Actors in radio sports information: Cadena SER and Onda Cero

Abstract

Despite the consolidation of female role models after London 2012, the visibility of female athletes in the media remains limited. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the coverage of female athletes as protagonists, analyzing the longitudinal evolution of information and the gender gap in high-visibility events. To this end, a systematic observational methodology was applied to a sample of 787 sports reports broadcast on Cadena SER and Onda Cero bulletins between 2018 and 2021. Through stratified random sampling, 111 days coinciding with major international events (Olympic Games, World and European Championships) were selected, using a validated analysis instrument (Kappa < 0.94) to encode variables of gender, sport, medium, and identification of the protagonist in the headline. Among the results, it stands out that men are the protagonists of 80.18% of the information, compared to a scant 15.37% for women. An extreme dependence on extraordinary milestones is observed: while in the 2021 Olympic year the coverage of women reached 19.62%, in 2019 (Women's World Cup) it fell to 12.36%. Football accounts for 55.53% of the total coverage, with an 89.93% male presence. Likewise, a bias was detected in the headlines: women are mostly identified by their team (10.42%) rather than their own name (5.34%), unlike men, who enjoy greater individualization. These data confirm an editorial immobility in Spanish sports radio, where an androcentric structure persists in which women do not receive continuous coverage and their visibility is conditioned to Olympic success. The marked "soccer-centered agenda" and the lack of individual identity in sound narratives act as barriers that prevent the consolidation of female references.