Who Tells the Story of Sport and What Sport Is Told: Experiences and Perspectives According to TVE Women Journalists

Abstract

From an informative point of view, the Sports section has been traditionally associated with the masculine sphere. In recent years, the legal and social advances experienced in Spain have contributed to the visibility of a gender inequality that has not only had notable consequences in the informative approach to sports practiced by women but has also influenced the image of female journalists specialized in this area. In the Introduction of this study, a brief approach to the state of the art is presented, as well as the introduction of the responsibilities and obligations assumed by Televisión Española (TVE) – the medium selected for this analysis – in matters of equality. The objective of the study is to delve into the gender inequality detected in the Sports section of TVE based on the experience of five female journalists with extensive professional careers in the public television network. To this end, a qualitative methodology has been implemented through in-depth interviews conducted in person and/or virtually. After the analysis of the testimonies obtained, the results were structured into two content blocks. On the one hand, the first of these collects the experiences of the professionals consulted regarding their perception of labor (in)equality in the area. On the other hand, the second content block addresses the presence of female athletes in the informative coverage of sports, considering the gender perspective. Finally, the conclusions gather the advances and areas for improvement detected, as well as the limitations identified in the development of this research.