Sidelining Women and Their Achievements: Representing Women Sports in Bangladeshi Newspapers
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Abstract
Abstract
In academia, there is a long debate that female members of society are dominated by the hierarchy of a male-dominated society. It is also argued that women are dehumanised, sidelined, and undermined inside society and in social institutions such as mass media. Examining two mainstream newspapers—the Prothom Alo and the Kaler Kantho—published in Bangladesh, this study argues that this is a fact for Bangladeshi mass media. It discursively argues that Bangladeshi newspapers set the agenda to sideline the achievements of female footballers in the context of the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Women Championship 2022. This study also discursively argues how these newspapers keep silence and omit information about the achievements of Bangladeshi female footballers, which undermines and dehumanises them. . Through examining the coverage of news and editorials appearing in these newspapers, this study observes that while male sports are covered prominently from the outset at the national and international level, in the SAFF Championship female competition was not on their list of preferences until they confirmed the championship cup. This study also identifies that, from the committee members to the members of the ruling elite, none expected that the championship trophy would come through our female footballers. This is one of the reasons for the under-representation of our female footballer. Therefore, the female footballers received no encouragement from the authorities and the media as well. The findings demonstrate that Bangladeshi newspapers’ construction of women's sports is much lower than that of men's. This study further argues that their coverage was conditional—for example, unless they won the championship cup, the coverage would never be higher.
Key words: Women, Sports, Newspaper, Sidelining, Football, Dominated, Bangladesh
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