On Thursday afternoon, two videos emerged that painted a bleak picture of the culture of sports media in Australia.

In sharp brush strokes, they illustrated a culture steeped in sexism, homophobia and racism. For many watching the story unfold, there was a feeling of deja vu, an uncomfortable and frustrating familiarity to the words and their purpose.

It may be easy, and even preferable, for some to dismiss these videos and the picture they paint as not reflective of a broader industry but rather the attitudes of one individual. Or even to diminish the language as "banter" — justifications we've heard many times before.

But it's incorrect and misguided to not see this behaviour as symptomatic of the ways in which women are othered and isolated in sports media.

A field dominated by men

Research into the demographics of sports journalism have consistently shown that sport, unlike so many other areas of life, has doggedly resisted embracing gender equity and continues to be a field dominated by men.

Last year, the Women's Leadership Institute Australia released the 2021 Women for Media Report. Prepared by Dr Jenna Price and Dr Blair Williams, the report analysed gender in Australian media and found that "sport is by far the most gendered of all topic areas".

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The report found that men wrote 87 per cent of sport stories. Men are not only overwhelmingly writing the stories, they're also overwhelmingly quoted within those stories, with 84 per cent of quotes in sports journalism attributed to men.

In her 2017 book Breaking the Mould, sports journalist and documentary maker Angela Pippos wrote that: "When it comes to fairness, sport talks a hell of a good game—the trouble is, it only talks for half of the population."

Women sports journalists have long been a minority and all too often the only woman in the room or at the table. They're forced to constantly prove themselves, to work harder just to justify their presence, all the while having to navigate an environment that is far too often unsafe.

I know this not only because I and my Siren Sport co-founders have lived it, but because I've spent the past six months researching and interviewing women sports journalists.

Again and again, I've heard stories of subtle and not so subtle sexism. I've heard stories of needing to work twice as hard for half the opportunities, of having to prove that they know what they're talking about because the assumption is that they don't.

It's not just women who are marginalised

But women are not alone in their marginalisation.

People of colour, disabled people, LGBTQI+ people have struggled to get their foot in the door, to participate in and contribute to the conversations we have about sport.

Their lived experience, their valuable insights and understanding, their important perspectives, all too often left to wither outside the press box. At the intersections of those lived experiences, the marginalisation is heightened.

What does this othering and exclusion do to the culture of sport and sport media? What has sport lost, and what have we as a community lost, because these voices are ignored, pushed aside or forced out?

Sports media needs to change

Sports media needs to better reflect its audience and the sports it is covering. It needs to open the door, to proactively work to remove the real and significant barriers that keep too many people out.

This change is already happening.

In 2020, Siren Sport launched. Its mission was, and is, simple: to challenge the status quo of sports media and to create and deliver opportunities for women and non-binary people in sports media. Through partnerships with Deakin University, Football Victoria and the ABC, that work is happening.

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The ABC's 50:50 Equality Project, which works for equal and fair gender and diversity representation, is not solely focused on sport. But the ABC's partnership with Siren Sport to deliver more stories on women's sport or by women sports journalists is part of that project and is a positive step. So too is the ABC-supported iteration of Siren Sport's Emerging Sports Writer Program which provides paid opportunities for emerging women in sports media to gain skills, experience and publishing opportunities.

Then there is Making the Call, the brainchild of Emma Race and Lucy Race from The Outer Sanctum, who have partnered with Change Our Game to provide opportunities for skill development, networking and mentorship for Victorian-based women interested in sports broadcasting. Graduates from Making the Call have secured roles in broadcasting and in print and digital sports journalism.

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Last year, Sport Australia's Women Leaders in Sport grants were open to women working in sports media, and provided individual grants for professional development and training for women in sports media and communications.

These are positive programs and platforms, designed to challenge the status quo and create opportunities for women in sports media. These platforms, partnerships and programs are not the only change that is happening in the sports media industry. But real and lasting change that welcomes all marginalised voices requires more.

We need more allies

This is where allies must step in, using their voice and their platforms to not only advocate for change, but demand it. This change can be as straightforward as challenging sexist, racist, ableist or homophophic language.

This is where the country's powerful and influential media organisations must step in, instituting quotas, developing tailored programs and pathways for marginalised voices while also ensuring that their workplaces are not just welcoming and supportive but safe.

This is where governments must use their resources to support programs like Making the Call at a national level, where they must use their position to champion change and where they must ensure that sport-related funding is tethered to diversity, creating space and opportunities for everyone in sport.

This moment, when the culture of sports media is in the spotlight, when we are confronted with the starkness of what resistance to gender equity looks like, can be the moment we begin to make that real and lasting change.

ABC Sport is partnering with Siren Sport to elevate the coverage of Australian women in sport.

Kirby Fenwick is a writer and audio producer, a co-founder of Siren: A Women in Sport Collective and an honours student at Griffith University.