Reacting to John Vincent

Here are my reactions to John Vincent's article, Equitable Media Coverage of Female and Male Athletics:

1.) Gauging media coverage: In the article, Vincent really examines everything about how women in sports are covered by the media. He comments that professional women athletes only get covered if they fit the typical idealized women in our society, and that other characterisitics about her may get swept aside in an effort to cover items about her sexual characteristics or dig into her personal life. He also brings up the variation of races, and how minority athletes, particulary African-Americans may be subject to racism within coverage. Vincent uses results from other studies regarding articles position, placement, word count, word usage, and all other typical forms of media metrics to come up with his argument for this paper.

2.) The most important thing Vincent sums up in the article he thinks how women athletes are covered is a reflection of how we view women in society. Since he feels the media has a lot of control over how women are viewed in society, he thinks that the media should be more proactive in covering female atheltics. Before the conclusion, Vincent talks about all the metrics which the media should watch for, and he advocated that efforts be made to serve eqaulity in those regards.

3.) Personally, I do not think his reccomendations are realistic or appropriate for the media to undertake. The media exists to inform society, and I don't think the media should be responsible for changing a society's values, when maybe it is not the society's problem. Covering media with a more feminist approach becomes tricky for the media to just simply do.