Media and Journalism Research in the Context of Globalization (2017) Erasmus Mundus MA in Journalism, Media and Globalisation

1. Gender and Journalism
-In what ways does gender affect journalism?
GROUP 1A:
Ella Navarro
Dinfin Mulupi
Aaron McKinnon
Aletta D’Cruz
Anna Dittrich
Estefanía Zárate
Basma Elmahdy
Media and Journalism Research in the Context of Globalization (2017)

2. Does gender really matter in journalism?
Research says a lot about gender and journalism. However, does it answer the perplexing
question?
Here are few of the main arguments:
In favour of
- Sexism in man-dominated newsroom (see Palmer)
- Sexism and ageism in television news (see Kanagasabai)
- Less female journalists especially in leading positions (see Kanagasabai)
Against
- No difference in reporting between female and male journalists (see Hanitzch & Hanuch)
- Steady rise of female graduates of journalism studies
- More women in beats considered traditionally masculine

3. Confused? We are too...
Looking at the debate of gender and journalism
from three different perspectives:
● Gender and reporting on rape and
reproductive health
● Gender and war reporting
● Gender and sexism in the industry

4. Addressing Gender to Diminish Its Influence
Profession Level Perspective
● Routines Socialize Journalists vs Masculine Norms
Professional norms and routines socialize journalists toward a more
uniform approach to their jobs and thus dampens individual differences.
Summarized by Meeks (2016)
● Multiple Factors vs Heteronormative Perceptions
An individual communicator’s attitudes and beliefs may be the ‘result of
their backgrounds or personal experiences’
- Shoemaker and Reese (1996)

5. Women’s Increasing Involvement
Case: White House Press Corps
● Women Now Called to Speak
● Similar Discussion of International Affairs vs Gendered
Coverage
● Increase in Issues Covered vs Male Dominated Norms
● Agenda Diversification: Reproductive Issues
However…
Helen Thomas
Legend

6. Case: Authorship, Sourcing and Issue Framing in
Rape and Reproductive Health Stories
● Lis Howell & Jane Singer ( 2016) argue that men consistently outnumber
female experts in UK television and radio news shows by a ratio of 4:1.
● Can we see a similar trend in the US coverage of rape and reproductive
health?
● In the US Women are at a higher risk of rape compared to men.
● One study shows: Nearly one in five college women were victims of rape or
attempted rape during their freshmen year, with the most falling prey during
their first three months on campus.

7. Author’s gender does affect issue framing and
expert sourcing in rape stories

8. Findings Explained
Rape:
● The writer’s gender appeared to affect how stories were told: Women journalists
interviewed alleged victims more often than male journalists, and ... wrote about the
impact of the alleged attack on alleged victims.
● Male journalists mostly used quotes about the behavior of or impact on the alleged
perpetrator than did female journalists.
Reproductive Health:
● Female journalists wrote just 37% of articles about reproductive issues while their male
counterparts penned 52%.
● Quotes from men account for 41% of all quotes in articles about reproductive issues
while women account for just 33%.
● Male journalists tended to focus more on reproductive issues as political issues. Female
journalists were more likely than men to use quotes that dealt with abortion and
contraception primarily as health care subjects.
● Gender therefore matters especially when covering issues that tend to mostly affect
women.

9. War Reporting & Gender: War zone is dominated by
male reporters
Iraq since 2005
Deadliest War Zone
For Journalists
% of journalists that die
at war based on gender

10. Professional
performance is
male-oriented
concept.
Case:
Alex Crawford,
53 Years old,
British WR,
Sky News
August 2011

12. Shape Shifting: From the perspective of a war reporter
● Feminine difference is disavowed as long as focus is maintained on the job
itself
● Labor of war reporting is masculinized - for women to operate in the same
way, they must engage in practices coded as masculine
● Female reporters make a concerted effort at showing confidence in their own
abilities
● Female reporters must adapt to her environment - one that favours
competitiveness, assertiveness and personal autonomy

13. Case: Indian reporter Bharkha Dutt and her role in the Kargil
war
● Barkha Dutt - Only female covering the Kargil War
● Live commentary on a secret operation during the war
● Was called out for irresponsible journalism
● Had to be “educated” by Lt Gen Puri on the importance of secrecy of an operation
and how a “live commentary” threatens to compromise that
● About a decade later, she was accused of doing the same during the Mumbai terror
attacks (26/11)
A mistake can be made once, but was there a reason that it happened again? Did
Bharkha Dutt feel the pressure of her gender and hence the pressure to prove her worth?
Alternatively, were her mistakes called out only because she is a female in a male
dominated field?

14. Do men and women employ different approaches when
reporting news ?
Research:
● Hanitzsch & Hanusch
● 18 countries analysed
Findings:
● Gender does not make a difference with respect to most aspects of journalists’
professional views.
● Male and female journalists around the world mostly think about their work in
relatively similar terms.
Interpretation:
● Gender responsible for different journalistic approaches is
simplistic and obscure, ambiguous, uncertain.

15. Gender and subjectivity in reporting
Hypothesis:
“Women journalists tend to value the importance of subjectivity, analysis and
opinion more than men.”
Result:
● Hypothesis not supported
● Gender does not matter when it comes to news reporting.
Case: Hannah
Source: Telegraph story by female journalist & Metro story by
male Journalist
Findings: Objectivity

16. Gender And Age In Television News
“There are many male reporters with a beer belly or receding hairlines.
But an older woman, size X with a double-chin? Not enough of them to count on five
fingers.” Nithila Kanagasabai
● German News Programme “Tagesschau” and its anchorwomen and men
● Gender Split: women: 12, men: 7
● Average age: women: 41, men: 52
● Percentage of people under 50: women: 27%, men: 57%
● => ageism and sexism

17. Concluding Remarks
As per previous studies, we found conflicting
evidence that supports both aisles of the debate.
Female journalists must adopt a masculine
approach to sync with industry norms.

18. Emerging Research Questions
1. Why are more men journalists reporting about rape and abortions compared to
women journalists? Is this an issue of recruitment? (study of media houses
such as NYT where this was observed could be useful)
2. To what extent does gender affect ethics in reporting?
3. Will masculine norms transfer to Artificial Intelligence reporting?
4. How do emerging news media (Buzzfeed, HuffPost,Breibart) differ from
traditional mainstream media houses when it comes to journalism and
gender? Are they following old patterns in diversity, framing, work culture? Or
are they rewriting the rules even here?

19. Tak