REPRESENTATIONS OF FEMALE ATHLETES IN THE TURKISH MEDIA: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THREE NEWSPAPERS

The aim of this study is to analyze the representations of female athletes in major Turkish newspapers. Content analysis method have been used to analyze the news related to athletes over a one month period (01-30 April 2011). The findings of this study indicated that the female athletes were underrepresented in three newspapers (Zaman, Posta, Hürriyet). Of the 1169 news texts in which athletes names were mentioned 6.9 percent were concerned with female athletes, 91.1 percent male athletes, and 2 percent both female and male athletes. It was found that female athletes’ gender roles were emphasized in one third of the news in which their names were mentioned.