The Evolution of "The Toy Department": A Content Analysis of Newspaper Sports Sections Since 1956

This paper presents an analysis of sports sections in eight metropolitan newspapers over six decades, from 1956 until 2006. Results demonstrated that newspapers devoted more space to sports, although a slight decrease (perhaps due to increased popularity of the Internet) was noted in 2006. Newspapers also used more locally written articles on their section front. Spectator sports coverage increased over the period, at the expense of participant sports.