SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND
THE SPORTS PAGES:
NEWSPAPERS’ NADER’S
RAIDERS AT PENN STATE YORK
Charles L. Kennedy
Political Science Department
Penn State York
April 2003
I strongly believe that newspapers have a major responsibility to focus on major
issues of society, government, and politics as they relate to sports. These issues could include: gender equity, racism in sports, public funding for sports stadiums, professional teams relocating to different cities, baseball’s anti-trust exemption, government oversight of athletic organizations (the Pennsylvania State Senate’s concern with the organization and practices of the PIAA - Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association), safety at the Olympics, and civil suits and liability in athletics. There are many, many more issues that could also be listed.
I also believe that newspapers do not contain enough commentary, features, analytical and evaluative articles that focus on big picture issues. These are issues that transcend sports. They could include graduation rates of college athletes, racism on the playing fields, violence in sports, and parental violence in sports.
To test these beliefs I conducted a study of seven newspapers over a 20-day period in April of 2001 on their coverage of government, public policy, and big picture issues as they relate to sports. The seven newspapers were the Baltimore Sun, Harrisburg Patriot-News, Lancaster Intelligencer-Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, York Daily Record, and York Dispatch.
The Future
I was sufficiently intrigued by the results of the study that I planned additional research. This was particularly true on the gender equity issue. I anticipated the results of coverage of women’s sports would show minimal coverage. I was shocked and disappointed, however, when I saw how limited the coverage was in all of the newspapers. For instance, the frontrunner, the York Daily Record, devoted only 6.2% of all sports coverage to women’s sports and only 10% of front-page coverage. Due to the considerable interest in the proposed Title IX reforms generated by U.S. Secretary of Education Roderick Paige’s “Commission on Opportunity in Athletics,” I decided that Phase II of the project would emphasize the gender equity issue but also focus on the government and public policy issue in sports. As an additional twist, I planned to utilize my students in a special class project to examine the sports pages.
The purpose of this project was to involve my students in a content analysis of thirteen newspapers evaluating their coverage. The students were organized in teams of two. Each team analyzed one newspaper over a 10-day period (weekdays only). They selected an issue from a pre-determined list. The students functioned as a mini Nader’s Raiders, conducting a content analysis to determine the degree of emphasis that the newspaper places on the issues. Only the quantity of the articles, not the quality was measured.
It was a great opportunity to greatly expand their intellectual horizons. They were exposed to developments and issues in geographic areas across the country. Class discussion and oral reports ensured a comparative awareness of the issues and events across the country. Additionally, they had the opportunity: to enhance their ability to function within the framework of a team; research relevant, contemporary issues in a novel fashion; compare newspaper coverage; improve their verbal and written skills; and improve their organizational skills.
I anticipated my students’ learning would improve in the following ways: their analytical skills would be increased; they would acquire significant knowledge about major issues; hopefully, their interest and awareness in issues would dramatically be increased; ideally, their desire to learn would be enhanced; their intra-group communication skills would be greatly increased; and the end of semester team project report would improve their writing skills.
I conducted this project for two major reasons: 1. It is an extension of my action education techniques, that I have been experimenting with and implementing in my classes since 1994. These techniques turn the classroom into an exciting Political Science laboratory, where the students learn by doing. These techniques have led to my being named to the Schreyer Institute for Innovations in Learning in 1995. These techniques have also been demonstrated at the President’s Colloquy on Education in 1996, the continuous Quality Expo in 1997, the Empower Convocation in 1998, and the Grand Destiny Kickoff Campaign in 1999. These techniques greatly contributed to my receiving the Penn State York “James E. Burness Award for Outstanding Teacher-2001.” 2. My research on “Gender Equity and the Sports Pages” and “Social Consciousness and the Sports Pages” has greatly increased my interest and fascination in content analysis of newspapers on various issues. Thus, I will be continuing and expanding my previous studies on these topics. I will be working side-by-side with my students on my issues on the project.
After the students were divided into teams, they were assigned one of the newspapers. Their initial responsibility was to conduct a content analysis of the paper according to the gender equity and public policy issues. The students also were to select a topic of their own for analysis. They were to classify the articles according to the following scale:
- Less than a ¼ page = 1 pt.
- Over ¼ page = 3 pts.
