A student journalist has complained to the National Council for the Training of Journalists over its ‘football dominated’ sports journalism exam.
Abby Rugg, left, who is studying at City College Brighton and Hove, claims the training body has “issues surrounding sexism.”
She said the exam, which awards around half of the overall marks for a report of a football match, does not do enough to encourage more women to go into sports journalism
Abby aired her views in a recent article for Broadcast magazine, which is also reproduced below, after interviewing the female football commentator Jacqui Oatley.
She wrote: “Subject boards like the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) should be doing more to encourage potential female sports reporters to gain a sports journalism qualification.
“As a journalist who wants to report on horse racing, I find it disheartening that the NCTJ does not do enough for potential sports writers like myself who believe football is a male-dominated sport and still has issues surrounding sexism.
“I complained to the NCTJ board directly about the high emphasis the syllabus and exam place on football, claiming that it is lazy and unfair. The NCTJ chief examiner for sports journalism responded that to work in any sports department, journalists need to have a basic knowledge of football.
“As Jacqui said, it seems strange that 50pc of the marks go on a football-related question when that is not what everyone wants to do.”
The chief examiner, former Swindon Advertiser editor Dave King, responded: “The NCTJ sports syllabus has been drafted carefully working in conjunction with employers as well as colleges and universities to provide a balanced curriculum which reflects the needs of the industry today.
“Those core skills are tested rigorously in the exam, which is spread over two papers and which incorporates a wide variety of sports and sporting issues. The syllabus and exam are regularly updated, for example we have recently included Gaelic sports within the exam questions to cater for Northern Ireland students.
“At a recent NCTJ sports seminar held at Leeds Trinity University, which was attended by sports lecturers and journalists from across the UK, the issue of any perceived football-bias of the exam and the need to encourage more women to move into sports journalism was discussed. Without exception it was felt that the syllabus and exam properly equipped journalists with the right skills to step into the industry, irrespective of their sex.
“Football is this country’s national sport and trainee sports journalists working on most sports desks would be expected to have a good understanding of football, even if it wasn’t their main assigned sport. However, the sports syllabus is not just about football, it is about providing an understanding and in-depth knowledge of a wide variety of sports.”
Here is Abby’s Broadcast article in full.
Since Andy Gray and Richard Keys’ sexist off-air comments about female referee Sian Massey, sports media has been under constant scrutiny. Arguably, subject boards like the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) should be doing more to encourage potential female sports reporters to gain a sports journalism qualification.
As a journalist who wants to report on horse racing, I find it disheartening that the NCTJ does not do enough for potential sports writers like myself who believe football is a male-dominated sport and still has issues surrounding sexism.
The NCTJ sports journalism exam awards 50% of the overall marks based on reports written about a football match – not one seen in live play, but one that has been televised before, giving knowledge-able football writers, particularly men, an advantage.
And what if I did want to specialise in football? Gabby Logan’s recent programme Sexism in Football? highlighted how the sport is still deep in sexism. But even though there is still a long way to go on and off the pitch, things are changing for the better.
Jacqui Oatley told me how she battled criticism when she was announced as Match of the Day’s first female commentator. She was concerned that an exam like the NCTJ’s could put off the very females the industry needs to encourage, and agreed there should be more leeway for women for whom football is not their thing.
She didn’t agree with the exam’s emphasis on football, though she understood why the NCTJ structures it that way, as it is the dominant sport in the country. Her belief is that if someone wants to write about other sports, there should be no reason for the NCTJ not to provide alternative footage to report on.
As an aspiring sports journalist whose interests lie beyond football, I would encourage the NCTJ to broaden its coverage, to give a greater range of sports journalists a chance of gaining a sports-writing qualification.
I complained to the NCTJ board directly about the high emphasis the syllabus and exam place on football, claiming that it is lazy and unfair. The NCTJ chief examiner for sports journalism responded that to work in any sports department, journalists need to have a basic knowledge of football. Today’s journalists, the examiner argued, work in multimedia newsrooms and require the ultimate flexibility. That is the foundation of any sports journalist.
The NCTJ has looked at alter-natives such as swimming, tennis, speedway and athletics, but remains wedded to a 90-minute sport for the part A exam. Football it remains, then.
As Jacqui said, it seems strange that 50% of the marks go on a football-related question when that is not what everyone wants to do.
