RUNNING HEAD: HUSKYMANIA AND AGENDA-SETTING EFFECTS
Jason W. Sonski
Western Connecticut State University
The media coverage of the University of Connecticut (UConn) women's basketball
team was examined, along with the effects on girl's high school basketball
participation over the past five years. Twenty high school coaches were
interviewed to determine changes in participation levels and the influences
of UConn's media coverage witnessed during practices or games. The results
showed an increase in girl's participation and a changing opinion towards
basketball by adolescent girls. The data collected were then compared to
the rise in television broadcasts and media coverage over the same time
period. Public opinion and agenda-setting research were utilized to further
explain the media's role in the process. The findings correspond with agenda-setting
theory and support the position of the media's power to shape public opinion
towards women's basketball in Connecticut.
The role of the UConn women's basketball team has been at the forefront
of Connecticut news coverage over the past two years. There has been a steady
rising trend since the team's first National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) Final Four appearance during the 1990-91 season. The rise climaxed
after the 1994-95 season when the Huskies were crowned National Champions
and the media barrage was at its highest ever for women's basketball in
the state. Rebecca Lobo, Jennifer Rizzotti and Pam Webber became household
names throughout the state and could be found in every local newspaper sports
section or newscast as the team enjoyed a perfect 35-0 season.
A telephone poll conducted by the University's Laboratory for Leisure, Tourism and Sports showed that a total of about 1.59 million people, two thirds of the state's population, said they follow UConn women's and men's basketball (Shea, 1995). For the majority of people the only mode they received information from regarding the basketball team was from mass media outlets, such as television broadcasts and local television or newspaper coverage. Furthermore, a Quinnipiac College Poll surveying 941 Connecticut residents revealed that 35 percent of the people questioned preferred watching women's basketball games on television, while 28 percent chose the men's team (Associated Press, 1996). This specific fascination and prioritizing of women's basketball in Connecticut is the basis for the following research.
The theoretical understanding for this study stems from agenda-setting research. Familiarity with this branch of mass media theory should automatically trigger thoughts of political campaigning and the shaping of public opinion. Simplified, agenda-setting theory explores the intertwining relationship between the mass media's prioritizing of the news and the shaping of public opinion. It also must take into consideration the public's ability to dictate what are essential news stories.
The significance of this project is to shed light on the issue of agenda-setting beyond the scope of the political arena. The sports world is a microcosm of society as a whole and reflects many of the issues that affect American culture, such as race and gender stereotypes. Therefore, it is possible to take a large encompassing theory and apply it to a smaller realm, in this case, women's basketball. In the political world it is the altering of voters' opinions which is the final ingredient or outcome. For this study's purpose the voters are pre-adolescent and adolescent girls who are witnessing a new importance placed on the issue of girl's basketball. It also extends to these girls' parents and the issue of placing importance on the issue of women's basketball.
The analysis of this topic looks to achieve a better understanding of mass media influence on public opinion, stressing the media's ability to place importance on new issues and change past perceptions. More specifically, this project will suggest the media's influence on shaping public opinion on the subject of women's basketball in Connecticut and show how it has been a prioritized agenda issue. As the media have the power to stress new issues by discussing them on television or in print, they also have the power of exclusion. The exclusion factor is another significant aspect that this project will discuss.
The above principles can be traced back to Walter Lippmann (1991) who suggested in 1992 that the media are responsible for the "pictures in our heads." The essence of the media's influence in this project is achieved by attempting to answer the following question: Has the role of the media had an effect on participation in girl's high school basketball in the state of Connecticut through coverage of the University of Connecticut's women's basketball team over the past five years?
Lippmann (1991) explains the "relationship
between man and his environment of a pseudo-environment." Lippmann
then states: For the real environment is altogether too big, too complex,
and too fleeting for direct acquaintance. We are not equipped to deal with
so much subtlety, so much variety, so many permutations and combinations.
And although we have to act in that environment, we have to reconstruct
it on a simpler model before we can manage with it. To travelers of the
world men must have maps of the world. (p. 12)
According to Lippmann the environment is the world that is really out there,
while the pseudo-environment is our private perceptions of the world. It
is the constructed reality of what is told by others and is impossible for
the individual to attain through personal travels. The news provides us
with images and stories of what is taking place outside the view of our
own eyes and therefore a pseudo-environment is constructed. But as Lippmann
suggests, it is impossible to provide all the happenings of the day, even
with all the reporters in the world. This leads to the media's selection
of what constitutes news and what is important information to convey to
the masses. It is the media which provide the maps of the world to an audience
and determines a social reality that can then be seen or read.
