Sports-Politics participates in the European Communication Conference with a study on sports documentaries from a gender perspective
International sports documentaries broadcast in Spain between 2018 and 2025 represent a return to the past in terms of gender and consolidate as a niche for male audiences.
,3.png)
The study presented at the European Communication Conference 2026 shows that sports documentaries maintain a male bias in direction and representation compared to fiction.
Researcher Anna Tous, representing the team formed by Leonor Balbuena, Jorge Martínez Lucena, and Elena Neira, presented the findings of their research on sports documentary production at the 11th European Communication Conference (ECREA 2026), held in Brno, Czech Republic, from September 8 to 11. The paper was presented within the Television Studies section during the session titled "Changing television: Genres and Forms," highlighting the persistent representation gap in this audiovisual format compared to the progress achieved in sports fiction.
The analysis of a corpus of 345 documentaries broadcast between 2018 and 2025 reveals significant inequality in both direction and on-screen representation. The majority of titles are directed by men (74%) and focus primarily on football. Furthermore, the study notes that male directors predominantly place men at the center of their stories (80%), whereas female directors demonstrate a far more balanced distribution between male (40%) and female (48%) protagonists.
Regarding thematic and narrative frameworks, the prevailing sporting values identified across the productions are positive, focusing on resilience, personal overcoming, and heroic narratives. The research conducted by the Sports-Politics group stems from project PID2024-161316OB-I00, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities.