The RESIS Institute for the needs of the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services (AVMU) prepared the Analysis "Gender in the media 2021: Gender issues and the way of representation of women and men in the sports program of the national terrestrial televisions". This is the first analysis that provides quantitative and qualitative insight into how much and in what way national televisions report on female athletes and sports, as opposed to male athletes and sports.
The analysis showed that informing about sports and sports events and the transmission of sports competitions has a significant place in the overall program scheme of the Public Broadcasting Service. The public service conducts a well-thought-out and consistent editorial policy related to sports, that is, it has genre diversity and obviously a great diversity of sports presented, which are given a significant duration. However, the program of the three analyzed channels - MRT 1, MRT 2 and MRT 3, is dominated by team sports in men's competition. In addition, the sports newsrooms are dominated by journalists against the marginal participation of female journalists, and on the screen as interlocutors, men sports workers or sports experts are much more present.
The private televisions TV Alfa, TV Sitel, TV Kanal 5, TV Thelma and TV Alsat-M devote significantly less time to sports compared to the Public Service. Among the five private televisions, there are visible differences in the ways in which they cover sports events and in the attention they give to sports, and in the regular sports news program - considering individual and team sports - there is a predominance of sports in men's competition. Women sports experts are almost completely absent from the regular program of the private televisions, opinions and analyzes about sports events were mainly sought from male sports workers.
The results of this research will enable the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services to create future regulatory policies, as well as encourage the media in the Macedonian media space to fulfill their legal obligations related to the establishment and promotion of gender equality in programs.
