It’s a study that invites us to take a look a little less than a year before the Paris Olympics… Already barely present on the small screen, the parasport – which designates all sporting disciplines practiced by people with a disability – is even less so when it concerns women and athletes with a mental disability, according to a study published Thursday by the media regulator.
L‘Arcom viewed the general sports magazines of the free DTT channels (except the L’Equipe channel), from April 1 to June 15, in order to take stock of the situation, excluding “favorable periods” such as the year of Paralympic Games.
Five shows scrutinized
The regulator analyzed five sports broadcasts – Stade 2 (France 3), Tout le sport (France 3), Champions d’exception (France 3), Extra time (franceinfo) and Sport 6 (M6) – representing a total of 25 hours and 32 minutes.
Of this hourly volume, 10.4% of the programs viewed were devoted to parasport. But excluding the exceptional Champions magazine, which is exclusively devoted to it, the share of airtime dedicated to parasport falls to 6%, according to the results of this study unveiled for the 3rd edition of “Jouons Ensemble” (October 2-8 ), operation encouraging audiovisual media to broadcast more programs of this type.
“Quite dramatic” figures for women’s parasport
In terms of gender, inequalities are found in parasport with a marked under-representation of women on screen. Valid sport and parasport combined, “female practice represents 19.6% of the sequences viewed, compared to 65.1% for male practice and 15.3% for mixed representations,” underlines the study.
But sportswomen with disabilities alone represented “barely 1.7% of air time”. “This shows that in women’s sport, we have a real problem since the figures are quite dramatic” on the representation of women in sport, analysis by AFP Laurence Pécaut-Rivolier, in charge of questions of social cohesion at the ‘Arcom.
Mental disabilities almost invisible on TV
Athletes with a mental or psychological disability are, for their part, almost invisible on TV, with 0.5% of sequences viewed, with programs instead highlighting para-athletes with a motor (57.3%) or visual disability ( 15.3%).
On the other hand, on the small screen, parasport shows a wider range of disciplines, 30 according to Arcom, where four sports (football, tennis, cycling, rugby) alone represent 62% of the total time antenna dedicated to able-bodied sport.
In comparison with this, parasport is also treated more from the angle of portraits of parasporters (43.2% against 20.2%) and their personal lives (53% against 35% for their able-bodied colleagues).