- Over 1/3 page = 5 pts.
- Over ¾ page = 7 pts.
- Full page = 10 pts.
Pictures were counted as separate articles. Then, the students had to determine the totals per category and compute the percentages.
The medallists for their total coverage of female sports are the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Detroit Free Press, and the Denver Post. The Plain Dealer wins the gold medal with 10.7%, the Free Press wins the silver medal with 10.1%, the bronze medal goes to the Post with 9.4%. The New York Times is the cellar dweller with only 3.0% of the sports pages devoted to women’s sports.
The complete ranking of the newspapers content of female sports:
RankPaper % Female Sports
1Cleveland Plain Dealer10.7
2Detroit Free Press10.1
3Denver Post 9.4
4Chicago Tribune 6.6
5Arizona Republic 6.3
6Boston Globe 6.1
7St. Louis Post Dispatch 5.83
8Miami Herald 5.82
9Richmond Times Dispatch 5.0
10San Francisco Chronicle 4.9
11Philadelphia Inquirer 4.4
12Atlanta Journal Constitution 4.37
13New York Times 3.0
(average = 6.3%)
Interestingly, although the analytical model was substantially simplified, the results are remarkably similar to the previous study that I conducted in 2001, which included different newspapers. The results of the 2001 study:
RankPaper % Female Sports
1York Daily Record 6.2
2Lancaster Intelligencer Journal 6.1
3York Dispatch 5.1
4New York Times 4.7
5Washington Post 4.6
6Baltimore Sun 4.2
7Harrisburg Patriot News 3.1
(average = 4.9%)
The inevitable startling conclusion is the paucity of coverage of women’s sports. Even the pace setters devote only 10% to coverage of women’s sports.
It is also important to examine the coverage on the front page of the sports section. These are the key stories. These are the items the sports editor considers most important. Interestingly, both the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Denver Post are again in the top three. The Plain Dealer wins the gold medal with 27% and the Denver Post captures the silver medal with 14%. The Arizona Republic moves up to third place with 13%.
The complete ranking of the newspapers coverage of women on the front page of the sports section:
RankPaper % Female Sports
Front Page of Sports Section
1Cleveland Plain Dealer27
2Denver Post14
3Arizona Republic13
4San Francisco Chronicle10
5St. Louis Post Dispatch 7.1
6Miami Herald 6.9
7Detroit Free Press 6
8Atlanta Journal Constitution 5
9Richmond Times Dispatch 4
10Philadelphia Inquirer 2
11-13 (Tie)New York Times/Chicago Tribune/Boston Globe 0
(average = 7.3%)
Interestingly, the coverage of policy issues is even lower. It’s also interesting that the same papers are in the top three, although in different order. Although the front-running Denver Post devotes 16.3% to policy issues, the second and third place finishers, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Detroit Free Press have scores of 7.8% and 4.6%, respectively. The average is an embarrassingly low 3.9%. Additionally, five of the papers devote less than 2% to coverage of policy issues.
The complete ranking of the newspapers’ coverage of policy issues on the sports pages:
RankPaper % Policy Issues
1Denver Post16.3
2Cleveland Plain Dealer 7.8
3Detroit Free Press 4.6
4Arizona Republic 3.7
5New York Times 3.5
6Atlanta Journal Constitution 3.3
7Philadelphia Inquirer 2.9
8Chicago Tribune 2.8
9Miami Herald 1.7
10San Francisco Chronicle 1.62
11Boston Globe 1.6
12St. Louis Post Dispatch 1.5
13Richmond Times 1.3
(average = 4.0%)
After their statistical analysis was completed, the students were responsible for developing a paper summarizing and analyzing their results. The papers were to include the following items: statistical displays, their conclusions, comparisons to two other newspapers, interesting points, references to five terms in the “Media and Politics” section in their textbook, interesting points and their evaluation of the paper.
The project was evaluated according to: (a) the students’ evaluation; and (b) a comparison of the students’ grade on the project to the average of their previous grades.
For the students’ evaluation of the project, they were asked to compare the project to projects and assignments in other courses at Penn State York and to compare the project to other projects and assignments in the Political Science class. The students ranked the project on a scale of 1-10 on the following items: increased knowledge, a learning experience, an enjoyable activity, teamwork project, stimulated interest in subject, increased awareness of issues, and increased understanding of issues.
