| Course | MT240 Sport in Society |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 3 |
| Paper type | Media representation analysis |
| Length | About 1,100 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT240 Unit 3
Seventy-Two Percent of the Crowd, Fifteen Percent of the Stories: A Unit 3 Media Representation Analysis of a Women's Soccer Club
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT240: Sport in Society
Unit 3 Media Representation Analysis
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The metro area, both clubs, the newspaper and every count are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.
The Case
A composite metro area in the Southeast has two professional soccer clubs sharing a stadium: a men's club in a second-division league and a women's club in a national top-division league. Over their shared twenty-six-week season, the women's club averaged about 7,800 spectators a match and the men's about 10,800, so the women drew about 72 percent of the men's crowds. Both clubs are covered by the region's daily newspaper, in print and online.
Method
Every story in the newspaper that mentioned either club during the shared season was collected, 252 stories in all. Each was coded for the club covered, word count, placement, number of photographs, number of direct quotations and main topic, using six topic codes: match report, tactics and analysis, player profile focused on athletic career, player profile focused on personal life, business and attendance, and community event.
Two readers coded the stories independently. On a random fifth of the sample, they agreed on about 89 percent of codes, and disagreements were settled by discussion. Cooky et al. (2021), in their long-running study of televised sports news, used a similar approach of coding all coverage in a period and comparing amounts and framing by gender.
How Much Coverage
The men's club received 214 stories and the women's 38, about 15 percent of the total. The men's stories totaled about 131,000 words and the women's about 17,900, about 12 percent, so women's stories were also shorter on average. The men's club appeared on the sports section front 31 times and the women's twice. The men's stories carried 188 photographs and the women's 29. Men's stories quoted an average of about 4.1 people and women's about 2.4.
If coverage followed attendance, the women's club would have received about 42 percent of stories, close to its share of the two clubs' combined crowds. It received about a third of that.
What the Stories Talk About
The topic codes show a second difference. Among men's stories, about 52 percent were match reports and about 19 percent tactics and analysis, so nearly three quarters dealt with the sport itself. Among women's stories, about 34 percent were match reports and only about 5 percent analysis. About 29 percent were community features, such as players visiting schools or a clinic for girls, and about 16 percent were profiles focused on personal life, such as motherhood or a player's second job. The rest were business stories about attendance.
So even when the women's club was covered, coverage often treated its players as role models or community figures rather than as athletes whose performances deserve analysis. Cooky et al. (2021) found a similar pattern on television, where women's sport received little coverage and much of it was delivered in a lackluster or trivializing tone, though they also noted that framing had improved over three decades.
The men's club was covered as a team that wins and loses; the women's club was covered as a good cause.
Photographs and Voices
The photographs repeat the pattern in a different medium. Of the men's club's 188 photographs, about 70 percent showed players in action during matches. Of the women's club's 29, only about 40 percent did; the rest showed players posing with children at clinics, smiling at a sponsor event or with family members. A reader scanning the sports pages saw men's players running, shooting and tackling, and women's players posing.
The quotations tell a similar story. Men's stories quoted the head coach, players and often an opposing coach about tactics, injuries and results. Women's stories quoted players and the club's community relations director more often than the coach, and the questions behind the quotes were more often about life off the field. Kane et al. (2013) found that elite female athletes, shown different kinds of media images of themselves, preferred images of athletic competence over sexualized or personal ones, which suggests that coverage built around the players' lives off the field does not match how many athletes want to be represented.
One Month Compared
A closer look at the busiest month, September, shows how the pattern works week to week. Both clubs played four home matches. The men's club received 41 stories, including a preview and a report for every match and three tactical analyses. The women's club received seven: three match reports, two community features, a profile of a player who also works as a teacher and a story about record attendance. One women's home match, a two to one win over the league leader watched by more than 9,000 people, received a 280-word report on an inside page.
Why This Pattern Persists
Several explanations fit. Editors may assume readers want men's sport, based on long habit rather than current attendance. The men's club may have more staff and a more active media office, supplying more access and quotes. And reporters assigned to the women's club may be general assignment writers rather than the soccer beat reporter, which would explain fewer tactics stories. Bruce (2016) argues that media representations of sportswomen are changing, with more coverage that treats them as serious athletes, but that older patterns persist alongside the new.
Coakley (2021) notes that media coverage helps construct which sports and athletes are seen as important, so the pattern matters beyond fairness: it shapes future attendance, sponsorship and the visibility of women's sport to young players.
Limits
The analysis covers one newspaper and one season, so it cannot say whether television or social media coverage differs. Online stories were counted but page views were not, so the analysis cannot test whether women's stories drew fewer readers. And the topic codes, though tested for agreement, involve judgment, especially between athletic and personal profiles.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Coverage of the women's club fell far below what its attendance would justify, and when it came, it emphasized community and personal stories over the sport. The newspaper could assign its soccer beat reporter to both clubs, set a target of match reports and analysis for every women's home match, and track page views to test whether reader demand is as low as its coverage implies. The women's club could help by expanding its media office and offering tactical access, such as coach interviews before matches.
