Do Women and Men in Congress Cultivate Different Images? Evidence from Congressional Web Sites

Politics of representation in the digital media environment: presentation of the female candidate between news coverage and the website in the 2007 Korean presidential primary

“…This indicates that Park tried to emphasize a variety of issues*not just those stereotypically confined to 'male-identified' or 'female-identified' divisions*while the news media did not. These findings are consistent with evidence that female politicians have started to emphasize masculine-identified issues such as the economy, unemployment/jobs, and defense/military issues as well as female-identified issues such as education and health care issues in their ads (Bystrom, 1995) and have started to portray themselves as having diverse issue interests on their websites (Niven & Zilber, 2001), while they still spend more time talking about female-identified issues including poverty and human rights issues in their campaigns (Kahn, 1993;Niven & Zilber, 2001). RQ2 examined differences in presentation of personal traits of the candidate.…”

“…For instance, Dolan (2005) showed that female candidates for Congress in 2000 and 2002 did not focus their campaign issue priorities on gender-stereotyped issues on their campaign websites. Niven and Zilber (2001) found no significant differences in issue and image presentations between female and male U.S. House members in the issues and images presented on their websites. Therefore, instead of formulating precise research hypotheses on expected gender stereotypes, this study proposes two research questions to examine the differences in the presentation of political issues and the personal traits of a female candidate between news coverage and the candidate's campaign website: RQ1: Are there differences in the presentation of political issues in reference to the female candidate between news coverage and the candidate's website?…”

“…For instance, candidates may frame themselves with maleidentified traits, such as being aggressive and knowledgeable, rather than in terms of warmth and honesty; they may also emphasize male-identified issues (e.g., foreign policy and defense) if they think it is advantageous to them. Some studies on female candidates' self-portrayal online have found that they connect general issues to gender more frequently than their male counterparts (e.g., Gershon, 2008) and present themselves as active and competent (Niven & Zilber, 2001).…”

“…Previous studies have been concerned not only with how media portray female politicians but also with how female candidates use gender stereotypes in their campaign strategies*for example, how they present themselves in political advertisements and on their websites (Bystrom & Miller, 1999;Bystrom, Banwart, Kaid, & Robertson, 2004;Niven & Zilber, 2001). However, scholars have paid little attention to comparing the presentation of gender stereotypes in the news media with those on female candidates' websites.…”

Advances in Research Using the C-SPAN Archives

“…For instance, female candidates and elected officials more frequently discuss issues associated with women as well as their gender identities (Bystrom, Banwart, Kaid, & Robertson, 2004;Fox, 1997;Gershon, 2008;Herrnson, Lay, & Stokes, 2003;Kahn, 1996;Niven & Zilber, 2001). Considerably less has been written on race and ethnicity and representational style, even less on the intersection of race, ethnicity, and gender in this area.…”