The news affects numerous aspects of our lives (McCombs and Gilbert, 1986)
and has the ability to focus people's attention toward the world beyond
immediate experience. In some cases a person's total behavior can be instantly
and completely dictated by the news. This agenda-setting function is described
by McCombs and Gilbert as follows:
Considerable evidence has accumulated since 1972 that journalists play a key role in shaping our pictures of the world as they go about their daily task of selecting and reporting the news. Here may lie the most important effect of the mass media: their ability to structure and organize our world for us. As Cohen (1963) remarked, the press may not be very successful in telling us what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling us what to think about! (p. 3)
Further explanation can be linked to making the distinction between obtrusive and unobtrusive issues (McCombs and Gilbert, 1986). Obtrusive issues are those with which individuals have close personal contact, while unobtrusive issues are remote from one's personal experience. The news media have a near monopoly on information regarding an unobtrusive issue, such as foreign affairs. The categorizing of a single issue, however, may be different among specific groups of people. For a group of factory workers, unemployment may be highly obtrusive, but for tenured members of a college faculty, unemployment is highly unobtrusive.
McCombs and Shaw (1991) studied the agenda-setting effects of the mass media in the 1968 presidential campaign. The study attempted to match what Chapel Hill, North Carolina, voters said were key issues of the campaign with the actual content of the mass media used by them during the campaign. Over a three week period 100 registered voters were interviewed in five Chapel Hill precincts economically, socially, and racially representative of the community. A filter question was used to identify those voters who had not made a definite decision on who to vote for in the election. A pretest had determined that almost all the mass media political information came from eight sources, which included four daily newspapers, two national magazines and two evening news broadcasts.
Media news content was divided into "major" and "minor" categories to determine the emphasis of issue importance in the news coverage. For example, major items were defined for television as any story 45 seconds or longer and/or one of the three lead stories. The evidence in this study according to McCombs and Shaw (1991) states "...that voters tend to share the media's composite definition of what is important strongly suggests an agenda-setting function of mass media" (p. 25). The fact that very few people deal directly in presidential campaigns leads to the assumption that the primary sources of information are coming through mass media sources. Even the interpersonal communication being relayed is based primarily on the mass media outlets.
A basic question in the analysis of agenda-setting research is, "Who affects the media agenda in the first place?" (Littlejohn, 1996, p. 343). Media agendas can transpire from a number of varying sources with each having a certain amount of power. Littlejohn explains four different power relations between the media and outside sources. The first is the high-power source and high-power media, which is a combination of two sides agreeing and having a combined power over the public agenda. For example, this would be a politician who has good relations with the press. The second type is a high-power source and lower-power media, which is when a politician buys airtime or grants the press an interview. The third form is a low-power source and high-power media. In this case the media organizations themselves dictate their own agenda. The final type of combination is where both media and external sources have low power and the public agenda will probably be set by the events themselves.
Lemert (1981) explains the need to clarify the term public opinion as "a perception imposed by the perceiver on information about citizen attitudes toward a publicly debated issue, personality, candidate, practice, or outcome" (p. 12). Perception must be looked at as a subjective process, where the perceiver tries to construct an impression of present public opinion and also attempts to anticipate a public reaction to a move then being considered. In his research Lemert states three kinds of changes in public opinion outcomes that can be brought forward by the mass media: "(1) changes in the amount, composition, and intensity of participation, (2) attitude change, attitude formation, and object change, and (3) changes in the relative power of participants" (p. 12).
Lemert defines an attitude as "...a state of affect felt by the individual toward what is, for that individual, a psychological object" (p. 12). A psychological object is anything that the individual considers to be one, such as a song, a flower, a politician, or any public figure. Two forms of attitude effects according to Lemert are attitude change and attitude formation. Attitude change is seen as a conversion from one view to its complete opposite, while attitude formation is the creation of an attitude such as a mother telling a child, "That's a no-no!" (p. 22).
