Television commentary on women's and men's Australian Rules football: A thematic analysis

Media representation of sport and gender

Across a range of sports, and over a number of years, media commentary about athletes’ actions and characteristics has been shown to draw on gender stereotypes (e.g. Billings et al., 2009; Bissell, 2006; Koivula, 1999; Musto et al., 2017; Ponterotto, 2014; Quayle et al., 2019; Yip, 2016). Although a decline in overtly sexist representation has been observed in recent years (Lumby et al., 2010; MacArthur et al., 2016; Paterson and Matzelle, 2014; Petty and Pope, 2019; Wolter, 2020), male and female athletes continue to be described in different ways. Reviewing the research on media coverage of sportswomen, Bruce (2016: 372) identified ‘a diversity of representations’, that draw on ‘contradictory discourses’. Her conclusion is consistent with earlier findings that media coverage of female athletes tends to be ‘ambivalent’, containing a variety of descriptions and narratives that both conform to, and contradict, gender stereotypes (Hellborg and Hedenborg, 2015; Wensing and Bruce, 2003). Female athletes are now less frequently represented as sexual objects for example, but there is evidence that they continue to be described in terms of conventional roles as wives, girlfriends and mothers (Biscomb and Matheson, 2019; Cooky et al., 2013; Cooky et al., 2015; Jones, 2013). Female athletes are also reported to be more likely to be described in terms of their appearance whereas for male athletes, the descriptive emphasis is on physicality and athletic ability (Kian et al., 2013). More broadly, Musto et al. (2017) proposed the concept of ‘gender-bland sexism’ to describe patterns in media representation that have emerged with women's increasing movement into previously male-dominated sports. They argued that women's sporting achievements are typically described in ways that are lacking in the ‘action-packed, humorous language, lavish compliments, and dominant descriptors routinely found in men's sports commentary’ (Musto et al. 2017: 590). This more subtle form of gendered description in sport is argued to marginalize women, serving to normalize the idea of men's sport as inherently superior, and promoting male hegemony in the sports arena (Bruce, 2016).

A substantial number of studies on media representation of men's and women's sport have focused on the Olympic Games, where female athletes typically receive significantly more exposure than in other mainstream sports media presentations, and traditional gender framings are argued to be less likely to occur (Angelini et al., 2012; Godoy-Pressland, 2014; Kian et al., 2013). Xu et al.’s (2020) content analysis of Chinese TV broadcasting of the 2018 Winter Olympics supported this claim, identifying few differences in descriptions of male and female athletes. Moreover, analysis of the Australian TV broadcast of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games (Xu et al., 2019) also reported differences that were somewhat inconsistent with previously described gender stereotypes. Here, women were more likely to be described as succeeding because of their athletic skill; and men because of their experience. Men's failures were more likely than those of women to be described as due to lack of athletic skill or consonance (i.e. good luck, or things ‘coming together’). Male athletes were also more likely to be described in terms of their personality (as outgoing/extroverted), whereas female Olympic competitors received proportionately more comments about their emotions and background.

Patterns reported in analyses of earlier Olympic competitions are also somewhat inconsistent. MacArthur et al.’s (2016) examination of the American (NBC) 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic broadcast, for example, also reported that women were more likely than men to have their emotions described; however, women's successes were more frequently attributed to factors like experience, concentration and composure. Similar patterns were not reported by Angelini et al. (2012) in their analysis of NBC's broadcast of the 2010 Winter Games, however. Here, men were more likely than women to be portrayed as succeeding because of their experience (in line with Xu et al.’s 2019 finding), whereas courage was more often described as the reason for women's success, and lack of commitment for their failures. Likewise, Jones (2013) reported that women's failures were more often attributed, in online coverage of the 2000 and 2008 Summer Olympic Games by national public broadcasters in Australia, Great Britain, Canada and New Zealand, to lack of commitment and lack of courage, or poor judgment, than were men's failures, which were attributed to lack of athletic skill. In the American (NBC) telecast of the 2000 Games, Billings and Eastman (2002) also reported that male competitors were much more likely than female to have their successes attributed to athletic skill and commitment.

