Gender (In)Equity in the Brazilian Paralympic Committee Coverage of the Paralympic Games

Abstract

This study investigated the following questions: Was there gender equity in the coverage by the Brazilian Paralympic Committee of the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games? If not, what were the main differences in the treatment of male and female athletes? We compiled all of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee’s publications during both Paralympic Games editions, computed their distribution by gender, and assessed whether the newsworthiness criteria and aspects of text composition were consistently applied across genders. We conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of all available publications on the committee’s website during both events. We found that women received less visibility, fewer speech quotations, and fewer protagonist roles. Additionally, we observed that the application of newsworthiness criteria favored men. Our findings reveal issues that can contribute to advancing gender equity in the coverage of national paralympic committees and other media outlets.