Lemert summarizes the effect of mass media as collectors
of attitude information as follows:
Obviously, the news media can and do change information about citizens'
attitudes merely through their decisions to cover (or not to cover) this
information. The situation definitions imposed on this information often
indirectly affect the power of political actors, making it harder or easier
for them to concentrate their resources...We also may predict that reports
of citizen attitudes may affect the tactics being used by lobbies in the
influence framework. (p. 214)
The idea of news framing is another important factor
in looking into the agenda-setting process. Kosicki (1993) states that it
is key to study how particular issues are framed and offered to the public.
Gitlin (1980, as cited in Kosicki, 1993) defines media frames as:
Persistent patterns of cognition, interpretation and presentation, of selection, emphasis and exclusion, by which symbol handlers routinely organize discourse, whether verbal or visual. Frames enable journalists to process large amounts of information quickly and routinely: to recognize it as information, to assign it to cognitive categories, and to package it for efficient relay to their audiences. (p. 13)
According to Williams, Shapiro and Cutbirth (1991), the media often convey issues relevant to a campaign, but do not provide an implicit campaign frame. Their study looked to answer the following question: "If the logic of framing pertains to the agenda-setting process, then the media should have the most impact on the perceived importance of campaign issues when they give issues a campaign frame" (p. 254). Altering from the McCombs and Shaw original study, their method coded the news media into 136 content categories. These categories were then broken down into 12. The media content came from a daily newspaper (only weekday) and three evening newscasts (only weekday) on television. The data set consisted of the media agendas presented during the 1980 presidential campaign.
The second data set, the audience agenda, consisted of 482 telephone interviews, where people answered the following question: "When talking to others, what is the most important presidential campaign issue?" (p. 255). The results expressed the importance of framing as a crucial content variable in the agenda-setting process. It also indicated "that votes need a frame or point of reference for determining the campaign relevance of news" (p. 258). A distinction was deemed vital between non-campaign and campaign labeling in the related media coverage.
Since McCombs and Shaw, the area of agenda-setting research has seen over 200 articles on the topic as discussed by Rogers, Dearing and Bregman (as cited in McCombs and Shaw, 1993). The key years of 1977, 1981, 1987, and 1991 have been major times for published agenda-setting articles, focused mainly around presidential campaigns.
Different methodologies are now being directed
towards similar questions in the future of agenda-setting research. Rogers,
Dearing and Bregman (1993) list four topics which future studies will look
to address:
"(a) How is the media agenda set? (b) Why do "real-world indicators"
of an issue not play an important role in the agenda-setting process? (c)
What are the cognitive processes involved in the agenda-setting process
at the individual level? (d) How can we measure the public agenda more accurately?"
(p. 79)
The media are continually active in the construction
of meanings that become identified with specific images and themes (Greendorfer
and Kane, 1994). In the realm of women's sports the media are responsible
for reinforcing images of women athletes or creating new ones through their
coverage. Betterton (as cited in Greendorfer and Kane, 1994) states:
That particularly in times of change, it is erroneous to view stereotypes
as rigid, fixed and resistant to change. Clearly, media practices are not
neutral. To date, media portrayals of women in sport have reinforced gender
stereotypical ideology, and by so doing have set limits to interpretations
and meanings of women's engagement in physical activity, as well as limiting
how their athleticism is to be demonstrated. (p. 40)
Greendorfer and Kane do not argue that men and women conform to many gender role expectations, but suggest that gender difference is translated into gender hierarchy. This is seen in current social conditions where females are defined not only as "other than" but as "less than" (p. 29).
The underreporting of female athletes can also be traced to the limitations placed on women in sports. Boutilier and SanGiovanni (as cited in Greendorfer and Kane, 1994) analyzed covers of Sports Illustrated published from 1954 to 1978. They found that female athletes represented less than five percent of all coverage given to athletes during the time period.
A study by Rinatal and Birrell (as cited in Greendorfer and Kane, 1994), analyzed Young Athlete magazine from 1975 to 1982 and found that "the magazine creates an impression that the world of sport is dominated by males" (p. 35). Less than one third of all the pictures in the magazine included females. This study showed the lack of availability of women athletes for female adolescents.
The previous finding is crucial when applied to
Cathcart and Gumpert's findings (1986), who argue that an individual's self
image is partly media dependent. This article looks at the topic heuristically,
exploring the role of the visual mass media and their links to an individual's
self image. The first step is to define what they are referring to as "self."