Sports newsrooms should represent the viewers, a third of whom are likely to be women.
I am sometimes faced with doubt about my decision to become a sports journalist. Jacqui conceded that women in this world have to prove themselves. But she urged me to remember: “In any male-dominated industry, you are going to get people who are generally against the fact that you exist.”
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My understanding from reading this is that Abby Rugg doesn’t like football but prefers horse racing instead, which is fair enough. How that equates to sexism in sports journalism though God only knows. Good luck with the career in sports journalism Abby, not sure how far you will get unless you land a job on the Racing Post.
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What does Abby want – a different exam for each different sport? That’s not feasible.
Football, as a popular sport, was absolutely the right topic for this exam as most entrants should be able to give an answer.
You don’t get news trainees saying they will not answer council questions in because they are only interested in crime or the environment. Her attitude is ludicrous.
How many sports departments now have reporters who only cover one sport? They don’t. They need to be adaptable.
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Has Abby ever read the sports pages of a newspaper?
Football utterly dominates. That is likely to be reflected in an exam for a sports job.
It’s a bit like taking a news journalist exam and complaining there are no questions on TV feature writing but loads on court reporting.
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She could have made a valid point about the scope of the exam but not sure how it is sexist to have to do a report on football?
In the news exam I had to write about Bee keeping. I have no interest in writing about bees but I had to do it.
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As I’ve written before: “Don’t say you want to see the world, but complain when you’re sent to Djibouti”. Journalists are professionally curious, which means being required to write about subjects they’re not expert on.
A sport journalist would be expected to know about popular sports, including those with a larger male audience, just as an entertainment journalist would be expected to know about popular shows, including those with a larger female audience.
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Tosh. It’s the national sport, the most widely supported and one of the greatest participation sports in the country. The exam has to reflect what most sports reporters will be writing about.
If a trainee wants to specialise after the exams, fair enough.
But you cannot seriously expect a) football to be ignored and b) separate exams for minority sports.
It’s the same for news reporters. If you want to specialise that’s fine, but you need to get the basics first. You don’t get different exams in crime, health, music or whatever.
This has nothing to do with sexism. Far more women follow football than any other sport, including me.
This is to do with one reporter’s favoured sport and dislike for another.
Of course there’s sexism in football.
But are you seriously suggesting horse racing is not sexist or dominated by rich old men?
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Not one usually to support ladies in sports journalism, but on this occasion I will. Sport does not mean football. There are many of us who have been sports journalists who tire of the obsession with football. Editors hover over your shoulder when there’s a football story brewing, or talk like they are Alan Hansen when football-related issue rears its head, yet mostly they blink and turn away when other sports are mentioned. I remember my editor once asking who Paul McGinley was when we ran a golf story once – days after he had been the Ryder Cup hero. We hardly covered cricket at all, despite being in Yorkshire, until they got within a win of the County Championship in 2001. I can give many other examples. Basically, there is far, far more to sport than football, as we will see at the Olympics this year, at Lord’s, at Twickenham, at Cheltenham Races, at Aintree, at Wimbledon, at wherever the Open is being played, at Silverstone, etc etc and to purely use football as an indicator of someone’s sporting knowledge is typical of this ailing, failing industry. Rant over.
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@Scott
In a strange way you have proved that Abby is wrong.
If sports coverage is (rightly or wrongly) heavily football focused then it’s only right the exam (which let’s not forget is to prepare you to go to work at a paper) should reflect that.
If sports graduates are turning up to job interviews and have no knowledge of football or how to do a match report then could it not be argued that the NCTJ was failing to prepare them properly?
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To Scott McHugh, fair enough that you don’t think it should necessarily be football. But surely you don’t agree it’s sexist to include a football question…? That would also be quite patronising to all female football fans.
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Football is king in sport and she’s studying for a sports journalism degree.
Is she a one-trick pony and complaining because she knows she wouldn’t pass a task outside her narrow comfort zone?
Her daft wild sexism accusation is insulting and belittles her gender. What an own goal.
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What a load of old tosh.
Even if the NCTJ gave candidates a choice of, say three different sports to report on in the exam, horse racing would not be one them.
No newsroom in the country has enough staff to allow reporters on the sports team not to cover something as widely written about as football and most of the skills the exam is testing for are transferable to other sports.
