Tag: Lori Shontz

Portraits of Fans: Sports Fandom in Women’s Professional Basketball

Presenter(s): Sierra Webster

Faculty Mentor(s): Lori Shontz

Oral Session 2 O

Male sports reporters produce nearly 90 percent of sports media coverage (The Status of Women in the U.S. Media, Women’s Media Center). Just 13 percent of sports staff are white women, while 5 percent are women of color. Further, men predominately hold decision-making roles in sports media, making up 90 percent of sports editors (2018 AP Sports Editors Report Card). Thus, the underrepresentation of women and women of color in sports media necessarily produces misrepresentations of female athletes and female athletes of color. In the very nature of how journalism works and the role of journalists as agenda-setters, reporters and editors decide which and how narratives around women are told.
For my School of Journalism and Communication honors thesis, I have produced a long-form feature story focused on fans of the Seattle Storm, the 2018 WNBA champion, and their relationship to a professional team that is not centered around masculinity and whiteness. The Storm seems to sit at the forefront of a movement that is giving more prestige and attention towards professional sportswomen.

My project has combined extensive sports media coverage research and knowledge with journalistic storytelling, interviewing and reporting to tell the story of Storm fans and why their stories matter through the accessible medium of journalism. I traveled to Seattle to interview sources and gather information, scene and a sense for the city’s support of its WNBA franchise. The information gathered on reporting trips paired with information gathered through research culminates in a product that is more than a research article but is a compelling story that demonstrates the value of women’s professional sports. Using my research and my experience as a woman in sports media, I have produced a narrative that is dignifying, nuanced and representative of the women on the court and in the stands.

How the 2019 IAAF World Outdoor Track and Field Championships impacted both the image of host country Qatar and its leadership’s plan to use sport for increased international visibility

Presenter(s): Brooklynn Loiselle—Journalism

Faculty Mentor(s): Lori Shontz, Henry Wear

Session: Prerecorded Poster Presentation

The 2019 IAAF World Outdoor Track and Field Championships served as an opportunity for its host nation, Qatar, to showcase not only what it can do for sport but what sport can do for its country . Over the past decade, Qatar has used international sport as a way to define itself as a nation worthy of respect . The world championships were the largest sporting event to ever take place in the Middle East, but media coverage from the championships resulted in both positive and negative storylines that could impact how the world views Qatar . This qualitative content analysis of British and American written news coverage of the world championships examines how the news media framed Qatar and how it evaluated its performance as a host nation . This research is developing; all coding has yet to be completed . However, preliminary findings indicate that Qatar was far more likely to be framed negatively than positively, with themes of “poor event management” and being an “undesirable location” appearing the most frequently . This research raises questions about whether Qatar’s reasons for wanting to host the event was valid . Furthermore, this research contributes to the broader question of whether spending significant sums of money to host international sporting events is worth it if the events do not result in an economic gain or a better world image .