They use George Herbert Mead's explanation discussed by Morris (as cited
in Cathcart and Gumpert 1986):
Mead claims that the self is formed in the process of social experience and it develops in the individual as a result of that process (Morris, 1962). According to Mead and others, we are not given a ready made self. A self image is worked out in process. It is based on our daily physical and social activities. Self image arises and takes form through communication; through the symbolic and experiential processes which are part of human existence. (p. 91)
The discussion then shifts to the socially approved roles exhibited by television. Cathcart and Gumpert (1986) write that according to Mead the "role taking is a process of taking on the role of another person in order to be seen as others see that person...role taking begins early, usually in the childhood play stage, and goes on throughout life" (p. 99). In order for this process to be successful in the sculpting of a self image there must be socially approved role models available and "opportunities to try out the roles and to receive reinforcement" (p. 99).
This study was based on a series of questions administered to 20 high school coaches, an interview with Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) Division III women's basketball coach Jody Rajcula, [the national success of the UConn women's basketball team, media coverage observation of the Huskies and data from outside agencies.]
Coaches were interviewed from the following 20 schools: Henry Abbott Technical School, Bassick High School, Bethel High School, Brookfield High School, Danbury High School, Darien High School, Fairfield High School, Greenwich High School, Harding High School, Immaculate High School, Joel Barlow High School, Masuk High School, New Fairfield High School, New Milford High School, Newtown High School, Pomperaug High School, Ridgefield High School, Stamford High School, Stratford High School, and Trinity Catholic High School.
All of the interviews were conducted over the telephone except one. A list of seven questions (Appendix A) was developed in order to gauge the levels of participation in girl's high school basketball. The questions were as follows:
(a) How long have you been coaching girl's high
school basketball?
(b) How long have you been coaching at your current position?
(c) How has your participation varied over the past five years or during
the time you have been at your current position?
(d) Have you become more involved in watching UConn women's basketball
over the past five years?
(e) Have you witnessed the girls on your team discussing the UConn women's
basketball team?
(f) Have you used and UConn references or stories in conversing with your
team?
(g) Do you think the popularity of the UConn women's basketball team will
lead to a greater participation rate among high school girls?
The first two questions were used in order to measure the amount of experience by each coach in the girl's basketball arena. It is also important to know how long the coach has been at the current position to determine personal knowledge of that individual's program. The seven coaches who had been at their current position for less than five years all had knowledge of previous participation levels at their school The 20 coaches have a combined 160 years of girl's high school basketball experience and average 7.15 years at their current positions.
Question (e) was asked in order to determine if players were discussing the UConn team. Questions (d) and (f) revealed if the coach emphasized the UConn team.
The answers revealed that all 20 coaches have witnessed girls on the team discussing the UConn team in some context (ex. talking about the previous day's game on television or discussing a specific player). Fourteen of the coaches, 70 percent, reported that they have used UConn stories at practice or in discussions with players.
To further ascertain the coaches' impact and knowledge of the UConn team, question (d) attempted to determine a trend in their following of the team through the media. Nineteen coaches said they have become more involved in following the UConn team over the past five years. All of these coaches attributed the rise in the accessibility of the team on television as being the main influence in effecting their increase. The one coach who reported no involvement in following the team stated time constraints as the primary reason.
In discussing participation levels, 13 coaches, 65 percent, indicated an increase over the last five years in the number of players trying out for the team. A majority of the coaches weren't able to give exact numbers, but stated more girls were participating in the program.
This participation information corresponds with data provided by the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), which marked an increase of 128 girls from the 1990-91 season through the 1994-95 season (Appendix B). The biggest increase from one year to another occurred between the 1993-94 season and the 1994-95 season, where there was an increase of 99 players. The yearly totals increased according to the CIAC data, while the number of schools used to gather information decreased by two over the five year period. The largest difference among grades came between grade nine (freshmen) and grade 12 (seniors). Over the five year period the number of freshmen players rose from 1,403 to 1,624, a difference of 221. The number of senior players decreased by 98, from a total of 546 to 448. It should be noted that the CIAC results do not include the 1995-96 season, which is included in the coach's assessment.
Four coaches noted that they had to make cuts (turn away potential players) for the first time. One coach said the participation numbers went from 24 in 1990 to 60 in 1994, while another said that the number of girls increased from 30 in 60 over the same time period. Approximately 35 players are kept on the team to play at either the freshmen, junior varsity or varsity level.
