Journalistic Coverage of Football in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games: A Comparative Analysis between the Brazilian Women's And Men's Team

Although football played by women has been growing and gaining more visibility, in Brazil the media is responsible for the neglect of football played by women since it does not stimulate, disseminate and encourage it, making the sport continue to be treated amateur form when practiced by women. Even in the period before major sporting events, few relevant reports are published about the modality practiced by women, and even when published, they bring negative aspects about the sport. The evolution in the number of reports on football played by women is still far behind those related to men's football. Taking this context into account, the objective of the present work was to analyze the publications about the Brazilian men's and women's soccer teams published in the news pages of the Lance and Globo Esporte (GE) newspapers during the period of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The present study has a mixed approach and an exploratory and descriptive purpose through documentary research. Data collection was carried out through reports available on the pages of the Globo Esporte and Lance online portals during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (July 21 to August 8, 2021). All the reports about the Brazilian women's and men's soccer teams' participation in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were collected. also to the fact that each team reached different stages of the competition. Regarding the content of the reports, it was found that in the male team, matters related to the technical and tactical analysis of the game stood out, while in the female team, the content on the behavior of athletes off the field had a more significant number.