Credibility of female sportscasters: college students\u27 perceptions of women in the field

Women are becoming more accepted as athletes in the United States today and are making big strides of improvement in proving themselves as competitors, but women will not truly earn their place in the sports world until they are acknowledged as being an intelligent, credible voice of sports information as well. While the number of women athletes is on the rise, their acceptance in the field of sports media as female sportscasters and commentators is still far from earning them the equality they deserve. It is not enough to have women be the face of the newsroom or broadcast booth based off of looks and personality; they must also be credited for the brains behind the story. This experimental research study looks at the field of sports media through the lens of assigned gender roles present in society within the United States, takes an inside look at women who have successfully entered into this career and their perceptions of how much progression has been made towards equality, and studies what the future of sports media looks like for women and subsequently, men. The objective of this quantitative study is to survey students to determine factors that influence audience\u27s perceptions of the credibility of female sportscasters. A total of 308 respondents were surveyed using an online pilot questionnaire. Data from the survey was analyzed in SPSS 20 using linear regression and tested for correlation to determine which factors provided the most variance in assigned credibility --Document