of female athletes.…”

Las mujeres en la prensa deportiva: dos perfiles

“…Los medios de comunicación constituyen una ineludible fuente de información e influencia para la ciudadanía (Duncan, 1990;Lumpkin & Williams, 1991) lo que hace necesario revisar cómo está influyendo el discurso en la sociedad española actual, en la labor de promoción deportiva entre la población de cualquier edad, sexo y condición. El género como categoría de análisis remite a una noción de relación: relación de la mujer con su entorno, pero también como contraposición al hombre.…”

An Imperceptible Difference: Visual and Textual Constructions of Femininity in Sports Illustrated and Sports Illustrated for Women

“…This research effort evaluates one of the largest circulating women's sport magazines in the United States, Sports Illustrated for Women, and compares its editorial and photographic content to the largest Consistent with the theoretical perspectives presented above, past scholars have found women glaringly ignored or marginalized on the pages of Sports Illustrated (Bryant 1980;Kane & Greendorfer, 1994;Lumpkin & Williams, 1991;Ryan, 1994). As Kane (1988) noted, Sports Illustrated has been a "men's magazine".…”

“…Such an analysis of Sports Illustrated has produced consistent results. For example, in terms of article content, researchers have found that feature articles on female athletes tended to characterize them in blatantly sexist terms and articles about women were found to be nonperformance related while articles about men were found to be more task relevant (Kane, 1988;Kane & Parks, 1990;Lumpkin & Williams, 1991). Due to the pervasive gendered nature of sport (Bruce, 1998;Tuggle & Owen, 1999;Weiller & Higgs, 1999), we anticipate that this trend will continue despite the overwhelming success female athletes have experienced during recent Olympic and World Cup games.…”