Nine of the coaches were able to provide insight on girl's basketball participation beyond the scope of high school basketball. These coaches discussed involvement with pre-adolescent girls and basketball. Their involvement stemmed from working in an area middle school, participating in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) teams in the state or working for summer camps. All of these coaches described dramatic increases in participation over the last five years. A coach involved with the Newtown Park and Recreation Summer Camp stated an increase of three girls in 1994 to 38 girls in 1995. Rajcula, who directs a summer camp at WCSU, claimed the participation rose from 50 to 212 over the past five years.
The AAU is an national organization which offers athletes from ages 11 to 18 an opportunity to play competitively against other teams on a local and national level. The basketball season runs during the spring and summer months. To join the Connecticut Starters, which is the oldest AAU team in the state, registration fees total $1,500 for each player. Since the program was instituted in the state in 1988, six more branches have been added to compete for talent with the Connecticut Starters.
In 1983 the total number of girls participating across the nation in the AAU basketball programs was 7,643 and it has increased each year, reaching 79,643 in 1995. The total number of girls participating in Connecticut for 1990 was 401. In 1995 the number of registered girls playing increased to 984.
The three ingredients coaches attributed to the rising interest in basketball was the overall media coverage of women's basketball in the state, the success of the UConn women's team and the proceeding formation of role models for young girls.
The success for UConn began during the 1988-89 season when the team recorded a 24-6 record on its way to a first-ever birth in the NCAA tournament. The 1988-89 season was the beginning of the current streak of eight straight winning seasons. The "winning" image attributed to the women's program is what the coaches deemed as having a major impact.
As the team has become more successful the media coverage has also grown during this period. This "bandwagon" effect as one coach labeled it, is a regular occurrence in the college sports world when a program takes on new success.
The first media impact analyzed is the increase in games broadcast over the last five years. Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) broadcast three games during the 1993-94 season; this number rose to 16 the following season and reached an all-time high of 18 for the 1995-96 season. In 1995, CPTV signed a contract with UConn and the NCAA to broad cast 51 games over a three-year period.
The television coverage also includes the cable networks of Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) and ESPN2. These two networks have had an increase in women's basketball coverage with more regular-season games being broadcast. The 1995-96 season marked the first year of full NCAA tournament coverage by the ESPN network. CBS had the rights to tournament coverage since 1982 and had never shown first-round games. ESPN showed all the games and also ran commercials promoting the tournament two months before the start of the broadcasts. During the previous years, ESPN broadcasted the early-round tournament games that CBS did not air.
In the print media, coverage of the Huskies has increased at a more rapid pace than its television counterparts. Sports sections, such as The Danbury News-Times had specific beat writers covering the team and reporting on game action and other news information on a daily basis. The team also received front-page sports space on a regular basis, including both a photo and story.
All of the 20 coaches expressed the media's coverage of the UConn Huskies as exposing positive role models for young girls in the state. These girls were now given the opportunity to see and read about women athletes in the basketball world. This fact is supported by the viewing of coaches witnessing players discuss the team and by coaches then being able to use examples.
The findings in the study reveal an increase in the number of girls participating
in basketball at 20 high schools and a corresponding increase in mass media
coverage of the UConn women's basketball team. This paper argues that the
occurrence of greater participation is an effect of an agenda-setting process
by the mass media.
The basis of this argument is in the fundamental explanation of how people rely on outside sources or mass media to attain information (Lippmann 1991). It is television and newspaper coverage where the majority of adolescent girls acquire information regarding the Huskies. If it was not for the mass media prioritizing this as an important topic, therefore broadcasting and reporting on games, then many girls would never have the opportunity to see or read about the team. It can then be maintained that if the media did not effectively tell the public "what to think," it at least directed them in "what to think about" (Cohen, as cited in McCombs and Gilbert, 1986, (p. 31)). The "what" in this study is the topic of women's basketball. Through the media's greater and positive coverage of the team it has lead to a direct affect of more girls participating in the sport.
Although the Huskies play a number of home games, practice in the state, and attend local events, the team should be considered unobtrusive. The ability to see a game "live" or attend a practice is minimal. Therefore, as with a presidential election, close personal contact with the issue is not feasible. McCombs and Shaw (1991) found that voters shared the media's definitions of what is important. What the media portrayed as being key campaign issues were given priority coverage and the same effect occurred involving the Huskies. Television stations, such CPTV and ESPN decided to place a greater importance on the issue by broadcasting more games. Television newscasts included UConn results and news on a regular basis, along with newspapers having coverage of games and player profiles.
