Dunja Antunovic, PhD, assistant professor of sport sociology in the School of Kinesiology and affiliated scholar with the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, is lead author on a paper titled “Sport, Gender, and Audience Engagement: An Analysis of Broadcasters’ Social Media Pages” presented at the 9th International Scientific Conference on Kinesiology in Croatia. The paper was featured as part of a conference symposium, “Social Aspect of Sports in Southeastern Europe: Never-Ending Transitions.” Dr. Antunovic worked on the project in collaboration with Sunčica Bartoluci, PhD, from the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Zagreb.
The study examined how broadcasters in several countries in the Central and Eastern European region covered the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games on their social media platforms. The study found that broadcasters emphasized sports associated with national success, but also consistently posted about non-Olympic men’s soccer competition. Further, the study discussed the implications of the gender imbalance in Olympic coverage.
