Women Making News: Gender as a Variable in Source Selection and Use

Abstract

An important dimension ofagenda setting is the way in which the media frame the issues and events they present to the public. This article focuses on one of the most important dimensions offraming: choice of information source-the selections journalists make from among the many possible and potential holders of information of those sources whose information and viewpoints will actually be included in the news. In particular, this content analysis of ten years of three southern newspapers focuses on the inclusion offemale sources in newspaper stories and analyzes whether the gender of the reporter aflects that inclusion.The media of mass communication are among our most powerful social institutions, with the capacity to set the public agenda by attaching salience to particular issues and events they cover. An important dimension of agenda setting is the way in which the media frame the issues and events they present to the public.' This article focuses on one of the most important dimensions of framing: choice of information source, that is, the selections journalists make from among the many possible and potential holders of information of those sources whose information and viewpoints will actually be included in the news. In particular, this article focuses on the inclusion of female sources in newspaper stories.A recent study by the Freedom Forum indicates that women are seldom used as sources for stories of national or international importance, but rather are quoted as victims or because of their relationship with a male who is central to the story. The study also found that female reporters were no more likely than their male colleagues to quote other women.* Thus, this research focuses on gender as a primary variable not only of source but of reporter. Finally, the article explores the connection between the holder of information and power: the absence of women as sources would reflect their powerlessness, their symbolic annihilation by the media? Agendu Setting. The media clearly are more than a mirror of or conduit for the concerns and issues of others. There is significant research support for an agenda-setting model: that the public learns both facts and the salience of those facts from the media. The literature supports the belief that public perceptions and opinions toward issues/topics and the individuals who espouse those issues are shaped by the media, leading the public to view certain issues/topics as more important than others4

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).…”

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.…”

Impact of Newspaper Characteristics on Reporters' Agricultural Crisis Stories: Productivity, Story Length, and Source Selection

“…Finally, 15 dichotomous nominal variables (present vs. not present) were established for classifying sources into types, based on a list of source types extrapolated from similar studies (Albaek, Christiansen, & Togeby, 2003;Armstrong, 2004;Barr, Irlbeck, & Akers, 2012;Gasher, Hayes, Hackett, Gutstein, Ross, & Dunn, 2007;Sumpter & Braddock, 2002;Sumpter & Lukaszewski, 2001;Telg & Raulerson, 1999;Zoch & Turk, 1998). Dichotomous measurement of independent variables has been found to have little serious effect on the probability statements underlying parametric procedures of inferential statistics, that is, common inferential statistical procedures, for example, ANOVA, may be used on such data (Field, 2009).…”