Selective Storytelling: Race and Gender Bias in Media Coverage During the 2024 NCAA Basketball Tournament

Abstract

This thesis investigates the media coverage of the men’s and women’s Final Four teams during the 2024 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I basketball tournament. While women’s sports, especially basketball, have seen a rise in popularity over the last few years, media coverage has not reflected that change. Existing research suggests that coverage often utilizes language that reinforces gender and/or racial stereotypes to maximize audience engagement. While prior research has investigated differential media coverage by race and ethnicity for both male and female athletes, very few studies examine the difference in media coverage of men’s and women’s basketball. Collegiate athletes’ experiences are also rarely analyzed from a sociological perspective. Thus, I aim to address these gaps by conducting a qualitative content analysis of 66 Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) articles from two weeks prior to and following the 2024 tournament to analyze the framing of each team, their star players, and their experiences in the tournament. I find evidence of narratives that reinforce gender, race, and ethnicity stereotypes related to the disparity in coverage of men’s and women’s basketball, the prevalence of storylines, the representation of star players, and the role of rivalries in sports. Through this thesis, I address how media can prioritize equality by better representing diverse groups of athletes in and beyond the collegiate sports space.