POWER

Project: The portrayal of women athletes in sports media (POWER)
Number: ERASMUS-SPORT-2024-SCP101185115
Sector: Sport

Duration: 01/12/2024 - 01/12/2026

Aim of the project

Fair and unbiased representation of women athletes in media can have a positive impact on promoting gender equality by challenging stereotypes, providing role models, combatting discrimination, and increasing investment. By working towards a more equitable and inclusive sporting culture, we can create opportunities for women to excel and achieve their full potential in the world of sports.

The POWER project aims to tackle the shortcomings of sports journalism and the media landscape by creating guidelines and training materials on the topic. These resources are designed for journalists, media professionals, students studying journalism, communication department staff in sports organizations, as well as bloggers and other content creators. The goal is to ensure that female athletes are portrayed in a fair and equitable manner, ultimately eliminating stereotypes that contribute to inequalities within the sports sector. 

Activities

  • Conducting a discourse and content analysis through primary research (interviews with journalists and media professionals, stakeholders, sports associations, and federations) and secondary research methodology (analysis of newspaper articles, online news, TV shows,and interviews with female athletes, social media posts, talk shows, and sports magazine articles).
  • Creating a Gender equality in sports media strategy with guidelines to each participating country's national context and characteristics to enhance usability and relevance.
  • Developing a training course and materials for  journalists and implementing guidelines to promote gender equality in sports media.
  • Raising public awareness about the importance of fair and unbiased media portrayal of women athletes via interactive communication channels such as podcasts, online resources, social media, and ambassador nominations will be utilized.

Expected results

  • Increasing awareness of the biased representation of women athletes. 
  • Increasing participation and performance of women athletes through a more fair and unbiased representation in the media. 
  • Improving media coverage through promoting ethical journalism among journalists, media professionals and content creators.
  • Attracting greater sponsorship and funding in support of women’s training and development by fair media coverage. 
  • Creating opportunities for collaborations between journalists and female athletes, sports organizations, and NGOs, which can lead to more in-depth and compelling stories about women in sports

Partners

  • MUNDUS BULGARIA - Bulgaria
  • Athens Network of Collaborating Experts (ANCE) - Greece
  • UFEC - Spain
  • Budapest Association for International Sports (BAIS) - Hungary
  • Sport for Evolution Alliance (SEA) - Portugal
  • Isidem, Istituto Italiano dei Media - Italy