Women Are On, But Not In, the News: Gender Roles in Local Television News

Desmond, Roger Jon; Danilewicz, Anna

doi:10.1007/s11199-009-9686-5

Cited by 63 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…A possible explanation for the difference in valence might be that the roles that typically occur for men and women in the media differ. For example, it has been shown that media often represent women as ordinary people, whereas men are represented as experts and/or with power and high-status positions (Armstrong 2006, Desmond and Danilewicz 2010, Matud et al 2011. It is also plausible that expert or high-status positions are associated with more positively evaluated words.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“She” and “He” in News Media Messages: Pronoun Use Reflects Gender Biases in Semantic Contexts

2014

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Previous research has shown a male bias in the media. This study tests this statement by examining how the pronouns She and He are used in a news media context. More specifically, the study tests whether He occurs more often and in more positive semantic contexts than She, as well as whether She is associated with more stereotypically and essential labels than He is. Latent semantic analysis (LSA) was applied to 400 000 Reuters' news messages, written in English, published in 1996-1997. LSA is a completely data-driven method, extracting statistics of words from how they are used throughout a corpus. As such, no human coders are involved in the assessment of how pronouns occur in their contexts. The results showed that He pronouns were about 9 times more frequent than She pronouns. In addition, the semantic contexts of He were more positive than the contexts of She. Moreover, words associated with She-contexts included more words denoting gender, and were more homogeneous than the words associated with He-contexts. Altogether, these results indicate that men are represented as the norm in these media. Since these news messages are distributed on a daily basis all over the world, in printed newspapers, and on the internet, it seems likely that this presentation maintains, and reinforces prevalent gender stereotypes, hence contributing to gender inequities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“She” and “He” in News Media Messages: Pronoun Use Reflects Gender Biases in Semantic Contexts

2014

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“…Previous research in other national contexts has repeatedly found that men are more likely than women to be used as expert sources in newspapers (Armstrong and Nelson 2006;Zoch and VanSlyke Turk 1998) and on television, particularly for stories involving "hard news" topics such as politics (Cann and Mohr 2001;Desmond and Danilewicz 2010). When women do appear as sources on television news, it tends to be in connection with "softer" topics, such as health or lifestyle, and they often are represented in a "ritualized" way, offering a "contained and safe" representation of how actions taken in the public sphere affect those in the private sphere (Rakow and Kranich 1991, 16).…”

Section: Literature: News Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pushy or a Princess?

Howell

Singer

2016

Journalism Practice

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This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link Pushy or a Princess? Women Experts and British Broadcast News AbstractFour times as many males as females appeared as experts on flagship television and radio news programmes in the United Kingdom as of the early 2010s. This study draws on four complementary sets of data to explore the reasons behind this disparity. The findings point to a combination of journalists' news production processes and women's perceptions of appropriate social norms and roles. A high proportion of woman experts surveyed lack confidence, saying they fear they will be perceived as self-promoting and "pushy" for wanting to appear on air. Broadcast journalists report women need to be persuaded and wooed, acting like "princesses" and therefore making male experts less trouble to recruit.

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“…Hether and Murphy (2010) find women represent 38% of the major characters appearing in health storylines on popular primetime television programs. Male sources also appear almost three times more often than female sources in newspaper coverage of same-sex marriage (Schwartz 2010) and nearly twice as often in local television news coverage of a variety of topics (Desmond and Danilewicz 2010). In music videos drawn from five music-oriented television networks, male characters outnumber females by a ratio of 3 to 1 (Turner 2010).…”

Section: Under-representation Holds Across Multiple Media and Contentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Media: Where Are We Now and Where Should We Go?

2011

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This paper provides a commentary regarding the quantitative content analyses of gender roles in media published in the two special issues of Sex Roles (Rudy et al. 2010a(Rudy et al. , 2011. A few themes and some overarching lessons emerge from the wide variety of data presented. First, it is clear that women are under-represented across a range of media and settings. Second, when women are portrayed, it is often in a circumscribed and negative manner. Women are often sexualized-typically by showing them in scanty or provocative clothing. Women are also subordinated in various ways, as indicated by their facial expressions, body positions, and other factors. Finally, they are shown in traditionally feminine (i.e., stereotyped) roles. Women are portrayed as nonprofessionals, homemakers, wives or parents, and sexual gatekeepers. Although the studies generally support these conclusions, some interesting moderating factors are identified, such as race. It is suggested that next steps involve the development of theory and a body of empirical evidence regarding the effects of exposure to under-representation of women. Data concerning the effects of exposure to sexualized or stereotypical portrayals on young audiences is also lacking. Finally, content analyses of new media, including those created and distributed by users, are recommended as a next step. It is concluded that, while increasing the representation of women in media may be valuable, it is also critical that the manner in which they are portrayed be simultaneously considered to avoid increasing negative or stereotypical depictions that may be particularly harmful to viewers.

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Women Are On, But Not In, the News: Gender Roles in Local Television News

Cited by 63 publications

References 11 publications

“She” and “He” in News Media Messages: Pronoun Use Reflects Gender Biases in Semantic Contexts

“She” and “He” in News Media Messages: Pronoun Use Reflects Gender Biases in Semantic Contexts

Pushy or a Princess?

Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Media: Where Are We Now and Where Should We Go?

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