In summary, findings for media reporting on women and men competing in the Olympic Games are somewhat inconsistent, most likely as a result of the range of different sports involved, as well as because of the specific nature of the Olympic competition, in which issues of national identity are typically highlighted, and may take precedence in reporting, over gender. Ravel and Gareau’s (2016) analysis of online coverage of the French women's national football (soccer) team across two major global competitions provides some insight in this regard. They noted a shift from more (2011 World Cup) to less (2012 Olympic Games) gendered reporting. Citing Gee (2009: 53), who argued that contact sports such as rugby, football and boxing are regarded as masculine and as ‘aesthetically unpleasing’ when played by women, they argued that it was only when the women's team succeeded in the World Cup that its coverage as a potential medal-contender in the subsequent Olympics became more football-centred than concerned with the gender/femininity of the players.

Analyses of media reporting on women playing traditionally male sports have also produced somewhat inconsistent findings. For example, a content analysis of American newspaper reporting on the 1999 Women’s World Cup Soccer Championship (Christopherson et al., 2002) reported that female players were described in terms of their athleticism, but also in terms of their femininity and heterosexual appeal. Likewise, a more recent analysis by Pfister (2015) of German newspaper coverage of the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup demonstrated evidence of feminizing and sexualising descriptive frames. By contrast, a content analysis of British print media representations of England's performance at the 2009 Women's Cricket World Cup (Biscomb and Griggs, 2013) showed no particular emphasis on female stereotypes or on players’ heterosexuality, nor was there evidence of infantilisation of female players, or a focus on non-sports-related aspects of their lives. Comparisons with male cricket performance were common, however. This aspect was also noted by Black and Fielding-Lloyd (2019) who examined English press coverage of the English team in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. They argued that the women's team, and the game, were repeatedly represented in terms of a male standard in ways that served to position men's football as superior. Caple et al.’s (2011) study of the TV broadcast of the Australian national soccer team in the 2010 Women's Asian Cup concluded somewhat differently, in line with Briscomb and Griggs’ (2013) findings for cricket, that gender stereotyping in descriptions of the women's team was rare.

Media commentary has also been examined in sports for which there is a long history of participation by women at both community and professional levels. Initial studies of Professional Golf Association (PGA) and Ladies PGA telecasts, for example, reported marked differences in the way male and female golfers were portrayed. In a content analysis of 2003 televised tournaments, Billings et al. (2005) reported that female golfers were more likely to be portrayed as succeeding because of their strength, and as failing because they lacked athletic ability. By contrast, male golfers received more comments about their concentration and commitment in explanations for both their success and failure. Male golfers were also more likely to be described in terms of their personality (i.e. as extroverted or introverted), as well as receiving more comments about their physical appearance. In a subsequent content analysis of American (CBS) TV coverage of Annika Sorenstam's performance in a men's 2003 PGA event in which she had been invited to play (Billings et al., 2006), findings were more consistent with previous research that showed stereotyped depictions. Sorenstam was described as succeeding for reasons other than her athletic skills; she received more comments about her composure and courage, while male professionals received more comments about their touch or finesse, particularly in descriptions of their failures. A related study by Bowes and Kitching (2020), involving thematic analysis of British and Irish print media representations of five female professional golfers competing in a men's 2018 tour event, showed a different pattern of results, however. Here, female golfers were typically represented as legitimate, skilful, successful athletes. This finding for a mixed-sex competition is in line with recent studies of British and Australian media reporting of female athletes (Biscomb and Matheson, 2019; Lumby et al., 2010) and for English print media coverage of the national women's soccer team (Petty and Pope, 2019), that have all noted a shift away from reporting on the appearance of female athletes to a concern with skill and performance.

