A study conducted by Alba Adá Lameiras, who teaches Business Economics at Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC), and Ana Bernal Triviño, researcher and member of the Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), has examined the presence of female sports journalists in Spanish streams on Twitch during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The study, which analysed four sports programmes and five journalist-run channels on Twitch, found that women appeared only 34 times, compared to 475 appearances by men. Moreover, their role was largely secondary, with sporadic contributions focused on minor issues.

The channel with the most stream time, El Chiringuito, had only one woman in its entire coverage, while others, such as the channel of sports commentator Miguel Ángel Román, had none. The study also highlights the fact that men held all the leading positions in the programmes analysed, leaving female journalists in secondary roles, such as reading advertisements.

According to the researchers, these findings suggest that digital platforms such as Twitch, despite being a communicative innovation, are not bringing about significant changes in the representation of women in sports journalism. Far from progressing, in many cases the situation has worsened, reinforcing traditional stereotypes for new generations. "After analysing more than 292 hours, we observed an average of one male sports journalist every 38 minutes, compared to one female sports journalist every nine hours", said Adá Lameiras, who is a member of the high-performance research group on Gender and Feminism (FEMGEN) at the URJC.


A structural issue

"We wanted to explore whether emerging forms of communication could provide an alternative outlet for women, but we found that the pattern of male over-representation persists, especially in a field like sports journalism," explained Bernal Triviño, who forms part of the Learning, Media and Entertainment (GAME) research group at the UOC. According to her, this is a structural issue that "stifles alternative voices and different types of analysis, in this case from female journalists".

The two experts stressed the need to raise awareness among media companies and large communications corporations, urging them to recognize that "representing society in all its diversity is a must" in the industry. They argued that "their equality plans should also aim to diversify the voices and narratives that ultimately reach audiences".

During the Qatar World Cup, the streaming site Twitch emerged as a leading option for following matches live. These streams featured journalists, former footballers and content creators offering an alternative to traditional media, while allowing direct interaction with viewers and more dynamic coverage. One standout was Spain's former head coach Luis Enrique, who launched his own channel to engage directly with fans, attracting nearly 200,000 viewers to his debut stream.


This research contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) 5, Gender Equality.


UOC R&I

The UOC's research and innovation (R&I) is helping overcome pressing challenges faced by global societies in the 21st century by studying interactions between technology and human & social sciences with a specific focus on the network society, e-learning and e-health.

Over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups work in the UOC's seven faculties, its eLearning Research programme and its two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The university also develops online learning innovations at its eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC), as well as UOC community entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer via the Hubbik platform.

Open knowledge and the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu.