Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : The Big Tex House of Coin -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BigTex who wrote (821)	12/10/1998 2:04:00 PM
From: Thomas M.	Respond to of 19297

reports.guardian.co.uk Forget it, girls... The media ignore women's sports because no one is interested By Charles Burgess Thursday December 10, 1998 This is not a simple matter, especially if you want to stay alive. But, to put it simply, women's sport is plain dull. There were hoots of derision in the office yesterday when I suggested that the reason women's sport gets so little coverage in newspapers and on television is because, for the most part, it is boring to watch. Indeed, if TV had been covering the event they would have marvelled at the precision of the knee-jerks, the pin-point accuracy of the responses and the full fury of the attack. It could have filled air time. The debate - maybe "shouting match" would be more accurate - occurred after we had all read in the Guardian some research from a student at Nottingham Trent University which showed that sportswomen are virtually ignored by the media despite their success at national and international level. Not only sports played exclusively by women were overlooked, but the women's versions of those games played by both sexes, such as tennis, football and athletics, received fewer column inches and little time on television. First things first. A lot of sport, played by both men and women, is boring to watch. Many of us have huffed and puffed around a football field, a squash court or a swimming pool. We enjoy ourselves immensely and trouble the referee or the scorer but would never suggest that we should trouble the programme controllers. And I can take great pleasure in watching my nine-year-old play football but would not inflict it on anyone else - except perhaps his grandmother. So there are those sports we like to play for recreation, competition or fitness and that is as far as it goes. But talk to any sporting body and they will bang on about the need for publicity so that they can get sponsors, so that they can grow, so that they can create champions. Women's sports are no exception. ISPENT 20 years as a sports journalist and lost count of the times that I was berated for not giving women's sport its equal space. Sure, we did one-off pieces on women's lacrosse, badminton, squash or hockey. But why did it go no further? The reason is that, despite the players' skill, commitment and enthusiasm, these were participation not spectator sports. No matter how hard they try, netball is never going to work on television in this country and is extremely difficult to make interesting for a mass readership. For the aficionados there are magazines. In those sports also played by men, like football, the standard is not good enough. It may be as good as many leagues of amateur men's football but is that any reason why the media should take notice? Most men's football is ignored. The sports that have broken this mould are athletics and tennis. Both have a tradition in this country. But if we are honest, we are interested only in those few women who are world class. We can all name Britain's top two men's tennis players but would be hard put to identify the top women's player.* And, apart from Wimbledon, does anyone really care? Television executives are no mugs. They put on what they know the punters want to see - and preferably live. And what people want to see is top-quality sport that means something, and is performed to the highest level by stars. Throw in a row and their happiness is complete. Only the top male athletes can provide this, whether it is in a thundering football game with artistry allied to strength and cunning, a tennis match with serves and returns of stunning speed and beauty, or the final few holes of a major golf tournament, when only the most focused and skilled of players can prosper. All is not lost though. Salvation for women's sport may come from the increase in TV channels. There, they may be able to have their own programmes and those that want can watch all day and night. But they should beware. The proliferation of channels may mean that women's sports never reach their holy grail of a huge national audience. Nothing does that nowadays, apart from World Cup football and one or two moments of Olympic athleticism once every four years. Yesterday for instance, the sports editor of this paper decided that the only piece of women's sport worth covering was the publication, in small type, of the fifth-round draw for hockey's women's cup. Even that was being generous. And now please excuse me. I have to go. I've got some drying paint to watch.