Willing but wary: Australian women experts’ attitudes to engaging with the news media

Abstract

Numerous quantitative studies from around the world have found that women are under-represented as sources in news content. This study aims to add to the existing quantitative research by describing female experts’ attitudes about being interviewed as news sources, and their experiences of interacting with journalists. It reports the findings of semi-structured interviews with 30 Australian female academic experts from a broad range of disciplines. Almost all of the women experts in the group were willing to be interviewed by a journalist, and reported that their experiences with the news media had generally been positive. However, they referred to various factors that may act as deterrents. These included a lack of confidence, a reluctance to appear on camera, time constraints and a lack of understanding about how the news media operates. This research provides valuable insights for journalists and editors, and outlines recommendations about how to encourage female participation in the news.

Gender and sourcing in student journalism from Australia and New Zealand

“…There was a perception among some of the journalists that women experts were "harder to book" (p. 1075) and required more persuasion. This view, however, does not align with findings from interviews with female experts, who have generally reported a willingness to be interviewed about their area of expertise (Niemi and Pitkänen 2016;Shine 2021). Furthermore, recent related research (Greve-Poulsen et al 2021) has found that news audiences perceive female expert sources to be as credible and competent as their male counterparts.…”

The invisible frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic: Examining sourcing and the underrepresentation of female expertise in pandemic news coverage

“…Journalists tend to seek sources that are authoritative, reduce uncertainty, and help in analyzing and interpreting events (Albaek, 2011;Davis, 2007;Manning, 2001;Reich, 2009;Strömbäck et al, 2013;Wien, 2014). It is important to note, however, that while a journalist might speak to a range of sources while gathering information for their article, they might only quote a handful of individuals in their final news article (Conrad, 1999;Shine, 2022).…”

“…The lack of female representations might further perpetuate the stereotype that females are neither credible nor competent sources for scientific expertise (Carli et al, 2016; Niemi and Pitkänen, 2017; Shine, 2022). This is especially problematic given the gender divides within the sciences as females are not well-represented in most scientific fields (AAUW, 2020; Hur et al, 2017).…”

¿Vecinas, policías o expertas? Las fuentes informativas en las noticias sobre feminicidios

“…Algunas personas expertas han tenido una relación complicada con el periodismo, y la falta de precisión o la omisión de algunos elementos relevantes en la redacción de los artículos suelen ser algunos puntos de tensión entre personas expertas y periodistas. A pesar de ello, las últimas investigaciones señalan un incremento de la frecuencia de la presencia de personas expertas (Shine, 2021).…”

“…Su papel clave como contextualizadoras de los hechos y como caracterizadoras del problema social que suponen los asesinatos machistas (Morgan & Politoff, 2012) es reconocida y, a la par, demandada por las y los periodistas que elaboran las informaciones. Las organizaciones que trabajan en este ámbito también han percibido la relevancia de reaccionar con rapidez ante estos sucesos (Cullen et al, 2019), y su presencia muestra una leve tendencia al alza (Shine, 2021).…”