The National Council for the Training of Journalists has launched a campaign aimed at getting more women to pursue a career in sports journalism.
The training body has produced a video with ky Sports News to showcase the roles available to women sports journalists and the contribution that women can make to sports stories.
The video features contributions from journalists working for Sky Sports News, BBC Radio 4, the Daily Mail and the Irish Post.
Currently half of all students on NCTJ-accredited journalism courses are female, but Sky Sports News executive editor Andy Cairns says women are “all too often greatly outnumbered by men” on specialist sports journalist courses.
Andy, above left, who is also a trustee of the NCTJ and chairman of its accreditation board, said: “There can be no barriers to success for those who want to pursue a career in journalism by studying on an NCTJ-accredited course.
“The accreditation board challenges courses to demonstrate that they are open to students from all classes and backgrounds in society.
“I’m especially keen to ensure training centres meet the target that 25pc of students on accredited sports journalism courses should be women by the end of this parliament.”
Martha Kelner, Daily Mail athletics correspondent and former journalism student at the University of Sheffield, said:”I think the more women we can get in the entry level jobs, then the more chance there is for them to rise to the top.”
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Patronising
If women want to specialise in sport, have the talent to do this and are determined to succeed, they will do.
Females in journalism do not need special treatment.
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Or, maybe, if they report on tennis, they can get paid the same as the men, but for three-fifths of the work?
*puts tin helmet on*
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I disagree, this isn’t patronising it’s showing off the role models young female journalists can look up to.
Of course determined women with talent will succeed but what about those on the fence, or are unsure?
What about parents who discourage their children and say the media has no place for them? Try not to be such a cynic!
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We’re one step from quotas…
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Why are people not allowed to make up their own minds any more?
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man or woman I though most local papers did not have sports reporters any more. Just people who slap badly written sent-in crap into templates without checking grammar, style (what’s that?) or anything else.
I guess these women will bypass all this and start on the regionals or nationals.
By the way there are a considerable number of good sports presenters being used now. That way lies the future, not local papers.
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Exsporty talks about local papers.
Training has moved on from local papers.
No suggestion in the story that the training is for local papers.
The Ex in the screen name tells us everything
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I think it’s a wider cultural problem. Sport is very much a man’s game – the most money, coverage and recognition are given to men. This puts girls and young women off going into sport as a career, because they see very few relevant role models for them to aspire to follow. The lack of women in sports journalism is probably just an extension of this, although it is very slowly improving. Men still vastly outnumber women though, so there’s a long way to go.
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Are there ever targets for the percentage of male recruits to study fashion journalism?
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