On Oct. 16, Linda Cohn, an ESPN sportscaster, visited her alma mater Oswego State for a question and answer session with students interested in the broadcasting, communications and journalism.
Cohn is an author and a speaker as well as a sportscaster. In a field dominated by men, Cohn said she felt she had a lot to prove to everyone in the sports industry.
“I chose to be in a man’s world,” Cohn said. “I was anxious to prove that I belonged. I was very sensitive. I had to grow 5,000 layers of skin.”
According to an ASNE newsroom census, in 2013, newsrooms were 63.7 percent male and 36.3 percent female.
Poynter Institute for Media Studies found that female sports journalists are “a rare breed, despite the fact that more women than ever are sports fans.”
While Cohn explained many of her struggles, she also gave advice based on things she learned throughout her years in the industry.
“It’s so subjective to try to impress everyone,” Cohn said. “They either like you or they don’t like you. And they try to justify the reasons why they don’t like you. Ask yourself, ‘what are successful people doing?’ Decide what you like about them and take little pieces from them.”
Jamie LaVigueur, a senior at Oswego State, is majoring in mass communication and broadcasting with a minor in sports studies. LaVigueur is active on campus within her fields of study as part of WTOP sports, the National Broadcasting Society, the National Communication Honor Society and helping organize the upcoming Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit. She also had a summer internship with the Rochester Red Wings baseball team.
On campus, LaVigueur she has not had many struggles in her field because of how accessible everything is.
“Unlike other schools, you can get your hands on equipment in your freshman year,” LaVigueur said.
Despite all her experience, she does anticipate struggle in the future.
“As women in the industry, we have to prove ourselves more than the guys do, more so in the sports world,” LaVigueur said.
Although LaVigueur expects many road blocks ahead because she is a female, she said she will overcome them “just by showing what I am capable of doing.”
Marybeth Longo is now a professor at Oswego State, but like Cohn, she has also had a long journey in her career. When Longo was at Onondaga Community College, she majored in radio and TV and minored in journalism. Although her focus was not on sports, she has also struggled in her career path.
“I think they thought of me as a joke,” Longo said. “They thought ‘Who is this girl trying to come into this job?’”
Longo never let this hinder her. Whenever a man treated her wrongly, she took it in stride.
“I looked at him like he had the problem,” Longo said. “I still had to come into work. I just brushed it off. Who do you tell? I was a woman amongst all men.”
Brian Mortiz, a broadcasting professor at Oswego State, has experienced the mistreatment of women in the sports world.
“My sister Amy is a sports reporter for the Buffalo News,” Moritz said. “Throughout her career, I’ve seen her take abuse online from fans who seem to have a problem with the fact that she’s a woman covering sports.”
Moritz said his sister’s experiences in sports journalism were very different from his own.
“She was judged for her looks and her clothes, things I never had to deal with in my career,” Moritz said.
Moritz said being in a sports journalism field is not equal for men and women.
“Sports remain a man’s world, unfortunately,” Moritz said. “Too many sports fans still view women, frankly, as second-class citizens, as people who can’t possibly contribute anything to the conversation.”
