Master of Education in Human Movement, Sport, and Leisure Studies Graduate Projects

Abstract

We live in the Golden Age of Journalism, where the high demand for news continues to open possibilities and opportunities for established and upcoming journalists. As cell phones and social media quickly replace the newspaper, the broadcast television world is booming now more than ever. Broadcast news includes a large range of ways to deliver information; television, radio, Facebook Live and Periscope are all examples of ways broadcasting has transformed at the local, regional and national level. As a television sports broadcast journalist at the local and regional level, I have witnessed first hand the way broadcast journalism has developed. However, this study and project goes beyond the way news is delivered, and instead, behind the scenes of life as a broadcast journalist – specifically a woman in sports. This study is a journal of my real life experiences as a sports anchor at KPRC 2 (NBC) in Houston, Texas. The project is structurally based off the ESPN book, Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside World of ESPN – which includes excerpts from interviews with current and former employees at ESPN. Those Women Have all the Headache: Inside the World of Sports Broadcasting, will take you on my yearlong journey covering the 2015 Houston Texans NFL season and 2015-16 Houston Astros MLB season. The project includes examples of gender bias, stereotypes, and the many challenges women face in the world of covering sports. My journal chronicles just two seasons of my seven-year broadcast career and sheds light on the uphill battle women continue to climb for fair treatment as a sports journalist. My journal is full of very personal experiences that I’m excited to share in hope of a better future for women in the profession I love. Those Women Have all the Headache: Inside the World of Sports Broadcasting will go onto the fields, into the arenas and inside the locker room of life as a woman in sports television.

Advisor

Vikki Krane

Second Reader

Jacquelyn Cuneen, Amanda Paule-Koba

Semester

Summer

Year

2016

Degree

M.Ed.

Program

Sport Administration

COinS