Not only did the increase in coverage occur, but the framing of the topic is a key tool applied by the media. The women's coverage was presented and framed in a positive light and the importance of the issue was stressed by journalists in their coverage. It is obvious that women's basketball is framed in the category of sports, but the scene extended to hard news and the stressing of exposure for women athletes. For example, on March 29, 1996, The Danbury News-Times placed an article and full-color photo of Rizzotti on the front-page of the newspaper (Koonz, 1996). This was also done by other publications over the past two years, such as in react magazine where Rizzotti was placed on the cover holding a basketball (Clark, 1996). The shift in placement to the front page is not only a change in prioritizing, but of framing women sports as vital news.
Unlike political campaigning and news coverage, where framing is often altered, women's basketball is seen by the public as labeled in the category of sport. According to Williams, Shapiro and Cutbrith (1991) the ability to link issues and relevance is vital in the agenda-setting process . It was not necessary for the public to decipher where the news of the UConn team would be framed in its coverage, due to the clear relevance of the issue.
Using Lemert's (1981) definition of attitude, a combination of both forms (a) attitude change, and (b) attitude formation, have occurred in the study. For adolescent girls the attitude could be the shift from seeing women athletes as non-competitive figures to the exact opposite, Cahn (1994) expresses the battle women athletes face in having to re-define "femininity" in relation to sports and the slow historical acceptance that accompanies the issue. Among younger girls, exposure could have the effect of creating an attitude towards women's basketball, such as it being fun to play and socially acceptable.
Lemert's discussion on the effect of the media deciding what to cover is also crucial with attitudes. The simple fact of not broadcasting or covering the Huskies would keep attitudes towards women's basketball the same a s in the past. In the previous scenario the public would not be able to witness and decide for themselves if they enjoy following the team, the decision would have been made by the media, which chose not to report on the topic.
The exclusion of women's sports from media coverage expresses the most obvious limitations. A reason for the growth in girls basketball participation in the state is the breaking away from past norms. For the first time in sports history young females in the state of Connecticut are being regularly reinforced with images of female athletes in the news. Basketball has been portrayed as a sport for both sexes. The studies conducted by Boutilier and SanGiovanni (as cited in Greendorfer and Kane, 1994) express an overwhelmingly one-sided form of coverage in favor of men. Although the media coverage of sports in general still favors men, the trend was altered over the last five years by the UConn women's team. Even at the schools where the participation levels were not reported as increasing, discussion of the Huskies was taking place. This occurrence is a case of agenda-setting principles taking effect by the media telling girls "...what to think about!" (Cohen, as cited in McCombs and Gilbert, 1986).
The growing nature of women's basketball coverage in Connecticut has shown the effects of the media's ability to change stereotypical thinking towards female sports. The stereotypical traits, such as women athletes being "masculine" or not being as competitive as men are not rigid (Betterton, as cited in Greendorfer and Kane, 1994). These can be changed and the increase of games broadcasted is a direct link to the media altering attitudes.
The question, "Who effects the media agenda in the first place?" asked by Littlejohn, 1996, (p. 343), is a combination of a number of factors in the study. Obviously, the UConn women's team aided in setting the agenda by providing a "winning" product. It could be argued that the public opinion set the agenda of women's basketball in Connecticut, but this appears to be minimal. If it were the case then the "word of mouth" lines of communication throughout the state would be enormous. In this day and age people gather the majority of their non-personal knowledge through mass media sources. And with this fact, it can be stated that the media have set the public issue of women's basketball. Other influences on the media to be considered are the NCAA and financial incentive.
Due to Title IX legislation, which states that universities must give equal financial support to both women's and men's athletics, the NCAA has had to put a greater emphasis on women's basketball. Another key factor is that women's basketball has been affiliated with the NCAA since 1980, compared to over 50 years for men's basketball. During the 1979 women's championship game which was under the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), NBC left coverage of the game on the air and showed sky diving (Reigeluth, 1996). The money generated from advertising for media outlets is what sustains their business. Without the advertising revenue coming into their pockets, ESPN would not be able to survive on the air. The reason they are able to do so is because companies want to buy airtime during their broadcasts to pitch products to millions of viewers. It appears that the greater coverage in women's basket ball is also reflective of more advertising money being put into the market. The presentation of the games on ESPN is as professional and in-depth as coverage for the other sports aired on the station. Studio hosts and broadcasters with years of experience in the field continually give positive acclaim to the women's game through the telecast (Davenport, 1996).
