Analyzing NCAA Women’s March Madness Tournament

Presenters:Molly PickeringLauren DouBravaTennille MotenHugh Ferry

(Altheide, D. & Snow, R., 1979, pg 217).

Introduction: why when Purpose statement Theory Research questions Methods: How Setting: Where Results Discussion and

Conclusion

Tough high speedAction Atmosphere!

Of the 26 years there has been a women’s tournament 16 have been sold out

2007 marked the 15th consecutive sell out That means the final four has sold out every

year since 1993 in Atlanta 5 426 201 people have attended Division I

past championship games

All information and numbers retrieved from http://www.ncaamarchmadness2008.com/womens/index.aspx

Still not convinced?Year Site SEMIS FINAL

1982Norfolk 6000 9531Norfolk 8866 7387LA 6172 5365Austin 7648 7597Lexington 9894 5662Austin 15615 15615Tacoma 8719 8448Tacoma 9030 9758Knoxville 19467 20023New Orleans 7931 7865LA 12421 12072

1993Atlanta 16141 16141Richmond 11966 11966Minneapolis 18038 18038Charlotte 23291 23291Cincinnati 16714 16714Kansas City 17976 17976San Jose 17733 17733Philadelphia 20060 20060ST. Louis 20551 20551San Antonio 29619 29619Atlanta 28210 28210New Orleans 18211 18211Indianapolis 28937 28937Boston 18642 18642

2007Cleveland 20704 20704

Who needs tickets?

http://www.nielsenmedia.com; http://www.ncaamarchmadness2008.com/womens/index.aspx

"It's gotten a lot better in terms of parity, skill of players and fan interest over the years," he said. "I'm personally very pleased. I see this as a growth sport for the NCAA." (CBSSportsLine.com )

-Myles Brand, NCAA presidentApril 3rd 2007 This is during an announcementof the moving of women’s finalfour

The purpose of our study is to analyze and synthesize the 2007 NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament broadcasts and compare the educational representation with the commercial representation.

Is there evidence of a dominant logic in the broadcast of NCAA division 1 women’s basketball?

Are the universities adequately and fairly represented in the broadcasts?

Institutional Logics belief systems that essentially work to constitute appropriate and acceptable action. (Southall et. al. 2006)

Denzin & Lincoln, 1994

McDonalds, arguably the most recognizable business in the world

Operates around the world under one constant logic

The menu is standardized to facilitate rapid decisions

We argue that ESPN, one of the two institutions this study is constructed around, is no different.

No matter what the content being broadcasted, the menu is more or less the same, just like McDonald’s, no matter where the location, the menu is pretty much the same.

(NCAA.org, 2007) (espn.com, 2007)

Our purpose is to govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount.

To serve sports fans where ever sports are watched, listened to, discussed, debated, read about, or played... To serve sport fans worldwide…the aggressive pursuit of new ideas, audience growth and building shareholder value

Content analysis Content analysis has been a popular tool in

cultural studies and mass communications research

Simply put, content analysis isolates, counts and interprets themes, issues, and recurring motifs occurring in the data.

Neuendorf, 2002’ Manning, Cullum-Swan, 1994; Denzin & Lincoln 1994

Semiotic Analysis Semiotic information can be anything from

Morse code, etiquette, mathematics, music and even highway signs

SEMIOTICS AT OUR DESPOSAL: Organizational documents Public statements Handbooks

Manning & Cullum-Swan, 1994

4 games (40% of total) used for intercoder reliability

Surpassed recommended 15%

Our results ranged from .98-1.00. We passed!

-Neuendorf, 2001

ADV: Standard commercial NCAA-PSA: Educational mission CORP-PSA: No mention of product, however the

product is in commercial GR-ADV: Bottom of screen, banner across the

screen GR-ADV-V: Graphic on screen accompanied with

verbal announcing of brand/institution name by announcers

ACA-GR: Player profile, major, GPA etc. ED: Educational message, announcement of

scholastic achievement, or failures of players

National Collegiate Athletic Association Campus stadiums and coliseums ESPN broadcasts

Game ADV NCAA CORP GR GR/V VER GR/ACA ED BEER

1st round 1 1460 90 60 284 115 0 0 11 301st round 2 1400 90 60 189 95 0 10 3 301st round 3 1443 0 3 96 196 0 0 0 901st round 4 1479 15 45 284 164 1 0 0 02nd round 1 960 60 0 129 127 0 0 30 302nd round 2 915 0 0 158 102 0 0 0 302nd round 3 1095 60 0 96 40 0 0 0 04th round 1 1415 90 45 165 176 0 0 2 604th round 2 1510 90 45 156 206 0 0 3 120Final 1635 60 75 407 63 0 0 20 33

13312(74%) 555(3.1%) 333(1.9%) 1964(11.0%) 1284(7.2%) 1 10 69(.4%) 423(2.4%)ADV NCAA CORP GR GR/V VER GR/ACA ED BEER

Average per broadcast (seconds) 1331.2 55.5 33.3 196.4 128.4 0.1 1 6.9 42.3

ADV NCAA CORP GR GR/V VER GR/ACA ED BEER

Average minutes per broadcast 22.19 0.93 0.56 3.27 2.14 0.00 0.02 0.12 0.71

Though educational messages were less then 1%, they provide great points for discussion

“Nice shot for a fashion major” -The best thing she could do is go pro in

Europe, she won’t be able to graduate by 2008 Clearly, even when the educational aspect was

brought into the commentary, it is questionable Media Logic/commercial logic dominate,

perhaps we should just pay these players

Purpose was to analyze and synthesize the 2007 NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament broadcasts and compare the educational representation with the commercial representation.

Questions: Is there evidence of a dominant logic in the broadcast of NCAA division 1 women’s basketball?-A: MEDIA/COMMERCIAL

Are the universities adequately and fairly represented in the broadcasts? –A:Not sure…this is where we should go next.

What else can be done? In-depth contrast with Southall et al.

Altheide, D. L. & Snow, R. P. (1979). Media Logic. Beverly Hills: Sage. Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (1994). Handbook of Qualitative Research.

Thousand Oaks. CA: Sage. Manning, P.K., Cullum-Swan, B. (1994). Narrative, Content, and Semiotic

Analysis. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research. (pp. 463-477). Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.

NCAA Presidential Address Retrieved October 2 2007 from http://www.cbssportsline.com

Nielson Media: http://www.nielsenmedia.com; Neuendorf, K. A. (2001). Southall, R. M, Nagel, M. S., Amis, J., & Southall, C. (in press). A method to

March Madness: Institutional logics and the 2006 National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men’s basketball tournament. Journal of Sport Management.

The Women’s Final Four Retrieved Oct. 2 2007 from http://www.ncaamarchmadness2008.com/womens/index.aspx