Studies focussing on tennis, another individual sport that has a long history of women's involvement, have, however, produced less support for the notion of change in media representations. Vincent’s (2004) content analysis of British newspaper coverage of players in the 2000 Wimbledon Champion-ships found evidence of trivialization and sexual innuendo in descriptions of female players, in comparison to an emphasis on athleticism for male players. Extending this study of British newspaper coverage, Crossman et al. (2007) compared how selected broadsheet newspapers from the UK, the US and Canada covered female and male tennis players in the 2004 Wimbledon Championships. Male players were found to receive significantly more total coverage than female players. Ponterotto’s (2014) discourse analysis of English and Italian press reporting of tennis player, Maria Sharapova found similar patterns to Vincent (2004), describing evidence of consistent trivialising and eroticising descriptive tropes. Yip’s (2016) content analysis of online media representations of the 2015 Australian Open tennis tournament showed how female players were portrayed more negatively than male, with descriptions focusing on women's athletic weaknesses, negative aspects of their skills, and features such as appearance and personal relationships. Male players, by comparison, were more often described in ways that focused on positive features of their athleticism, power and skill.

A study of televised commentary during the finals of the 2015 Australian Open tournament (Quayle, et al., 2019) likewise reported that commentary on men's play typically involved reference to players’ physical characteristics, and also routinely drew on metaphors of combat and mythical contest. An absence of talk about male tennis players’ interpersonal relationships and off-court interests contrasted with commentary for women that involved frequent reference to off-court relationships and interests. Description of women's play that focused on aesthetic qualities (e.g. ‘lovely’, ‘beautiful’) was also noted, as was an absence of talk about female players’ bodies or physicality. Quayle et al. argued that the omission or repression of specific talk by commentators in relation to female players’ bodies or physical characteristics, in combination with a focus on aesthetic descriptions, could be explained by invoking Billig’s (1998) concept of ‘stereotyping by omission’. In discursive terms, gender difference can be seen as being produced and reinforced, in commentary, as much by what is not said about female athletes in comparison to male athletes (and vice-versa). In the words of Quayle et al. (2019: 6): ‘If announcers consistently speak about male athletes’ physical strength and athletic ability, and then omit these dimensions when speaking about women, audiences can infer that women do not possess these traits, or that they are not important to women's sports’.

In this paper, we draw on the qualitative approach to coding and thematic analysis of televised commentary used by Quayle et al. (2019) in order to catalogue forms of representation applied to men's and women's Australian Rules football. Unlike football, tennis is a sport in which men and women compete in the same tournaments, and for which there have been well-publicised measures to ensure equality at the highest levels (similar prize money and broadcast media time). Despite such efforts, according to Quayle et al. (2019: 3), ‘discourse surrounding professional tennis remains substantially gendered’. The question of whether similar gendered patterns of media reporting would be seen in relation to the team sport of Australian Rules football – that, traditionally, has been played only by men – was the point of departure for the present comparison of televised commentary in men's and women's matches. Related questions concerned the extent to which commentary about men's and women's football showed similarity to patterns identified for other traditionally masculine team sports, as well as to media reporting of male and female Olympic competitors.

Australian Rules football has a history that is deeply connected to ideals of hegemonic masculinity in Australia. The physical aggression and toughness that are the hallmarks of the code are argued to be culturally sedimented and normalized as key aspects of masculine self-identity (Burgess et al., 2003; Krane, 2001; Messner, 1988). A range of negative social consequences associated with the reproduction of these hegemonic norms in Australian Rules football have been investigated: alcohol consumption (Hart, 2016; Nicholson et al., 2014), domestic and sexual violence (Corboz et al., 2016; Kearney, 2012), mental and physical strain relating to an idealised form of masculine ‘mental toughness’ (Coulter et al., 2016), and the association of shame with failure to comply with norms of football masculinity (Waitt and Clifton, 2015). Furthermore, the predominance of retired male players in commentator positions, and a television focus on broadcasting men's athletic competitions, have been argued to result in the cyclical reinforcing of a masculine subculture that disenfranchises women (Litchfield and Redhead, 2015). The emergence of female players at professional level in a previously male-dominated sport like Australian Rules football thus presents an important opportunity for further investigation.

