If for some reason you aren’t aware by now, 2023 is a big year for women in sport as we have World Cups scattered throughout the year, hosted by South Africa and abroad. From the ongoing inaugural ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup to the Netball World Cup coming up in July in Cape Town.
With that being said, 2023 presents the perfect opportunity for the media to optimise the coverage of women in sport. Now is the time for us to see Bongiwe Msomi and the SPAR Proteas on the front page of a newspaper, 6-time National Table Tennis champion Danisha Patel introduced to the South African public through coverage on sport bulletins and the like.
For the first IG Live of 2023 gsport writer Lonwabo Nkohla hosted eNCA Sports Journalist and Hloni Mtimkulu to unpack as well analyse how we can take advantage of this year.
How do Newsrooms deal with coverage of women’s sport? Mtimkulu says: “Our default is towards men’s teams and the big three because that’s what it’s been like for 10000 years. It’s only post-1994 that women’s teams started getting established so already with that we are starting on the backfoot where people don’t even know that there’s a Springbok women’s team. So, there’s a lot of education that needs to happen, even us as women.”
Mtimkulu adds though that despite starting on a backfoot, things have been better, we see more women’s sport make headlines. “It’s definitely getting better and what Banyana Banyana managed to do in 2022 moved things up a few notches higher. Things are happening and we are getting to appoint where the national team is a national team despite the gender. Irrespective of where they are playing and how they are doing.”
“There’s a bigger conversation that needs to be had, however, about how when the teams are not doing well then people say, “this is why we don’t watch women but in terms of awareness it has gotten better.”
The 2019 Momentum gsport Awards Woman in TV winner, who is always on the ground and gets to interact with athletes adds that athletes appreciate and see their careers thrive as with more visibility in the media.
“The players appreciate it and recognize that it’s a big deal. When talking to individual athletes who are never on TV they appreciate what comes with being covered and being part of this big media coverage pie.”
As we dive deeper into 2023 and enjoy the number of tournaments on offer this is what Hloni believes will make a difference in advancing women’s sport through increased visibility: “Bafana Bafana, The Proteas or the Springboks can do great or badly, they will always make the news. With the women’s teams we need to be proactive intentional and very deliberate about getting the women’s teams out there.”
For more on this interview – you can watch it live on our gsport4girls Instagram account
(0 rating, 0 votes, rated)
Loading...
