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Sex Roles (2008) 58:116126 DOI 10.1007/s11199-007-9344-8
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The Effect of Sport Commentator Framing on Viewer Attitudes
Heidi M. Parker & Janet S. Fink
Published online: 24 October 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007
Abstract An experimental analysis was conducted to determine the effects of involvement, commentator framing, and gender on viewer attitudes toward female athletes. The sample was comprised of 112 students at a midwestern university in the United States. Hypotheses and research questions were tested through a 23 multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results indicated the overall MANCOVA was significant. Involvement was positively related to viewer attitudes towards the dependent variables and explained 27.8% of the variance. Gender explained 39.3% of the variance in attitudes as male viewers had significantly lower mean scores on all dependent variables. Male viewers had significantly lower scores than female viewers in the positive framing condition; the interaction explained 8% of the variance in viewers perceptions of respectability of female athletes.
Keywords Framing . Involvement . Womens sports
Introduction
The purpose of this study was to empirically measure the effects of differential commentator framing of a Womens
National Basketball Association (WNBA) game on viewers attitudes toward female athletes: (a) athletic ability; (b) respectability; (c) aggressiveness; (d) femininity; and (e) participants general attitude toward female athletes. This research is grounded in the framing theory which posits attitudes and thoughts can be shaped or influenced simply by what information is presented and made to seem important to as well as by what information is left out (Entman 1993; Tuchman 1978; and Gitlin 1980). We also draw from the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion (Petty et al. 1983) in examining the role involvement with womens sport plays in mitigating the effects of framing on participant attitudes. This research used a true experimental design in which the commentary of a televised WNBA game was manipulated to test the hypotheses and examine the research questions. We believe our study is an important first step in extending research which has noted the extreme disparity between the treatment of male athletes and female athletes in the media yet has failed to test the effect such differences have on a viewing audience.
There has been a considerable amount of research examining the way...