The present study

Television commentary on men's and women's Australian Rules football matches played during the 2017 season (the inaugural season of the women's game in the professional Australian Football League) was examined along similar semantic and discursive dimensions to those identified by Quayle et al. (2019). The men's and women's games played in the AFL that were under analysis were essentially the same in terms of rules and general play, with only a few minor differences: women used a slightly smaller ball; played shorter quarters (15 min instead of 20), and had 16 players on the field instead of 18.

Sample

The data for this study consisted of Fox Sports televised coverage of the first 10 matches of the 2017 AFL seasons for men (1280 min) and women (726 min). Data were transcribed using notation that excluded idiosyncratic elements of speech (e.g. stutters, pauses and involuntary vocalizations) so as to maintain a focus on descriptive statements (Azevedo et al., 2017). In the extracts presented in the following analysis, commentators are distinguished as male (M) or female (F), and talk by different commentators (C) in a single extract is identified by number: C1(M), C2(M) and so on. The extracts are labelled according to the men's (AFLM) or women's (AFLW) league, and the round and game number (e.g. Round 1, Game 1 = R1G1). Two distinct sets of commentators were involved in the men's and women's telecasts, and commentary team members differed across individual matches within the AFL and AFLW broadcasts, being drawn from different pools of both male and female sports broadcasters and journalists, as well as current (male and female) or past players (male). Male commentators were in the majority and accounted for the majority of commentary. Commentary teams for AFLW telecasts contained more women than those for AFL telecasts, where one prominent current female player was involved as a field commentator.

Analysis

Semantic thematic analysis was first used to identify broad descriptive patterns across the dataset, and discursive thematic analysis was subsequently applied to explore the function of recurring discursive elements and practices in the televised commentary. The form of semantic thematic analysis used here involved a ‘code book approach’ (Braun and Clarke, 2006: 84), and Quayle et al. (2019) code book, detailing how semantic content descriptions of athletes’ performance should be categorized, was used.

This semantic level of coding involves reporting on explicitly-stated ideas and concepts that recur in the dataset with the aim of providing a descriptive overview of the key features of the semantic content.

Quayle et al. (2019) five descriptive dimensions of player performance were initially used for the purposes of semantic coding:

Personal (individual attributes, interests and relationships, e.g. ‘That's terrific respect, isn't it’)

Procedure

Before commencing the semantic thematic analysis, a sample of the first 10 min of commentary from the first broadcast games of both AFL and AFLW seasons was transcribed in order to build a draft code ‘rulebook’. Two coders coded each 10 min segment for the purpose of establishing inter-rater reliability. Where differences in coding occurred, the researchers discussed each case, and adjusted the written coding rules for clarity, to ensure that final coding was consistent across coders. The process involved instances being repeatedly coded by the two researchers following written changes to the code book until agreement was reached by consistent application of the coding rules. Once such agreement had been achieved for each of the coding categories, coding of the full dataset commenced. Discursive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) was then used to examine specific features of the broad themes that were identified in the semantic analysis.

Semantic thematic analysis

In total, there were 6194 statements coded in the dataset that described male players (whose games were 5-min-per-quarter longer than those of women), and 4611 that described female players. Statements ranged from one-word comments like ‘beautiful’ or ‘great’, to adverbial and adjectival phrases such as ‘good kicking’ or ‘clean hands’, to full sentence formulations, and in each case, one code was assigned. Instances in which individual players were separately referred to, as in ‘Grant goes in hard, Perkins as well’, were coded as two separate descriptor statements.

