In the basketball community, it is important to recognize which part of the discourse community actually benefits from the media’s rhetorical appeals. Both the men’s and women’s programs follow very similar strategies however, these efforts only profit for men’s basketball. Both men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams use their social media platforms to gain fans, viewerships, and future attendees to their games. When looking at a NBA or a WNBA team’s Instagram page for example, one can find current updates of record scores, schedules. These kinds of posts display logos because by constantly presenting statistics on their success can appeal to an audience to want to follow the team more and stay updated. Teams also tend to post interviews with the athletes, and entertaining clips of the players which is an example of pathos because it can connect with a fan’s emotions. Even though both programs follow the same rhetorical appeal of logos and pathos, the numbers in viewership and fans between men’s and women’s basketball is significantly different. This problem could be caused by multiple aspects; gender construction based off of women’s historical viewership statistics, physical difference, and overall gender biases.
The media created gender norms and stereotypes in the basketball community. A framework was created around focusing specifically more on the male athletes. This system is supported by televised coverage that prioritizes men’s basketball. Women do not lack talent in this sport, but due to the social construct, they are immediately ignored by men’s teams in all sports that are typically male dominated. According to a study published on The Charger Online, they explain that gender stereotypes within the basketball community were socially constructed for men. For example, the article states, “While men’s games receive full coverage, women’s games often struggle for advertisement, leading to fewer opportunities for fans to engage with the sport. This cycle continues the idea that women’s basketball is less important or entertaining”(Stereotypes in Women’s Sports: The Matter of Basketball, 2025). This article provides evidence from past NCAA tournaments where televised sports channels focus and prioritize men’s college basketball while women’s basketball was struggling to even promote advertisements. This showcases that the media focuses on men which is a huge reason why women’s basketball have to fight harder to gain an audience.
The media favors men’s basketball over women’s and there are some ideas why this might be. Many argue that men’s basketball is simply just more entertaining to watch than women’s basketball. There is no evidence to prove or disprove this statement however, the physical differences between the two genders is a huge contributing factor to the entertainment value. In a study conducted by Human Kinetic Journals, it states in the abstract, “Female players performed at greater running work-rates than male players…, while male players performed more dribbling than female players ” (Gender-Specific Activity Demands Experienced During Semiprofessional Basketball Game Play). This indicates that both genders have an upper hand in different areas of the sport. Based on the statistics in the study, in general men are physically more skilled in dribbling. This is a large part of the entertainment aspect when watching basketball; men can also do other skills such as dunking a basketball while it is not as often to be seen in a women’s game. Although the physical differences are proven to be true, this indicates that viewers could create unconscious bias without even realizing it. Women also have higher skill sets in other areas of the sport but it easily gets overlooked and ignored due to a gendered construction that was created by the media.
