Historical Text First ever Match of the day

Match of the day first began in 1964, and today still is probably the most commonly known TV show associated with football within England. Though at first many did not get to see it as every household did not have BBC2 in 1964, match of the day did gradually become of greater popularity as the years progressed.

Match of the day would clearly be good to use as an historical text too include in my essay, as i can easily compare what it covered in the past to now. For example prior to recent times as in the late 1990's and early 2000's match of the day did not provide any coverage of women’s football at all and overall neither did BBC sport. In the past there was a much more emphasis on football being tightly associated with just a male audience, however today women are generally being more and more included as an audience.

The fact that everyone being interviewed to talk about the first match of the day coverage in 1964 are men, reflects greatly how football was solely targeted at men and there was a great lack of appeal to women to take an interest in it. In addition the target audience back in the 1960's for match of the day appears to be a middle class audience, as BBC 2 was not easily obtainable by everyone. However now Match of the day can be viewed by everyone who has a TV, as in it is likely to be directed at a more working class audience as well as a middle class one. This may have had some influence over why women in England took a lack of interest in viewing football, or taking interest in being involved in the sport at all, as match of the day in England was a key cause of the development and popularity of football.

Introduction to essay

How Far are women represented in football and the media?

There is clear evidence to prove that women have been playing football almost since its ancient existence in the Han dynasty (25-220 AD), when it was anciently known as “Tsu Chu” [1]. But despite women’s involvement in the sport dating so far back, the sport clearly receive much less media coverage and generally much less acceptance by the public then there is for men’s football. There are arguably a number of reasons for this the most commonly perceptible being that women simply do not play the sport as good as men. There are a number of causes that have prevented and till date hinder the progression of women’s football. Under a century ago “Despite being more popular than some men's football events” [1] within the U.K. the most notable historical ban in women’s football the "1921 Football association ban on women playing football" [1] was introduced. Despite such preventions to the women’s football it has gradually in recent times has began to be much more socially acceptable. For example the china world cup 2007, had so much viewer ship and was so popular worldwide, it to an extent caused outrage and was the key cause for debate amongst many people who did not expect the event to be so widely enjoyed and entertain [2]. However despite there being many historical limitations and limitations existing till date, women’s football has now progressed to become "one of the worlds fastest growing sports [3].


Links used
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's_football_(soccer)
[2]http://www.fifa.com/womenworldcup/news/newsid=610976.html
[3]http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=u9YGVblAc1oC&dq=soccer+women+and+sexual+liberation&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=a6OfGcxY8j&sig=NuWnnckd8LORgkbwg3-UObeQl4w

Books used

Hong,F.A.,Mangang,J.A.(2004): Soccer, women and sexual liberation. USA,CA:Routledge

Response to interim report

I think my interim grade ( C ) was both fair and accurate. I think i am working on about a C at the moment, however i think my grade will probably improve by the next raising achievement day, as this is the first half term of A2 media studies.

In order for me to push my grade up from a C i need to:

. Concentrate more during lessons
. Further improve my essay writing skills
. Contribute more during lessons and make more of an effort

Further research internet and book

This Website briefly summarises womens football and talks of where and when it started. Much of the information can be used in my independent study whilst discussing SHEP

This website provides a detailed description of Laura Mulvey's male "Gaze" theory, a key theory and theorist that i will make references to in my independent study.

This is the website of the guardian, which includes a story stating that Gabby Logan is the best sports trivia presenter , that has been around for a long time. Gabby Logan is a key example of acceptance of females in the sports media, who i can mention in my indepdent study.

This is the website of Soccer A.M. a key programme that i will be making references to in my study.


This website provides a detailed explanation of gender representation within the media, and includes many links to other websites that are useful to make references to in my independent study.

This website provides a historical look at women and gender differeneces.

This website is from the guardian and goes into detail about female stereoetypes, within the media.


O'Sullivan, Tim, Dutton,Brian, Rayner, Phillip(2003) : Studying the media. London, UK- From this book i have taken down key chapters that i will need to look back on, in order to include in my independent study. In particular chapter four representation and realism is a key chapter that includes a lot about female representation, stereotypes, gender differences e.t.c., within society. It provides a great amount of information, on all the aspects of SHEP that i will need to make key references to in my independent study. In addition the book also presents many key issues and debates, within the chapter that i will be looking to make references to within my independent study.

10 keywords

Audience Profile- Advertising/marketing term for personal characteristics for members of a target audience, of a media product. Can be used in my study as the f.a., and all other boards adveritising womens football have to take into account their audiences profile, to attract them in the best way possible.

BBC- British Broadcasting corporation. This is a key institution to take note of in my independent study as they aired the womens world cup-China 2007.

Campaign- Organised range of activities and texts, by groups seeking to persuade or influence public opinion, delievered by the mass media. Useful keyword to research as there as likely to be campaigns for the progression of womens sports.

Lads Mag- Lifestyle magazine targeted at youngment. Useful to use in study, very popular, and often thought to be patriarchal preaching magazine.

Male Gaze- Term used by Laura Mulvey to describe women on screen as sex objects for the gratification of men. A key theorist to make mention on whilst discussing representation of women

Post-Feminism- Part of the postmodern perspective that takes the achievements of feminism for granted and views it as ineffectve due to current condition of women and identity choices they face. Useful to make reference to in study.

Right-Wing- Having conservative or fascist political leanings, being in support of the dominant ideology and the status quo. Such groupls likely to be not so much in support of the progression of womens sports, likely to support traditional family values i.e. housewives.

3 More things to Research

. Me and karandeep are going to swap books that we have taken out from the library, with each other and find relevant key points from each others books, to include in our independent studies.

.We're also going out to carry out internet research about theroists who speak of female representation in the media.

. Furthermore we will be aiming to go through each others blogs, to find delicious links, textual analysis, key words e.t.c. that we can both make use of in our independent studies and post up on our blogs.

Blog Buddy Resarch

Me and Karandeep both decied to research some books or websites that are relevant to female representation in society historically and at present, that we can both make use of in our independent studies.

- This website greatly explains, female represenation in the past up till now in society. It has many key points to show the distinction between men and women, and also lists books that would be of key relevance to include in my independent study.

This book is an extract from gender and identity by David Gauntlett. It includes a range of key information highly useful and relevent to my independent study.

This website is writing about how football has failed women. It argues that media coverage of the womens world cup was appaling, and how people are only interested in watching football if it is men that are playing.

This website includes a range of information on gender and includes relevant information on the SHEP aspects of my study and explains in detail gender representation.

This website describes how minority groups are stereotyped within the media. It talks of many media industries such as advertising, film, the radio e.t.c. and how women are particularly stereotyped in many media markets.