Stories in photos: framing styles of women athlete images on Instagram

The present study aims to determine the ways in which sports content producers in traditional and new media tools in Turkey frame the images of women athletes on Instagram. In the study, the ways in which television, newspaper and digital sports content producers with the highest number of Instagram followers in Turkey visualize women athletes in the news during international organizations were examined using the netnographic method. Study considered only n = 126 women photographs among the analyzed n = 5382 posts in this context and specified that n = 78 of those n = 126 photos belonged to women athletes. While women athletes stand out more prominently on Instagram in cases of failure, these instances of failure are visualized through images of crying, kneeling and covering their faces, framing helplessness. On the other hand, it was determined that women athletes were presented as sexual objects in the images used and that their body lines were highlighted.