Name: Noam Jankelowitz
Social Justice Group: 2020-2021, Women and Sports
Date of Fieldwork: February 5, 2021
Person (people) with whom you met and their title(s) & Name of Organization: Max Kellerman, ESPN Broacater, Firts Take Sports Show Host
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:
I learned a lot from our interview with Max Kellerman, something that I thought was the most interesting is that he said how for the WNBA and WNBA players to get more popular is by telling their story. This was something that I never thought of, but made sense. He said that the famous athletes you know, you only know them because people told their story. Right now on this date WNBA player’s stories have not been told keeping them less popular and making less money than men. Another thing Max said that totally changed my perspective was that he said on his sports show, First Take, the balance of men and women’s sports were in his words, “100 to 1.” He said this because sports broadcasting is all about demand and the only two sports he talks about on his broadcasting show is football and basketball, simply because they have the highest demand in population. By statistics in their viewers they tune in the most viewers and get the best ratings when they talk about football or basketball because they are more popular and that’s what people want to watch. Women’s sports on the other hand isn’t as popular and they lose money when they talk about their sports because less people like it and so they don’t tune in making them lose viewers and money. Something else that he said that was interesting is that women get paid so much less because they aren’t as popular, fewer people want to watch women’s sports because there’s more hype in men’s sports and would rather watch men’s games. The only way to bring in viewers to women’s sports is by telling the women player’s stories on their achievements, goals, and how they got there. If you spread that word it can bring more people in to watch and be more interested in women’s sports. Max stated that, “In the short run broadcasting networks will lose money by broadcasting a lot more women’s sports, but in the long run people will start to see the games because they’re all over and gather interest in watching them.” This will make the broadcasting networks more money in the long run and increase women’s sports popularities by a lot making them way more money, but it’ll just take time with some up and downs. Another thing that can help spread popularity is by access, most main stream sports broadcasting channels don’t play women’s sports, but by gathering more channels to do play it, it’ll grant people more access to channels they own and watch more women’s sports. All the things and statements Max brought up gave me more understandings on how broadcasting can bring in more popularity, and the more popular the sport is the more money the players will be making and bring them a step closer to equality between them and men’s sports. Spread the stories and in the long run the process will happen to bring equal paychecks in all sports, no matter the gender.
