Masculine Hegemony in March Madness?

The primary goal of this textual analysis was to examine narratives and descriptors sportswriters used when covering the NCAA Division I women's and men's basketball tournaments (March Madness). Drawing principally from a masculine hegemonic framework, this research examined articles published with bylines over a 26-day period in 2006 coinciding with March Madness. Articles came from The New York Times, USA Today, ESPN Internet, and CBS SportsLine. There were two parts of this methodology: a priori coding and a qualitative data analysis. First, two individuals each coded 508 articles for descriptors from nine specific categories derived from an extensive literature review. The author later wrote theoretical memos and employed the constant comparative method to search for dominant themes. Coding results contradicted the gender-specific stereotypes found in previous research and did not support the presence of masculine hegemony. Most of the articles (76.4%) focused on men's basketball. However, sportswriters used a higher average number of descriptors on physical appearances, personal relationships, and emotional weaknesses in articles about men's basketball than women's basketball. Males authored 86% of all articles. Females wrote 65% of their articles on women's basketball, but males still wrote 61% of all articles on women's basketball. Results based on the gender of sportswriters showed notions of masculine hegemony were present in the quality of writing amongst male sportswriters. Males who covered men's basketball were more likely to use descriptors on athletic prowess than females who covered either women or men. Females covering women's basketball did not uphold masculine hegemony, as they used three times as many descriptors for athletic prowess than females who covered men's basketball. Masculine hegemony was prevalent in the five themes emerging from the qualitative analysis: (1) He was always on my mind; (2) She must have been a tomboy; (3) Women still don't have next; (4) The real hegemonic order in media coverage of college sports: football, men's basketball, and then everything else; (5) Parents are newsworthy, especially athletic fathers. References to male athletes were commonplace in stories on women's basketball, but no male athlete in any men's basketball article was compared to a female athlete.