I am a news journalist. I don’t like covering certain stories but I do as it is my job.
Unless she is planning on writing for a racing magazine, I imagine Abby will have to do similar.
A pointless moan.
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Abby, Abby, Abby….
Next time someone offers you a penny for your thoughts I’d strongly advise you to cash in.
The size of the chip on your shoulder is matched only by the utter pointlessness of your argument.
Football is the national sport. Of course it will feature prominently on a journalism exam.
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Let’s deal in facts here. Football sells regional newspapers. Not news, not features, not gossip and certainly not horse racing.
Football is also the national sport.
As a result, the vast majority of writers on sports desks are expected to have a modicum of footballing knowledge, whether it is at non-league or league.
Sure, you can pigeon-hole yourself as a specialist covering horse racing but you’re not going to get a job at many places. Well, apart from the Racing Post.
This is not sexism, this is fact. Besides, don’t women also play football?
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Dear God.
I’m sure editors will be falling over themselves to invite this first-class moaner to join the team, er, stable – sorry.
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The real world awaits, Abby.
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Of course there is more to sport than football. But ask what the readers want, see what the papers publish. Most dailies’ sports output will be easily more than 50%, with the exception of those patches more dominated by rugby, or during the summer where cricket gets more coverage. Abby’s argument is utter tosh and I’m sure deep down she knows it.
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Abby seems to think that when she gets a job on a local paper, she’ll be able to report on whatever sport she feels like covering. In fact, she’ll be doing as her editor tells her and that’ll be football.
The NCTJ prepares people for the job they will be doing, not the job they want to do.
And criticising football for sexism while saying you prefer horse racing smacks of hypocrisy – at least the former is aware it has a problem and is trying to act on it. Most in the sport of kings won’t even know the meaning of the word.
Good luck getting a sports reporting job which doesn’t involve some degree of football coverage, Abby.
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Broadcast Magazine seems like an odd place to be complaining about a qualification designed to prepare you for working in print.
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I do sympathise with Abby despite arguments to the contrary. I agree she can’t dismiss football entirely, but neither should football be used to judge the calibre of a sports journalist. Some of the finest sports journalists of recent times – Ian Wooldridge, Simon Barnes, Athers, Alan Lee etc etc etc – have been more passionate about sports other than football. I also wager that there are many millions of sports fans out there who see life beyond football and would like to read copy from someone who appreciates the aesthetics of other sports
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As for horse racing having a problem with sexism – give over! Tanya Arnold and Claire Balding come to mind, never mind Henrietta Knight, Hayley Turner and Nina Carberry.
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A non-sexist term of endearment that my father calls my mum – ‘silly mare’.
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Not only is Abby’s argument weak at best and nonsensical at worst, her article reads as though it was written by a high school student – grammatically laborious and inelegant. She also seems to be under the misapprehension that ‘alter-natives’ has the same meaning as ‘alternatives’.
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At least she is knowledge-able………………
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I think Abby’s article is well written and makes a good case for a change to the NCTJ syllabus. It’s a sports exam not a football one and while I can see that it needs to be included in the exam, it seems unfair to give it 50 percent weighting when there are so many other sports that journalists want (and will be expected) to cover. Well done for Abby for having the initiative to challenge the NCTJ. Good point, well made.
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There is perhaps some legitimacy in arguing that too much emphasis may be placed on football – maybe an options orientated system of questions would be more flexible where a student was able to choose between reporting three different sport matches. Although I can appreciate the emphasis on football as it does pretty much dominate sports reporting in this country and is obviously something that needs to be covered in the syllabus, if it is a 50% football report year on year (which is what I’m assuming based on the article…?) then that is possibly slightly monotonous.
However, I think tying this into a sexism issue is utterly irrelevant. Almost the entire sporting world probably retains an element of sexism to some extent. And to imply that any focus on football would ultimately scare women away is stereotypical and somewhat patronising in itself. This comes across rather like a desperate attempt to make a feminist statement by forming a tenuous link between a simple exam paper and a much wider, more complex issue.
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Is Ruth, Abby?
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Look at the newspapers, Sky Sports news, any sports website – it is dominated by football, any sports journalism exam not accepting this is failing the demands of the industry.
