My issue will be about Chinese Media’s unequal representation towards female athletes and I am specifically interested in exploring how historical and cultural reasons had contributed to the low coverage and discriminatory representation for female athletes in Chinese New Media. It is internationally recognized that, in western countries, women’s sport receive much less media coverage as compared to their male counterpart, and the same rule applies when it comes to athletes’ commercial value. Even if female athletes do get covered in media, they are more likely to be portrayed with focus on their femininity, attractiveness, personal life, sexualizing their body instead of portraying their athleticism and acknowledging their achievement as athletes. In the world history women’s sports developed much later than male sports, and it is objectively true that female are physically less “strong” than male, which results into a low vieworship as compared to men’s sports.
The situation gets a little complicated in China. From a general perspective, female sports are better developed and usually got better results than male sports in China, which might partially be a result of the relatively early development of female sports in China. However, China is still congruous in the lower media coverage and discriminatory representation towards female athletes. Many Chinese media representation of female athletes are focusing on narrating nationalism, femininity, non-sports related aspects of athletes’ lives, and the dual identities of female athletes, emphasizing their role as a girl/wife/mother.
I’m interested in what actually leads to these representation. I still need to know more about Chinese national-sponsored sports system and patriotism (or nationalism) tied to sports competitions, the social and cultural contexts that may contribute to or affects the situation, and is there a way, such as social media(self media) that can promote better media representation for female athletes in China and around the globe.