References
Bruce, T. (2016). New rules for new times: Sportswomen and media representation in the third wave. Sex Roles, 74(7-8), 361-376. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0497-6
Coakley, J. (2021). Sports in society: Issues and controversies (13th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Cooky, C., Council, L. D., Mears, M. A., & Messner, M. A. (2021). One and done: The long eclipse of women's televised sports, 1989-2019. Communication and Sport, 9(3), 347-371. https://doi.org/10.1177/21674795211003524
Kane, M. J., LaVoi, N. M., & Fink, J. S. (2013). Exploring elite female athletes' interpretations of sport media images: A window into the construction of social identity and "selling sex" in women's sports. Communication and Sport, 1(3), 269-298. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479512473585
Reading the MT 240 Unit 3 instructions
The Unit 3 assignment asks for an analysis of how media represent a group of athletes, a sport or a team, using a defined sample of coverage rather than general impressions. The prompt usually leaves the group open, gender, race, disability or nationality, but expects a clear question, a method someone else could repeat, and findings compared with published research on sports media. Choose one outlet, a set period and a few countable features such as story counts, word counts, placement, photograph type, quotation sources and framing. State coding rules and, if two people code, report how often they agreed. A typical length is five or six pages, with tables or charts, three or more scholarly sources, APA 7 throughout and composite figures labeled.
How this MT240 Unit 3 example is built
The analysis opens with the two clubs, their crowds and the paper's coverage share, and a margin note explains that attendance is the benchmark. The method section defines the sample, every story on either club over the season, and how two readers coded a fifth of it. A coverage section then computes what the women's share would be if it followed attendance and compares it with the actual counts. A section on story content finds family and personal life framing in 26 percent of women's stories against 7 percent of men's, with the highlighted line on a team covered as a good cause. Photographs and quotations come next, then a side-by-side month, an explanation of why the pattern persists, a limits section and recommendations aimed at both newsroom and club.
Reading the MT240 Unit 3 grading rubric
Media representation analyses are usually graded on the research question, the method, the findings, the link to published research and presentation. A method that names the outlet, dates and coding rules earns more than a description of what the writer noticed. Findings score well when they are quantified and shown in a table or chart, and when they compare the group with a benchmark such as attendance or a counterpart team. Graders reward interpretation that uses research, for example Cooky's long decline in televised women's sport, to explain the pattern rather than just repeat it. A limits section, for example one outlet and one season, shows honesty. Clear charts, correct APA references and composite labels where data are invented complete the marks.
Common MT240 Unit 3 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Many students write a media analysis from memory, saying coverage is unfair without counting anything. Another common problem is a sample so small, a week of stories, that no pattern can be trusted. Some papers count stories but not words, placement or photographs, which hides how coverage differs once a story runs. Others skip a benchmark, so readers cannot tell whether a gap is large. Watch for framing categories that overlap, and define each before coding. Recommendations should be practical for the outlet named. If you are choosing between outlets, our writers can help you pick one whose archive is searchable for a whole season and set coding rules before you start counting.
Get an MT240 Unit 3 example written to your instructions
Choose the coverage the analysis should examine, a paper, a broadcast, a team's social feeds, and say which representation question your Unit 3 prompt poses. Send the rubric too. A first custom analysis with a defined sample and coding rules comes back free within 24-48h, its figures composite unless the prompt supplies real ones. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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MT240 Unit 3 questions, answered
What is a content analysis in media representation research?
A systematic count of features in a defined set of media, such as stories, photographs or broadcast minutes, using categories fixed in advance. It turns impressions about coverage into figures others can check. The example counts stories, words, placements, photographs and framing for two clubs over one season, using rules written before coding began.
Why report agreement between coders?
Because some categories involve judgment, such as whether a story frames an athlete through family life. Having a second person code part of the sample independently, and reporting how often the two agreed, shows whether the categories are clear enough to trust. The example's 89 percent agreement on a subsample is presented with the definitions that produced it.
Does media representation analysis have to focus on gender?
No. Race, disability, nationality, age and class are all common focuses, and some prompts leave the choice open. The method stays the same: define a sample, fix categories, count and interpret. Gender is frequent in course readings because research on sports coverage has tracked it for decades, which makes comparison with published findings straightforward.
Where can I find a free MT240 Unit 3 sample paper?
You can read the complete MT240 Unit 3 media representation analysis on this page. It codes 252 stories from one season of a composite daily paper, compares a men's and a women's soccer club and reports coder agreement.
What does the MT240 Unit 3 sample find about photographs?
Action shots made up 79 percent of the men's club photographs and 45 percent of the women's, with posed portraits making up the rest, one of several gaps the analysis reads against published research.