The most common descriptors for both male and female players involved ‘technical’ aspects of performance (46% male, 37% female), as shown in Table 1. This pattern of technical descriptions of performance being the most common in Australian Rules football commentary mirrored that reported by Quayle et al. (2019) who developed the codebook to describe commentary on men's and women's games in the individual sport of tennis. However, in other respects, the distribution of descriptor types in televised commentary for the team sport of Australian Rules did not coincide with that reported for male and female tennis players. Quayle et al. identified ‘physical’ and ‘personal’ descriptors as key to the production of gendered commentary in tennis; with female players receiving more ‘personal’ descriptions concerning their individual attributes, interests and relationships, and male players being described more often in terms of ‘physical’ characteristics. Quayle et al. drew particular attention to the relative absence of ‘body’, or ‘physical’, descriptors for female players in the tennis commentary they examined. In this regard, it should be noted that Australian Rules football is a full-contact sport and its inherently physical nature is likely to have resulted in frequent use of ‘physical’ descriptors across both men's and women's games. Indeed, in the Australian Rules football commentary that we sampled, there appeared to be greater similarity between the commentators’ talk about the men's and women's games than was reported by Quayle et al. for tennis. The greatest difference that emerged in the Australian Rules commentary descriptors concerned those in the ‘technical’ category – where male players received more than female (46% vs. 37%). For all other categories of descriptors, only small or no differences between commentary in men's and women's games was observed (Table 1).

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Table 1.

Descriptors for male and female players in televised commentary of Australian Rules football.

	Match	Mental	Personal	Physical	Player history	Tactical	Technical
Men	54 (1%)	646 (10%)	552 (9%)	515 (8%)	768 (12%)	907 (14%)	2927 (46%)
Women	133 (3%)	386 (8%)	419 (9%)	425 (9%)	782 (16%)	848 (18%)	1773 (37%)

Discursive thematic analysis

The next stage of analysis involved more detailed consideration of the types of description that were used by commentators in each of the broad semantic categories applied by Quayle et al. (2019). Particular linguistic choices, metaphors and idioms were examined, with the aim of exploring the discursive nature and function of recurring patterns of representation of male and female Australian Rules players. This was achieved in the following way. Consistent with Quayle et al. (2019: 8) analytic approach, the semantic categories that were coded for initially were inductively condensed into ‘maximally descriptive themes’. For commentary on Australian Rules football, three such themes were identified: Performance (involving physical and technical features), Mentality (mental and tactical features), and Personal (player personal/dispositional features and relationships).

Performance

Physical aspects of performance. Although physical descriptions were used with similar frequency in commentary on both men's and women's games, differences could be seen in the way the physical descriptions were routinely worked up. In commentary on men's games, masculine-denoting terms like ‘power’, ‘force’, ‘strong’ were frequently used. The bodily movements of male players were routinely described using language that emphasized physicality (e.g. ‘muscled his way in there’, ‘crushed in a tackle’, ‘he worked back and then led hard’). Commentary also regularly involved description of male players’ physical attributes in specific detail (e.g. ‘big, strong, powerful quads’), with particular emphasis on male players’ bodily size (‘big’, ‘huge’, ‘massive’). Extract 1, below, provides an illustration of this typical style of bodily description: Extract 1:

AFLM R1G8

In contrast, physical descriptions of female players tended to be non-specific, and only referred indirectly to physicality. For example, although female players were described as being ‘tough’ or ‘athletic’, commentators rarely described women's body parts, as was common in descriptions of male players (e.g. ‘he's so strong in the leg’). Similarly, female players’ height and weight were rarely referred to directly, whereas specific measurements were regularly discussed in relation to male players, as the following examples illustrate: Extract 2:

AFLM R1G1

When female players’ bodies were mentioned, broad descriptors were used that did not specify detail; for example, body size would be described as ‘small’ or ‘little’. Often, smaller female body size was discussed as a technical disadvantage that was contrasted to some positive internal attribute, such as ‘toughness’ or ‘great vision’ (‘She's small but tough as nails’). These differences in descriptions of male and female players’ bodies mirrored those reported by Quayle et al. (2019) for tennis. Other observed differences in the use of physical descriptors in Australian Rules football commentary involved metaphors of heightened physicality in relation to male players’ bodies. The extracts below provide examples of these forms of description of men's play: Extract 5:

AFLM R1G7

Technical aspects of performance. In describing women's Australian Rules football, commentators frequently made note of the technical disadvantages and mistakes made by players, typically explaining them in terms of the inexperience of the female players: Extract 7:

AFLW R2G3

By comparison, commentary on men's games involved more frequent praise of male players for their exceptional skills. As was the case for physical descriptions, commentary on the technical aspects of the men's game also often involved hyperbole, for example: ‘one of the great people in football’ or ‘one of the absolute best’. The extracts below provide further illustrations of this pattern: Extract 9:

AFLM R1G1

Where instances of poor execution by male players were described, these were typically framed as understandable exceptions from otherwise skillful practitioners, or they were framed as resulting from the superior skill level of the opposition: Extract 14:

AFLM R1G2

The use of hyperbole in describing the game itself (e.g. as ‘remarkable’, ‘amazing’, or ‘spectacular’) was common in commentary on both the men's and women's games, as were metaphors associated with battle or combat (e.g. ‘battle’, ‘spear’, ‘wrestle’, ‘hunt’). This pattern for Australian Rules football commentary does not coincide with Quayle et al.'s findings for tennis – where commentary on female players omitted descriptions of physicality or aggression, and instead drew on aesthetic evaluations involving notions of ‘beauty’ and ‘grace’. Indeed, in commentary on the women's game, and in descriptions of female footballers, language that referenced strength and aggression was common, as illustrated by the extracts below: Extract 16:

AFLW R1G3

Furthermore, in the commentary on Australian Rules football, instances involving traditionally feminine, aesthetic descriptions (Quayle et al., 2019) such as ‘beautiful’, ‘lovely’, ‘dainty’, were observed to be used in describing the play of men: Extract 18:

AFLM R1G1

Mentality. Although the semantic thematic analysis demonstrated that ‘mental’ descriptors occurred with similar frequency in commentary about male and female players, there was a noticeable difference in the way such references to mentality were routinely worked up. In commentary on the men's game, the pattern involved orientation to positive mental and emotional experiences: Extract 20:

AFLM R1G1

Commentary on women's matches, however, typically referenced mental and emotional descriptors to describe negative events and outcomes, as the various examples below illustrate: Extract 23:

AFLW R2G1

It must be noted that such a pattern may reflect the fact that female players, being relatively new to competing in a professional-level league, may have exhibited higher frequencies of technical and tactical errors, such as missing goals or losing possession of the ball, and negative mental/emotional descriptions may have oriented to their displayed or inferred reactions to such instances.

Personal

Players’ dispositions. For both women's and men's games, commentators frequently described specific instances of play by referring to players’ personalities. The following examples demonstrate how players’ dispositions were characterized through their actions: Extract 27:

AFLW R1G6

Both male and female players’ actions were primarily described in terms of positive personal trait descriptors (e.g. ‘courageous’, ‘brave’, ‘smart’, ‘unselfish’). However, male players were more frequently positioned as being ‘naturally’ skilled or ‘talented’: Extract 29:

AFLM R1G1

In comparison, female players were more frequently positioned as lacking ‘discipline’: Extract 32:

AFLW R2G1

Players’ relationships. Talk about players’ personal relationships occurred infrequently in commentary on men's and women's games. When relationships were occasionally mentioned in relation to female players, typically, commentators described their general popularity or likeability, as in the examples below: Extract 35:

AFLW R2G1

Female players’ relationships with family members or partners were also occasionally mentioned. An illustrative example is shown in the extract below: Extract 37:

AFLW R1G4

Occasional commentary that involved orientation to the personal relationships of male players more often included reference to physical and technical aspects of performance, as illustrated below: Extract 38:

AFLM R1G9