The result of the students’ evaluation is contained in the following chart.
VARIABLE / PROJECT AVERAGE RANKCOMPARED TO PROJECTS
IN
OTHER COURSES / IN
POLITICAL SCIENCE
Increased knowledge / 7.35 / 7.24
Learning experience / *7.94 / *7.47
Enjoyable activity / 6.88 / 6.71
Teamwork project / 7.88 / 7.00
Stimulated interest in subject / 7.24 / 7.24
Increased awareness of issues / *8.41 / *7.94
Increased understanding of issues / *8.12 / *8.29
AVERAGE / 7.7 / 7.4
* Top 3
Interestingly, the highest-ranking variables were the same for each comparison. These were: increased awareness, increased understanding, and a learning experience. One of the students described it:
The project utilized our analytical thought processes very well.
To be honest, at first I thought that this project was going to be
boring and useless, but as it progressed, that couldn’t be further
from the truth. It turned out to be very interesting and enjoyable,
and it was a learning experience. I now have an opinion on what the
sports pages should be covering. This was a thought-provoking
assignment that was well worth the time and effort.
To be truthful, I am pleased that the scores were generally as high as they were. I know how tedious this content analysis process can be. I knew the students would have difficulty with the classification process at first. Once they mastered this process, there would be the tediousness of repetition. (Each student was responsible for ten papers.) I was particularly pleased that the increased awareness and increased understanding variables scored so high. I consider scores above 8 quite significant, particularly for a project that does involve tedious research.
For instance, three years ago, I had my students evaluate the different learning activities that we did in class. The evaluation was also on a 1-10 scale. Note how the most enjoyable and best learning activities scored 8, 9 and above.
The most enjoyable activities were:
- Discussions – 9.3
- Trip to Washington, DC – 9.1
- Simulations – 8.9
The best learning activities were:
- Lectures – 9.3
- Discussions – 9.1
- Simulations – 8.9
Also note how even four of the six least enjoyable and lower learning activities still had scores above eight:
The least enjoyable activities were:
- Trip to State Capitol – 6.4
- Lectures – 8.1
- Distance Learning project – 8.1
The lower learning activities were:
- Trip to State Capitol – 7.1
- Innovative Learning project – 8.1
- Distance Learning project – 8.1
I should also note that I expected the comparison to the other activities in the Political Science course to be low. This is due to the classification difficulty and monotony of the project, and the general high evaluations for the class simulations and class discussions.
The other means of evaluating the project was the comparison to their grades on the previous tests and projects. Most of the students actually increased their average grade on the project. I was generally quite pleased with the caliber of their papers, particularly their analytical ability. Overall, 50% of the students increased their grade; 36% caused their grade to decline; and 14% witnessed no change. The comments of one of the students probably best describes the attitude and outlook of many of the students:
I did not like this project at first because I thought analyzing sports
sections in distant newspapers was a little boring. I also found it
difficult to determine what category each article and picture should
be placed in. However, after research began rolling, I found this
project to be enjoyable and informative. The statistics were shocking.
I never dreamt that so little of the sports news covers public issues and
women’s sports.
I am very satisfied with the overall results of the project. In the future, however, I recommend that it be conducted with an advanced class of journalism or political science majors. I think they would benefit much more from the project.
One of the students found the timeless quote on the state of newspapers by George Bernard Shaw to be quite appropriate. He described newspapers as, “unable … to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization.” She concluded that “issues that should hold more weight are reported with less or equal weight than those less pressing, relevant, and important issues.”
I sincerely hope that this study will lead to serious discussion about the content of the sports pages in the newsrooms and on the editorial boards of all newspapers. Andy Rooney wrote in his weekly column, featured in the Patriot News on January 20, 2002, “What non-fans don’t understand is that the mindlessness of sports is what’s so attractive. It isn’t hard to be a sports fan, you don’t have to think much—or even think at all, really.”
Unfortunately, this acerbic humor accurately reflects the sports pages. Whether Rooney was sarcastic or serious, I completely disagree with the statement. I strongly believe the sports pages should incorporate the sentiment of former NFLers Derrick Frazier and Quentin Coryatt in launching their new magazine, “We want to make people think about a wide variety of issues… We especially want to challenge younger minds.”
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