This interdisciplinary research network explores gendered aspects of the ongoing digitization across three groups of women in sport: coaches/referees, athletes and journalists. Media and communication technologies have recurrently been involved in the institutional shaping of sport, and sports journalists are considered important institutional agents in sport. The gender bias in sport has been underpinned by media whose regular coverage has largely focused on male sports and been informed by male media professionals. As media coverage establishes the ground for enhancing revenues substantially (sponsorships and rights), the scant, irregular attention from especially mass media has had immense consequences for women in sports, who have had limited access to resources and processes of professionalization.
Digital technologies, sport, media sport and journalism are all fields characterized by masculine hegemony. Therefore we ask in which ways increased use of digital media and communication technologies and a growth in specialized use of digitally created and communicated data sets are experienced as a new structural condition shaping women’s inclusion/exclusion and practices in relation to sport in profound ways? How does it intersect with existing patterns of inequality across the three groups? And to what extent and how are policy shaping organizations related to women’s professional activities reflecting on and taking action on digitization as a new structuring force shaping women’s opportunities in their field?
In three explorative workshops each group of women in sport is explored through knowledge exchange between media and sport scholars, between academic experts and representatives from media and sports organizations and by collaborative analysis of empirical data
