`The Times They are A-Changin'

Abstract

This study compared how selected broadsheet newspapers from three countries covered female and male tennis players competing in the 2004 Wimbledon Championships. From the UK, The Times; from the US, The New York Times; and from Canada, The Globe & Mail were examined. This cross-national comparison extends the work of Vincent (2004) who performed an analysis of three British newspapers' coverage of Wimbledon (one broadsheet and two tabloids). Content analysis was used to compare the amount and prominence of the coverage devoted to female and male tennis players in all articles and photographs during the Wimbledon Championships fortnight (20 June—5 July 2004). Data were also collected one day prior to the Championships and one day following for a total of 16 days. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine statistically significant differences ( p<.05). Male players had significantly more total coverage than female players and significantly more articles/photographs. However, the size of the articles/photographs was not significantly different. The Times had the greater disparity in total space allocated to males versus females and significantly more total space devoted to Wimbledon coverage than the other two newspapers. Reasons for the results are discussed and compared to previous quantitative studies examining the newspaper coverage of other sport events.