Honorata Jakubowska

Gender, Media, and Mixed Martial Arts in Poland The Case of Joanna Jędrzejczyk

Recent growth in the media visibility of female combat sport athletes has offered a compelling site for research on gender and sport media, as women in deeply masculinized sports have been increasingly placed in the public spotlight. Although scholars in the Anglophone West have offered analyses of the media framing of this phenomenon, little work has been done outside these cultural contexts. Thus, in this article, we offer a qualitative exploration of how Joanna Jędrzejczyk, a Polish champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has been represented in Polish media. Our findings reveal a relatively de-gendered, widely celebratory account, primarily framed by nationalistic discourse—findings we ascribe to both the particularities of the sport of mixed martial arts as well as the historic nature of Jędrzejczyk’s success.

Are women still the 'other sex': gender and sport in the Polish mass media.

The aim of this paper is to present and discuss the sports coverage in the Polish media from a gender perspective. Do women and men receive the same amount of coverage? It is assumed that the interest of the media depends, among other things, on the popularity of a sport and the fame of an athlete. However, it must be noted that the prestige of a sport depends on the gender of the participants. Furthermore, it can be assumed that male athletes have a greater chance of being in the focus of attention than women athletes. This paper has two main objectives: (1) to present the status of womens events in the Polish media by comparing mens and womens coverage and (2) to point out the main explanations of the different treatment of male and female athletes by the Polish media. Both quantitative and qualitative data are used in this paper. The first set of data is secondary data concerning media coverage, viewership and the media value of athletes and sports. The results of The International Sports Survey 2011 are quantitative in character and were conducted and coordinated by the author of this paper. The qualitative data – results of the authors own research: individual in-depth interviews and focus group interviews – are of complementary nature. They are used to complement and discuss the information concerning media coverage.

International Newspaper Coverage of the 2013 EuroBasket for Men

This study examines international newspaper coverage of the 2013 European Basketball Championship for men. Generalist broadsheet newspapers in 13 countries on five continents were examined over the course of 1 year (from August 2012 until September 2013) to understand the amount and content of coverage dedicated to this major event. Results show that the host country, Slovenia, dedicated the most extensive coverage to the EuroBasket, followed by Croatia, a neighboring country. Media interest in other countries was very limited and focused almost exclusively on competitive aspects of the tournament (as opposed to organizational, tourist, or cultural angles). Of the newspapers examined, only five covered the event in the months leading up to it and only four reported the final outcome of the tournament. Generalist broadsheets thus displayed limited interest in the competition, contradicting organizers’ assertions and popular belief of widespread promotional and economic benefits deriving from the event. Newspapers from countries that fielded teams at the event overwhelmingly focused on their performances. As setters of the public agenda, mainstream broadsheets exhibit very limited interest in the myriad major sports events organized worldwide. Hosting such events are not by default the promotional and economic boon organizers argue and the public believes.

Marginalised, patronised and instrumentalised: Polish female fans in the ultras’ narratives:

Since the 1990s there has been a growing number of female supporters following football clubs and there is little doubt that they have recently become an important part of the audience for both football authorities and clubs. The process of football’s feminisation is neither simple nor is it taking place in a social vacuum, and female fans are encountering well-institutionalised football fandom culture, which is deeply entrenched in stadium rituals. This paper offers an empirical study of roles assigned to women in football fandom culture and the way in which this has been done in order reproduce a “traditional” social order on the Polish football stands. In doing so, it examines the grass-roots ultras’ magazine To My Kibice (We are the fans) that belongs to an increasingly popular type of fan magazine, which was developed from popular homemade football fanzines in the 1980s. The analyses provide evidence that female supporters are either marginalised (not being counted as regular fans), patronised or instrumentalised by their male peers. These strategies are visible both in language and in the social contexts in which women on the stands are described.

The role of newspapers in the formation of gendered national identity: Polish coverage of women’s and men’s basketball championships:

This study examines how newspapers in post-communist Poland nurture a gendered national identity through their disparate coverage of men’s and women’s European basketball championships. Agenda-setting, framing and social identity theories were used to analyse 502 articles published between 2009–2013. Results show that men’s tournaments received 3.5 times more coverage than women’s events; the gap further widened when Poland hosted the championships. Articles about men’s championships were also longer (314 words on average versus 161). The discourse surrounding women’s competitions was factual whereas the men’s national team’s performances were framed as challenges, matters of national pride, and involved combat and military terminology. Peculiarly, the most frequently mentioned member of the women’s team was its male coach. Findings indicate a significant departure from the communist-era promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment as a source of pride. National identity is nurtured through newspaper coverage of the men’s national team (when team colours and the first person plural are mentioned) but not of the women’s national team.