Title IX's Policy Feedback Effects: A Corpus Based Study of News Media Coverage of Women in Sport
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Authors
Clarke, Emily
Issue Date
2024
Type
Thesis
Language
Keywords
Corpus , Policy Feedback , Title IX , Women In Sport
Alternative Title
Abstract
Since Title IX's passage, opportunities for women athletes to participate in sport have increased astronomically. As women's participation has grown, social norms surrounding women in sport have also shifted. Employing a corpus based discourse analysis of the past 50 years of sports news media, I explore how Title IX's adoption has affected gendered features in coverage. By replacing the names and pronouns in this corpus with generic tokens indicating the gender and role (coach or athlete) of said name, I create novel data on the quantity of coverage of women in sport over time. In addition to quantity, I compute measures of essentiality and homogeneity on a corpus scale. Most significantly, I find that the quantity of coverage of women in sport correlates with women's participation in the NCAA. The proportion of coverage focusing on both women athletes and coaches has increased consistently since at least 1967, however the rates of increase have differed. Increased coverage of women athletes has outpaced that of women coaches, paralleling the persistent gap in women in coaching positions. I also find persistent essentiality (more gendered features) in women's coverage but no evidence of large scale homogeneity. While more research, especially on the quality of gendered coverage is required, these findings support the premise that Title IX and its participation outcomes have had an effect on news media coverage. News media both reflects and affects social attitudes and these shifts have plausible policy feedback effects, particularly at an institutional level.