Football Journalism: The Constant Battle Female Journalists Face
It is not uncommon to see women reporters in the political sphere or even reporting on crime or health, but very few women are sports reporters. Those who do are a “rare breed”, willing and able to face extraordinary challenges. Despite the rise of The Women’s Super League in recent years and the success of the England Women’s World Cup team in 2018, with a record TV audience of 7.6 million viewers, football is still very much a male-dominated industry. Female journalists have certainly been on the rise, with many getting prime-time slots on coverage of the most popular game. Alas, despite still having the same knowledge and expertise as their male counterparts, females are subject to vile abuse online with social media being the catalyst for users to make such hateful, distasteful comments with very few repercussions.
Users on Twitter did not hold back on expressing their opinions about female pundit Karen Carney. A “Silly b***h”, told to “get back in the kitchen”, and to “get the kettle on love”, were among the tamest of comments made as football fans took aim at the ex-England international.
Carney became a victim of an online manhunt after she made comments about Leeds United whilst covering their game for Amazon Prime Video. Carney spoke about the nature of their promotion, suggesting “they got promoted last season because of Covid, in terms of it gave them a bit of respite”. Leeds’ social media team then tweeted the clip of Carney making these remarks with a caption sarcastically using her words.
The tweet was shared to 660,000 followers and Carney’s timeline became inundated with waves upon waves of sexist abuse leading her to delete her social media account. A ‘sense of humour’ is needed for engagement for a club’s social media account, but cyberbullying a pundit for having an opinion crosses many lines. Leeds eventually apologised for the video, but are yet to delete it in fear of more abuse from supporters.
Another female pundit who makes up the small number in the male game is former Arsenal midfielder, Alex Scott. Every time Scott appears on TV to provide coverage for a match, she instantly starts trending on Twitter. Sadly not for the right reasons.
From early September 2020, speculation began to accumulate around Scott becoming the Question of Sport’s next host. Although her position wasn’t confirmed at the time, Scott was bombarded with racial and sexist abuse on social media with fans expressing their dismay over the decision. In some incidences, Scott received death and rape threats, making her fearful about living alone.
“I went through a stage where it really did affect me, some of the comments….”
“I kind of lost myself with my personality because I knew everything that was going on around it. And it’s not until I actually got to a stage where I thought, ‘I can’t take this anymore. It is becoming too much for me’ that I spoke out about it…”
“I’ve been at the forefront and I’m taking all the hits, but I remind myself that I’m doing this for a positive reason. It’s about others getting the chance to come through…”
- Alex Scott talking on episode two of Between The Lines, a podcast hosted by The Independent’s Senior Football Correspondent Melissa Reddy
Scott has since opened up about how this abuse significantly impacted her mental health but has not let it bring her career to an end. She did get the role of host for Questions of Sport, and is, now, also part of the new line up for Sky Sports football coverage after a complete rebrand.
“I didn’t transition into this thinking ‘I want to make headlines’ or ‘I want to be the first female to do this’. I was thinking, ‘why are there not more females…”
“Not for the headlines, I’m passionate about what I do. We need more females. We need this representation. And so for all the stuff that comes with it, the bad side in terms of ‘get back in the kitchen’ or ‘what do you know about sport?,’ I know that there’s a whole other side that actually I am creating these pathways and I’m opening these doors that hopefully will have a whole influx of females that want to be on screen or behind the screen.”
- Alex Scott talking on episode two of Between The Lines
After Sky Sports decided to shake up the popular afternoon show Gilette Soccer Saturday, it presented the overdue opportunity for more females to appear on the panel. And that they did. Sky Sports channelled a more progressive approach, also diversifying their employees beginning with the sacking of Le Tissier, Nicholas and Thompson who conformed to a traditional stereotype of ‘white, old football fan’ giving their opinion. And they welcomed in Sue Smith, an England footballer who has gained a regular and prominent role on the Saturday show.
Though speaking to the Guardian, veteran host Jeff Stelling admitted women found it difficult to break into the scene, due to the abuse they get online and were reluctant to come onto his show:
“Whether it be Sue Smith or Alex Scott the criticism is horrendous and totally unjustified. When we had Soccer Specials, some of the women who’d come in had been very reluctant.
They knew what the response would be, regardless of how good they were. There’s this blinkered idea — It’s a woman, what can she know about football…”
“They’re really experienced. When Sue came in it took her a while to grow in confidence. But she’s terrific value now and done brilliantly. There’s no reason why women shouldn’t feature more.”
Someone who has learned to combat online trolls is TalkSport and Sky Sports Presenter Laura Woods. After receiving a sarcastic comment on one of her posts, she responded to the abuse, gaining a huge amount of likes and respect. Posting a picture of her interviewing former Chelsea footballer Gianfranco Zola, one user replied asking “When are you joining Brazzers, Laura?” Not letting this knock her, Woods replied with an insult that wouldn’t look out of place in a primary school playground stating, “When your mum makes space for the rest of us.” Her response went viral, with football fans across the country singing her praises about how she reacted and her confidence in confronting this abuse.
Woods spoke to the Daily Mirror about women’s ability to work in the industry and the impact social media can have:
“Social media will tell you all the time you’re there because you’re a woman, you’re this, you’re that. But if that was the case, I would have broken into presenting ten years ago…”
“It took me ten years to work to get to this point. People aren’t just going to put you on screen if you don’t know what you’re talking about…”
“You have to work equally as hard as men, and in areas harder because the audience is going to be tough on you because there’s a level of [scepticism] as some may assume you don’t know what you’re talking about or you’re there to balance the books.”
The constant abuse that female journalists receive on social media will only deter females from pursuing a career in football, keeping the industry heavily male-dominated. There needs to be more done by media companies and employers to protect and stop gendered threats and aggression, which could then retain females in this industry. Pundits like Laura Woods, Karen Carney and Alex Scott are paving the way for a new era, acting as role models to aspiring journalists. Yet they too continue to face abuse, it never went away with their success. Instead, they, like too many, are forced to mentally overcome and disregard it. As a society, the football environment needs a rethink in order for women to be able to enjoy and feel accepted in the game, the same way men can. Coverage of the game is constantly developing, and female journalists will only add to a freshened and more diverse look.
Make sure to follow my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts for extra content, and to make sure you never miss a blog post!
