Date of Award

5-2017

Document Type

Thesis open access

First Advisor

Jennifer Henderson

Second Advisor

Aaron Delwiche

Third Advisor

Jacob Tingle

Abstract

With fairly equitable distribution of coverage between male and female athletes, especially at Grand Slam tournaments like Wimbledon, tennis is the ideal sport to study in order to better understand the changing dynamics of gender construction within sports broadcast commentary. Using content analysis, this study examines ESPN and British Broadcasting Company (BBC) coverage of the 2016 men’s and women’s Wimbledon singles finals. Commentary was studied as a way to compare how prescribed gender roles are perpetuated for male and female players, as well as to examine the regional differences that exist between American and British sport commentary. The data from this study upheld findings from past research such as the continued presence of gendered naming practices in sports commentary. It also affirmed that while there have been changes in the use of gendered language in areas relating to emotion, coaches, and family, many of the commentary trends established in past research continue to exist in both American and British sports broadcasting.

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