The results in this study could lead to a number of future studies. It is important to note the inability of this study to get direct analysis on what is attracting more girls to participate in basketball. This would have to be accomplished by surveying adolescent girls and finding how much of an impact the Huskies coverage had on them choosing to play basket ball. Deciphering to what degree each girl followed the team through the season or watched games on television would be vital information. The feedback from players would give a more accurate reading to the impact of the mass media, beyond the perceptions and conclusions from coaches.
The interviews with coaches revealed an even greater impact of the media coverage on pre-adolescent girls. Attending basketball camps and AAU practices throughout the state would allow the researcher to ascertain trends. The CIAC data showing a greater increase in freshmen participation coincides with the phenomenon of basketball throughout the state having its biggest impact with pre-adolescent girls. The fact that the mass media coverage of the Huskies has been at its highest for the last two years, suggests that the true measure of participation will be in the next two to three years.
The fact that the UConn women's team has been at the forefront of women's basketball the last two years could also be addressed in different studies. If the team's winning percentage were to fall dramatically, how would it affect media coverage and high school participation rates. This path leads to the question of whether or not the fact of "winning" must be at a certain level for the team's coverage to have an effect.
The study conducted concentrated on a small portion of Connecticut high school basketball, and whether this is representative over the entire state cannot be proved from the results. A study based on 100 coach's feedback would better describe the effects statewide .
The scope of the study presented in this paper was narrow not only in the state, but on a national level. The growth of women's basketball throughout the country and the mass media's impact would bring greater results. It would also allow comparisons to be made from state to state. The history of women's basketball is different in varying states, with factors such as having successful programs and fan support. A comparison of the Connecticut basketball scene to other states with top programs such as California, Tennessee and Texas may lead to a more complete study of agenda-setting effects on girl's high school basketball.
A national viewpoint would allow for a greater sense of the three most important implications found in the study; (a) the ability of the mass media to alter public opinion by prioritizing an issue, (b) showing the direct effects of this prioritizing by an increase in girls participation rates , and (c) showing direction for further studies involving the sports world and mass media.
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Appendix A
Interview Questions
1. How long have you been
coaching girl's high
school basketball?
2. How long have you been
coaching at your current position?
3. How has your participation varied
over the past five years or during
the time you have been at your current
position?
4. Have you become more involved in watching UConn women's
basketball over
the past five years?
5. Have you witnessed the girls
on your team discussing the UConn women's
basketball team?
6. Have you
used any UConn references or stories in conversing with your
team?
7.
Do you think the popularity of the UConn women's basketball team will
lead
to a greater participation rate among high school girls?
Appendix B
Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) Girl's High School Basketball Participation Rates From 1990-91 thru 1993-94
| 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th | Total | Number of Schools | |
| 1990-91 | 1,403 | 1,028 | 716 | 546 | 3,693 | 170 |
| 1991-92 | 1,529 | 1,050 | 618 | 525 | 3,722 | 167 |
| 1992-93 | 1,506 | 1,015 | 691 | 542 | 3,754 | 168 |
| 1993-94 | 1,624 | 998 | 721 | 448 | 3,821 | 168 |
| Total Exp. | Current Position | Participation Variance | Player's Discussion |
| 20 | 20 | same | yes |
| 16 | 8 | increase | yes |
| 15 | 12 | same | yes |
| 14 | 10 | increase | yes |
| 13 | 9 | increase | yes |
| 12 | 12 | same | yes |
| 9 | 9 | increase | yes |
| 8 | 6 | increase | yes |
| 7 | 6 | increase | yes |
| 7 | 5 | increase | yes |
| 7 | 2 | same | yes |
| 6 | 2 | increase | yes |
| 5 | 5 | same | yes |
| 4 | 4 | same | yes |
| 4 | 3 | increase | yes |
| 4 | 4 | same | yes |
| 3 | 3 | increase | yes |
| 2 | 1 | increase | yes |
| 2 | 2 | increase | yes |
| 2 | 1 | increase | yes |
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