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Breaking Barriers in Sports Media: The power of media perception

By: Stephanie Ferguson


Throughout the years of every athlete's career, they are bound to face criticism from the media. However, the criticism and disrespect has been disproportionately placed on black women athletes, who are not only judged on their athleticism and performance but also for their personalities, appearance and attitude. The media perception of these athletes creates widespread misconceptions and assumptions about them.


The recent spotlight on LSU’s women's basketball team has sparked a variety of opinions on their unapologetic attitude and winner mentality. Ever since winning the national championship last year, star player Angel Reese began to receive media backlash for her taunting and trash talk during games. Thousands of people on social media criticized the college student for being “arrogant”, “disrespectful”, and “undeserving”. This backlash was not only aimed towards Angel Reese, but started to target the whole team. An LA Times writer referred to the team as “dirty debutantes” in a column about the LSU vs UCLA game (Fox Sports). The writer then described UCLA’s women's basketball team as “milk and cookies”. The column was taken down after LSU head coach Kim Mulkey criticized the LA Times column, calling it “sexist” and “hurtful” to her players (Fox Sports). Other women’s basketball players, including Caitlin Clark, have been shown taunting, playing dirty and trash talking but didn’t receive half the negative comments. In these circumstances, we don’t know these women, we don’t know how they act, we only know what the media shows us. This underlying racism against black women in the media has a long history.


Photo By: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images


Another example of racism in sports media is the backlash against two time world champion, Sha’Carri Richardson. Richardson has faced severe media criticism for her nails and colored wigs. An Australian reporter even stated how she believed Richardson’s nails and hair was proof of steroid usage (Minnis). In addition to this, people have made fun of her appearance, calling her “ghetto”. This negative media coverage of her, widely weighs out the positive spotlight of her winning multiple races and breaking the world record for the 100 meter race. 


Black men in sports such as LeBron James or Deion Sanders, often get praised for celebrating their victories and being dominant or aggressive in their sport, while black women are portrayed as arrogant or rude for celebrating after a big win, or showing aggression during games. Things like trash talk, or hand signs are normalized and encouraged in men’s basketball and football, whereas in women’s sports, especially black women, it’s looked down upon.



Serena Williams, the greatest tennis player of all time with countless achievements and 23 Grand slam titles, has faced racism in the media her whole career. From being called a “man” and “gorilla” after winning the 2012 Wimbledon by writers, to racist cartoons being displayed in an Australian newspaper after her loss to Naomi Osaka in 2018, Williams has experienced media backlash constantly (Davis). Serena Williams, one of the highest paid athletes of all time, still faces racism from the media even after she’s fully established herself as a top athlete.


Professional reporters and journalists in sports media create a manipulated perception of these black athletes because of racist stereotypes rooted in professional sports. By characterizing these women as aggressive, arrogant, or hypersexualizing them as “dirty debutantes” on national television or popular newspapers this influences their audiences to believe these false characterizations. While this commonly happens to black women athletes, this statement applies to all athletes in the media. Cutting out clips to make players look bad, or assuming what an athlete’s motives are behind their actions falls into media manipulation as well. As a black woman in sports myself, when I hear about Angel Reese or Sha’Carri Richardson being perceived as “arrogant” or “ghetto” I know it’s an unfair judgment of their character. These women deserve proper media coverage, celebrating their accomplishments instead of bashing them because of how we perceive them.







Citations:

Davis, Scott. “Serena Williams Endured Racism, Sexism From Media Throughout Career.” Business Insider, 13 August 2022, https://www.businessinsider.com/serena-williams-endured-racism-sexism-media-throughout-career-2022-8. Accessed 14 April 2024.


Fox Sports. “L.A. Times columnist apologizes for piece characterizing LSU players as 'dirty debutantes.'” FOX Sports, 2 April 2024, https://www.foxsports.com/stories/other/l-a-times-columnist-apologizes-for-piece-characterizing-lsu-players-as-dirty-debutantes. Accessed 14 April 2024.


Minnis, Morgan. “Commentary on Black Female Athletes – Confluence.” Confluence, 6 November 2023, https://confluence.gallatin.nyu.edu/context/interdisciplinary-seminar/commentary-on-black-female-athletes. Accessed 14 April 2024.

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