How balanced is the media’s gender representation of sport in New Zealand? That’s just what Sport New Zealand set out to understand with a high-profile project aimed at moving the dial on women’s visibility in the sports media.

In a presentation beamed in from Wellington, New Zealand, the digital crowd at the AMEC Virtual Global Summit on Measurement hears from Ngaire Crawford, Insights Director, ANZ iSentia and Phil Clark, Strategic Communications Manager, Sport New Zealand. They explain the aims, methodology and outcomes of this project to support the participation of women and girls in sport and active recreation.

Sport New Zealand set out to gain a clear picture of the balance – or otherwise – within sports media coverage, and then used the data as a tool to advocate for greater visibility for women in sport. With three women’s world cups coming to New Zealand in the coming few years, the time seemed to be right.

Using qualitative, human-driven analysis of 76,000 media items and over 100 different markers in print, broadcast and online, the analysis focused on a randomised daily sample of sports news coverage. The balance of coverage was found to sit at 15% for women.

Commenting on this topline finding, Ngaire said: “In isolation that’s not a great figure – it’s an incredibly low representation of women. But it’s important to acknowledge that this is significantly higher than what we can see going on in other countries. The global average is 4%.

“And the quality of the reporting on women is so much better than we’ve seen in other studies. We couldn’t find problematic framing or overt sexualisation of women in the coverage.”

Phil outlined how Sport New Zealand is now using the data to change behaviour, focusing on core stakeholders such as the media, organisers of sporting events, and the New Zealand government.

“When I’m talking to the media, they want to know where their own organisation sits – some are a little under 15%, some are a little over. Competition kicks in, and no one wants to be last. So, this is a real starting point.”

With more analysis planned, along with case studies and stakeholder engagement, this hugely important work will continue as New Zealand Sport helps to bring equality to the sports pages.