http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/sports/16espnw.html?ref=women
Katie Thomas
Over the years, ESPN has defined itself as the "worldwide leader in sports," providing countless stories and tremendous coverage for its die-hard sports fans. The network seeks to interest all sorts of audiences, and it does a fantastic job of targeting those viewers, yet one specific group seems to be left out of the loop: women. Because gender equality continues to expand as a current issue in our global society, ESPN felt obliged to form a new brand marketed specifically to women. The soon-to-appear digital program, espnW, is presently a low-key blog, having pages on both Twitter and Facebook, but it is expected to grow by spring of 2011. So far, many female athletes are ecstatic about the change in direction in news media coverage, and ESPN seems to be making a promising commitment towards establishing espnW as a successful addition to the network. Yet changes come with an assortment of reactions, and many females in the sports field oppose the idea of this new program.
Although the publicity is encouraging to female athletes, the idea of a separate and new program for audiences who hold an interest in female athletics can be patronizing and marginalizing. Laura Gentile, the vice president of the upcoming espnW, described the program as "where we talk about women finding self-esteem in sports and about getting a pedicure." Yet aside from that comment, she claims the main purpose is to discuss female sports, (a little more than they are already discussed in today's sports news,) and to add that attention to the popular male sports topics. This seems to be an easy solution to the lack of publicity that women get on ESPN; the everpopular program only devoted around 8% of its program to women's sports. But would this addition of espnW give ESPN the freedom to drop women's sports from its program as a whole, or would it lead to a greater coverage of the neglected topic on ESPN?
What exactly does this mean for the future of female sports? I think we all can agree that we don't hear much about female athletes in comparison to those NFL quarterbacks and the drama caused by LeBron James. But is the establishment of a new program dedicated to women the approach we should take? Does this lead to gender equality under publicity, or does it just further the gender separation because women need their own program?
Sara Huser
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