Masculinity and Femininity in Sports

The media today portrays a culture as well as a way of life. It not only brings us entertainment, it also is a means of today to keep in touch with the outside world. My discussion will be about sport and media and how this is related to the views of masculinity and femininity. I will use this topic to discuss how meaning structures are used and how people apply ‘meaning systems’. I will also include the significance of ‘people using meaning structures as opposed to being used by them’, an assumption made by Alasuutari. The analysis on the articles, which relate to masculinity and femininity in sport, will explore the distinction between how producers and audiences use ‘meaning systems’.

According to Alasuutari and Corner, ‘meaning systems’ are commonly used in media to send out messages to ‘readers’. Communication media constitutes a culture, as they provide contexts in which meaningful expressions are produced and received (Ericson 1995). “There is no single ...