Unveiling Gender Stereotypes: A Corpus Analysis of Pakistani Newspaper Language in Reporting Men and Women Cricket News

Abstract

Newspapers serve as information sources, but they can also perpetuate gender stereotypes. The current study's objective is to examine gender stereotypes within the discourse of Pakistani newspapers. This study analyzes articles about Pakistani men's and women's cricket matches, examining gender stereotypes in sports journalism and their potential influence on perceptions and sociocultural effects on both genders.  The selected sample comprised articles published by Pakistani newspapers on the 2024 cricket matches of the Pakistan men's and women's teams. Data was collected by using the Google search engine, specifically the news section, for the available articles on men’s and women’s cricket match-related news. Data was then converted to txt format and was analyzed using AntConc software for the context surrounding both genders in those articles. The data analysis revealed use of some terms which were same in both types of news articles but had different context with the male cricket team “captain” was portrayed as strong and determined and whose qualities of leading were important for the success of whole team while for female cricket team “captain” was meant to work in collaboration, as a cohesive unit with equality but if the team loose, the blame is on the captain. Usage of different pronouns revealed women were being portrayed in the context of career challenges, struggles, and achievements, while men were portrayed as powerful and determined, portraying men as stronger and more capable in this field than women. This shows a portrayal of men as more capable of captaincy than women and women being weaker than men in terms of power and determination in news articles related to cricket.