Journalist and Source Gender in Australian Television News

Pushy or a Princess?

“…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).…”

“…Although this study focuses on sourcing issues, it is worth quickly noting that a great many studies in various countries, including Britain, also have repeatedly shown that women are under-represented as either hard news reporters or senior newsroom managers (Byerly 2011;Cann and Mohr 2001;Chambers, Steiner, and Fleming 2004;Djerf-Pierre 2005;Franks 2013;Steiner 2009), and the passage of time is making little difference to news production and presentation practices (Armstrong 2013;Byerly and Ross 2008;Carter, Steiner, and McLaughlin 2014;Craft and Wanta 2004;Global Media Monitoring 2016;Ross 2007). To take just one relevant example, women print journalists have been found to be no more likely to source women than male colleagues (Craft and Wanta 2004).…”

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

“…Story placement has also been demonstrated to be male-dominated. Analyzing Australian television news, Cann (2001) found that two thirds of all news stories were reported by men, and that males dominated reporting of the earlier stories in the newscast. He argued that male predominance in the lead stories was an indication of male association with the most important stories.…”

The Current State of Women Print Journalists: An Analysis of the Status and Careers of Females in Newspapers Sports Departments

“…Women are consistently underrepresented in the news media while males continue to dominate (American Press Institute, 2002;Cann and Mohr, 2001;Zoch and Turk, 1998). Schell and Rodriguez (2000) noted that since males dominate the media, opportunities for females are repressed.…”

“…Through liberated thinking and the law, women eventually gained locker room access in the 1980s and 1990s. The opened doors came with a price, however, as females encountered harassment from athletes, team management, and male sports reporters who felt inconvenienced by their presence (Walsh-Childers et al, 1996;Cann and Mohr, 2001;Padgett, 1998;Kane and Disch, 1993;Miller and Miller, 1995;Eberhard and Myers, 1998). Although instances of harassment appear to be less frequent, there have been reports of some female sports journalists still fighting for acceptance, credibility, and equal pay while enduring greater criticism than their male counterparts (Allum, 2002;Michaelis, 2001;Miller and Miller, 1995;Smith, 2000).…”