Personally why is it sexist? Why can’t women report football is the same way as men? Believing football is a man’s game is very short sighted and Rugg should do some research about the amount of women now attending matches.
I think the comments above should put her right. Beside it’s rare to become a specialist sports generalist before you’ve done some general news or even sports reporting first.
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In her rush to defend the sisterhood, Ruth has overlooked the most offensive aspect of Abby’s thesis – that the NCTJ is sexist for giving footy the weighting it merits.
She could have made her flawed argument without playing the sexism card. So it’s a bad point, very poorly made.
Are Ruth and Abby on the same course?
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I think you are all missing the main point here. Sport IS NOT football. Football is a sport, but one of many. Just because it every newspaper goes over the top about football, it does not mean it’s the only sport. I know many journos who came through the ranks doing other sports and never touched football – probably the most well-rounded sports people I know. Anyone can turn their hand to writing a bit about football, and football knowledge alone does not determine your sporting knowledge. Knowledge of football should not be used to determine someone’s ability to be a sports journalist or anything. Every Tom, Dick or Harry thinks they know about football, but not everyone knows about showjumping, or athletics, or ice hockey, or golf, or swimming, or what have you. Those people are the true sports fans and the people who should be coveted more than those who are one trick football ponies.
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With jobs thin on the ground chances are naieve Abbey is not going to get her (very specialised) job preference straight away.
She may go on to find that a bit of experience writing football reports will stand her in good stead and make her much more employable.
There is nothing sexist about it either, horses are not a female-only domain, look at John McCririck!
This is the equivalent of saying: “I don’t want to go into local government reporting and I’m annoyed that I have to take the PA exams.”
The NCTJ courses aim to produce good all rounders, and specialising this early could be a recipe for disaster!
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@ Scott – ‘I know many journos who came through the ranks doing other sports and never touched football’ REALLY!!! I find that very, very hard to believe. Even the golf correspondent at my old paper used to sub the kids football.
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Any good sports writer should be able to cover any sport, I reckon. I covered many sports including golf, figure skating, athletics, horse racing, bowls and rowing, as well as being the paper’s football writer (on a sports desk of eight btw). I dont see this as a sexism issue – although I don’t see any reason for the NCTJ not being more imaginative in their exam content…
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I’m a news reporter and I spent the weekend writing about football, so for a sports journalist on a local paper it’s surely essential to understand the game and have an extensive knowledge of the game, past and current. It’s great that Abby knows what she wants to specialise in eventually but to complain that the NCTJ exam reflects what fills papers and what people what to read about is ridiculous. Also it’s not “sexist”, a lot of women follow football. It’s also one of the most-played women’s sports in the country.
To think trainees only write about what they want to write about is incredibly naive. Abby – if you want a job at any local paper you will have to write about football and rugby, no paper is going to waste money taking on a trainee who can’t write about the sports which fill the back pages week in week out.
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At the risk of sounding like Norman Tebbit, I’d like to see sports students pass the cricket test. The complexities of winning and losing draws in lower league cricket tends to sort out who knows their stuff.
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Any editor searching for Abby’s name when she applies for a job is going to be wowed by this story and the comments!
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@ Mr Thom – why?
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Isn’t Abbey being sexist herself by claiming that football is for men?!
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It seems many people are missing the point, I think Abbey was using the exam surrounding football merely to highlight her actual point that there is not enough encouragment/opportunities for females to pursue this career. Sport, and I really don’t think this is disputable is geared around men, this is transcended throught to every part of sport, including sports journalism, it is very male orientated, which no man will ever experience from a woman’s point of view (obviously :)) therfore the point Abbey is making is completely valid. Sport in general needs more women involved and just as us girls support our boys in sport, it would be great if you men could reciprocate!
I was appalled by some of the comments on this thread – and the personal abuse from professionals who should know better. At least the NCTJ had more grace to respond by the examiner visiting Abby to discuss her concerns which, for those who missed the point, related to the weight placed on a football commentary in a sports exam where no other alternative was available. I don’t think Abby ever suggested that football was unimportant or that knowledge about the game was not a vital part of a sports journalist’s general knowledge. Yes, there are many female soccer fans – and some excellent female commentators. But wasn’t the thrust of her argument that it seems a little odd to place a compulsory live soccer commentary at the heart of an exam designed to produce rounded sports journalists?
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