Since I want to go into sports broadcasting, I thought I would switch it up. I am going to call this: Being a woman in the sports broadcasting industry the series. Being a woman is already hard enough but trying to make it in the sports broadcasting industry as a woman is even harder. The topics I am going to discuss are how to break into sports broadcasting as a woman, sexism from fans, and sexism in media outlets.

It is frustrating to break into sports broadcasting as a woman because women have a hard time taken seriously and because people have the stereotype in their mind that females do not know what they are talking about when it comes to sports. This frustrates me because just because I am a woman doesn’t mean I don’t know what I am talking about when it comes to sports. When I see a women’s sports anchor on TV such as Erin Andrews, I immediately take her seriously because she knows what she is talking about. If she did not know what she is talking about, then Fox Sports would not have hired her to be a sideline reporter. Women have to work twice as hard as men do to make it in this industry.

Here are ways how a woman can break into the sports broadcasting industry. One way is to learn what goes on off camera. As for me, I am lucky I got to experience this when I took COMM 360 this past fall and spring semester. Before I took the class, I knew nothing about what it takes to put on a live sports production. After taking the class for football and basketball, I now understand what all goes on. I had the opportunity to just about do everything while taking the class. Another way to break into the sports broadcasting industry is to practice, practice, practice. The best way to do this is use a hairbrush as your microphone and put your iPhone on a stand while you record yourself talking to it. After you are done you can look back at your recording to see how you talk, breathe and on-gesture on-camera so that it all looks natural. It is honestly not as easy as it looks. Trust me. I learned the hard way.

I hope these tips were helpful! If you have any more tips or advice, comment them below! Don’t forget to share this post and blog to your friends and family!