Press Coverage of Mayoral Candidates

Abstract

Some research on gender bias in news coverage of political campaigns indicates that the media portray male and female candidates differently. Research to date, however, has focused only on elections to national or statewide offices, where confounding variables such as party, incumbency, and competitiveness are present. The authors resolve this problem by focusing their analysis of media campaign coverage on nonpartisan, open-seat, and competitive mayoral races. The authors' content analysis of press coverage in six mayoral elections suggests that press coverage is not biased in favor of male candidates. The authors, however, find that the presence of a woman on the ballot expands the range of issue coverage in local campaigns in ways favorable to perceived strengths of female candidates.

Goodbye, Gender Stereotypes? Trait Attributions to Politicians in 11 Years of News Coverage

“…For instance, in a content analysis of newspaper articles on the 2006 U.S. Senate race, Hayes (2011) finds that female and male politicians do not differ in the amount of reporting devoted to their traits. Similarly, mayoral (Atkeson & Krebs, 2008) and presidential (Meeks, 2013) candidates of both genders are equally likely to receive gender-linked coverage. In general, elections with female candidates tend to yield more news stories on politicians' personal traits than their issue stances (Dunaway et al, 2013), with the media often paying significantly more attention to masculine than feminine traits (e.g., Meeks, 2013).…”

After parity. A mixed methods study on gender bias in the volume of media coverage of electoral campaigns

“…According to Atkeson and Krebb (2008), there are four main approaches to studying gender bias in news reporting of electoral campaigns: studying the volume of media coverage, expressions of candidates' viability, topics/issues, and discussion of the candidates' traits. The volume of coverage usually refers, in radio and television, to the amount of airtime and, in publications, to the number of articles or square centimeters dedicated to candidates.…”

“…The absence of gender bias in the media coverage of political campaigns is, thus, one of the elements of the much sought after political participation of women in the world. In this regard, some studies carried out in the United States and European countries (Dan & Iorgoveanu, 2013;Hooghe, Jacobs, & Claes, 2015;Kahn, 1994;Ross, Evans, Harrison, Shears, & Wadia, 2013) have found that women candidates are at a disadvantage when competing for media attention, while other studies have found no gender difference in the volume of media coverage (Atkeson & Krebb, 2008;Bystrom, Robertson, & Banwart, 2001;Devitt, 2002;Lachover, 2017;Smith, 1997). Nonetheless, most of the studies report some kind of gender bias, if not in volume, then in qualitative aspects of coverage such as attributions of viability, issue coverage and featured candidate traits.…”

Tratamiento informativo de candidatas presidenciales: una propuesta desde el framing

“…Para Atkeson & Krebs (2008), lo anterior parece ser más una ventaja que desventaja, debido a que, por ser mujeres, se espera que asuman tópicos femeninos, mientras que, por ser políticas, se espera su involucramiento en temas de orden superior. Wasburn & Wasburn (2011) hallaron que, aunque una candidata tenga consigo una agenda de tópicos importantes para la soberanía nacional, los medios prefieren preguntarle desde ámbitos asistencialistas, hacia los cuáles consideran que deberían poseer una opinión.…”