Tonight is a big event on TV: a behind-the-scenes look at the making of SportsCenter. We'll definitely be watching (unless it conflicts with QE).
We are big SportsCenter junkies. Every single morning, we wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and turn on ESPN. We are big sports fans generally, and SportsCenter is THE WAY to keep up with sports. If you want to sound smart talking about sports, you have to watch.
But SportsCenter's omnipresence and power also accentuates its biggest deficiency: complete inattention to women's sports.
SportsCenter was actually much of the reason we started the blog -- because it almost never shows women's hoops highlights, we had a really hard time keeping up with the game. Unless you are lucky enough to live in Connecticut, where every Husky game is on public television, it's hard to watch many games during the regular season, either pro or college. And with no highlights on ESPN, that means you can't see anything at all. Which makes it very tough to keep up with the game -- how are you supposed to be a fan if you don't even know what's going on?
The strange thing about SportsCenter's lack of women's sports coverage is that ESPN is the leader in broadcasting women's sports. You would think it would be in their interest to show more highlights -- much of the time SportsCenter functions as a marketing tool for other broadcasts. But somehow, when it comes to women's sports, that logic just hasn't had power.
Most depressingly, as the USA Today reported last week, SportsCenter's coverage of women's sports has actually gotten much worse over the past decade. The ratio of men's stories to women's stories has increased from 25-1 to 48-1.
Maybe someday the trend will reverse. Maybe someday major media outlets will provide better coverage. But until then, we'll have to keep looking to alternate sources.
We are big SportsCenter junkies. Every single morning, we wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and turn on ESPN. We are big sports fans generally, and SportsCenter is THE WAY to keep up with sports. If you want to sound smart talking about sports, you have to watch.
But SportsCenter's omnipresence and power also accentuates its biggest deficiency: complete inattention to women's sports.
SportsCenter was actually much of the reason we started the blog -- because it almost never shows women's hoops highlights, we had a really hard time keeping up with the game. Unless you are lucky enough to live in Connecticut, where every Husky game is on public television, it's hard to watch many games during the regular season, either pro or college. And with no highlights on ESPN, that means you can't see anything at all. Which makes it very tough to keep up with the game -- how are you supposed to be a fan if you don't even know what's going on?
The strange thing about SportsCenter's lack of women's sports coverage is that ESPN is the leader in broadcasting women's sports. You would think it would be in their interest to show more highlights -- much of the time SportsCenter functions as a marketing tool for other broadcasts. But somehow, when it comes to women's sports, that logic just hasn't had power.
Most depressingly, as the USA Today reported last week, SportsCenter's coverage of women's sports has actually gotten much worse over the past decade. The ratio of men's stories to women's stories has increased from 25-1 to 48-1.
Maybe someday the trend will reverse. Maybe someday major media outlets will provide better coverage. But until then, we'll have to keep looking to alternate sources.
posted by Ted at 11:12 AM
