Year: 2011

Gender Check 8/31/11 – Northeast

Joy BaconLeave a comment
*Gender Checks are quick examinations of gender representation in individual news articles for the purpose of discovering trends over time. Click here to read more.

Website: The New York Times

On The New York Times, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 1 p.m. EST on Wednesday, August 31 was titled “U.S. Moves to Block AT&T Merger With T-Mobile.” Its subject was the Justice Department’s decision to block the communications companies from joining forces.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Authors:  Male (2)

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male – deputy attorney general
  2. Female – Sprint vice president for government affairs

Notes/Analysis: this story was posted under the New York Times’ branch site, Dealbook.

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 1 p.m. EST on Wednesday, August 31 was titled “Nevada Wallops Bank of America With Sweeping Suit; Nationwide Foreclosure Settlement in Peril.” Its subject was a continuing legal battle for the bank over its mortgage and lending practices.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned)

  1. Female – Bank of America spokeswoman

Notes/analysis: This story used former reporting and direct quotes from the suit as the basis for its information.

Gender check: 8/30/11 – West

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

*Gender Checks are quick examinations of gender representation in individual news articles for the purpose of discovering trends over time. Click here to read more.

Website: Seattle Times

On the Seattle Times, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 11:45 a.m. (PDT) Tuesday, Aug. 30, was titled “Jury convicts man in 2009 slaying, deadlocks on another.” Its subject was jurors verdicts on two men allegedly involved in the slaying of a man in 2009.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

None

Notes/analysis: The article relies completely on court documents. It also cites prosecutors by saying “prosecutors said” though no specific person is named.


Website: Seattle P-I

Seattle P-I, 8/30/2011
Seattle P-I, 8/30/2011

On the Seattle P-I, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 11:45 a.m. (PDT) Tuesday, Aug. 30, was titled “High court decision on public defense prompts alarm.” Its subject was a decision by the state Supreme Court that public defenders and others working at firms formed by King County to offer legal services to defendants are considered “county ’employees,’ as defined by the state retirement system.”

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male, attorney for the county and former justice
  2. Male, attorney for the public defenders
  3. Male, justice (in majority opinion)
  4. Male, justice (in dissenting opinion)

Notes/analysis: The Washington State Supreme Court is comprised of nine members, four women and five men.

Gender Check 8/29/11 – South

Joy BaconLeave a comment
*Gender Checks are quick examinations of gender representation in individual news articles for the purpose of discovering trends over time. Click here  to read more.

Note: The Gender Check for the South used to be posted on Fridays. After our six month analysis we decided to move this part of our project to Monday both for scheduling and to give us a different look at these sites.

Website: The Miami Herald

On the Miami Herald, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 11 p.m. (EST) on Monday, August 29 was titled “Navy Vet Celebrates His 103rd Birthday On the Water.” Its subject was the Coast Guard’s tribute to a World War II veteran.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male – veteran
  2. Male – veteran’s supervisor
  3. Female – Coast Guard spokeswoman

Website: Patch (Seminole Heights)

On Patch of Seminole Heights, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 11 p.m. (EST) on Monday, August 29 was titled “How You Can Help Hurricane Irene Victims.” Its subject was the cleanup and recovery efforts from the weekend’s storm.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Female – Red Cross spokeswoman
  2. Female – Salvation Army director of public relations

Reflections and action from Women’s Equality Day

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

Friday, Aug. 26, marked the 91st anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. To mark what is referred to as Women’s Equality Day, a number of news outlets, blogs and women’s groups as well as President Barack Obama shared thoughts, statements and stories about the anniversary.

Additionally, a number of women’s groups have gotten together to launch HERvotes, a campaign to mobilize women voters in 2012 specifically around the issues of health care and economic rights (Check out the website: www.hervotes.org).

In line with that effort, Ms. Magazine compiled a list of 10 laws that advanced women that are now being “threatened” or are at risk. That list includes women’s right to vote, which some argue is being challenged by new ID requirements that 34 states considered this year that aim at students, people of color and women, particularly since perhaps as many as 32 million women do not have the required documentation in their current legal name.

Here’s a selection of Women’s Equality Day coverage and commentary:

Find other interesting coverage of Women’s Equality Day? Share it in the comment section below.

This is the Gender Report’s Week in Review, a weekly post that highlights some of the major stories related to gender issues this week. Some of these stories may have already appeared in our News Feed or in the week’s Gender Checks. We’ll at times include a longer analysis of stories as well as bring attention to stories that may have slipped through the cracks of the week’s news cycle.

Report Your Thoughts: Why does it matter?

Jasmine R. Linabary1 Comment

Editor’s note: Our findings through our monitoring projects have served to identify and bring attention to the fact that women’s voices are missing, but have left us with more questions than answers. That’s why we’re taking our project a step further by starting a discussion on why this is the case and what can be done about it. This is part of a series of posts each week aiming to start a discussion on gender representations in online news. View past “Report Your Thoughts” discussions here.

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Question 3: Why does it matter?

For the past two weeks since we launched our “Report Your Thoughts” discussion, we’ve asked and discussed (mostly via the Twitter hashtag #GRdiscuss) the basic question of “Why?” — Why are women present in such low numbers in our byline counts of lead articles as well as our looks inside newsrooms? And why are women’s voices absent among news sources?

Now we want to turn the discussion in a different direction to the question: Why does it matter? If women are a quarter or less of news sources and slightly over a third of authors, what difference does that make?

We want to hear from you. Why is it important that women have a part in producing the news and have their voices heard as news sources? Share your thoughts in the comment section as well as on Twitter with the hashtag #GRdiscuss or on our Facebook page.

Update: As has been the case, most of the discussion for this week’s question took place via Twitter using the hashtag #GRdiscuss. A few people and organizations took part by commenting on the question. Others retweeted and shared parts of the discussion.

Here are some of the highlights: