Year: 2011

Gender Check 8/10/11 – 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 10 a.m.. EST on Wednesday, August 10 was titled “U.S. Stocks Resume Their Slide After a One-Day Rally.” Its subject was the continuing uncertainty in the economy after the debt ceiling deal and credit rating decision.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Authors: Female and Male (shared by-line)

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Female – fund manager
  2. Male – french finance minister
  3. Male – Japanese bank governor (from public statements)
  4. Male – German economist

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10 a.m. EST on Wednesday, August 10 was titled “Why Looming Budget Battles Might Still Shut Down the Government.” Its subject was

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male – Congressional scholar
  2. Female – Congressional scholar

Notes/analysis: This story used two sources to get varied opinions about the future of specific government agencies. At least some of the information came from e-mail correspondence.

Gender check: 8/9/11 – 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 11:15 a.m. (PDT) Tuesday, Aug. 9, was titled “Gregoire tells state to get ready for more cuts.” Its subject was the governor telling agencies to prepare for cuts of up to 10 percent.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Female, governor
  2. Male, budget director
  3. Male, state senator (D)
  4. Male, state senator (R)


Website: Seattle P-I

“Dendreon shareholders allege inflated growth, insider trading in class action” – Seattle P-I, 8/9/2011

On the Seattle P-I, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 11:15 a.m. (PDT) Tuesday, Aug. 9, was titled “Dendreon shareholders allege inflated growth, insider trading in class action.” Its subject was a class-action suit against a Seattle-based bio-tech company.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

None

Notes/analysis: The story quotes from the lawsuit. It also says that the company did not respond to requests for comment.

Equal number of male, female bylines in July New Media Index but low female source count

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

The top linked to and discussed articles on the web showed an equal number of male and female bylines in July, the first month that’s happened this year. However, this was coupled with one of the lower showings for female sources.

Since January, we’ve been monitoring the top articles based on links provided in the Project for Excellence in Journalism‘s weekly New Media Index roundups. These chronicle the top five linked to and discussed news stories and opinion pieces around the web in a Monday to Friday week based on commentary on blogs and social media sites. We’ve chosen to focus on the main top five in the blogosphere.

When more than one link was provided on the topic, we’ve monitored the first mentioned or the one that appears based on the writing to be more dominant, unless it is specifically mentioned that two articles shared the attention for that particular subject.

Earlier this month, we released our findings from six month’s worth of monitoring. During that time, women made up 20.2 percent of sources and with 31.3 percent of bylines (of articles by a person or several of one gender or the other, not including shared bylines between a woman and a man).

Female authors surpassed that percentage in July, reaching parity, but women turned up less often as sources. Here’s what we found specifically in the past month:

July 2011

PEJ New Media Index: July 25-29, 2011

Between July 4 and July 29, the New Media Index included 19 articles that could be checked. Five links were provided for each week, but one week the No. 1 subject on Carmageddon was linked to a page of all of the coverage on the topic and not a specific article.

Here’s what was uncovered:

  • Women were 15 percent of sources in this month’s articles. The articles contained 51 male sources and only nine female sources. Thirteen out of the 19 articles contained only male sources.
  • This month seven articles were written or produced by men and seven articles were written by women. Two were by both a man or two and a woman and three were not bylined or written by staff.
  • Three of the top linked-to articles were opinion pieces. Two were by male authors and one was a shared byline with a man and a woman.

All the links this month except for one came from the LA Times, with the one coming from the BBC.

For past months’ findings as well as other statistics on gender and the online news, visit our findings and statistics page or view our six-month recap of all of our projects and studies here.

Gender check: 8/4/11 – Midwest

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: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (stltoday.com)

On Stltoday.com, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10:30 a.m. (PDT) Thursday, Aug. 4, was titled “Justice Department files MSD settlement.” Its subject was a settlement requiring the sewer district to make “extensive” improvements.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Female, spokeswoman for attorney general

Notes/analysis: The article also cites two spokesmen who declined to comment.

Website: St. Louis Beacon

St. Louis Beacon, 8/4/2011

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10:30 a.m. (PDT) Thursday, Aug. 4, was titled “Students make gains in MAP scores, but schools still fall far short of leaving no child behind.” Its subject was education officials responses to test results.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Female, assistant commissioner for the office of quality schools
  2. Male, U.S. Education Secretary
  3. Female, a school district’s executive director of assessment
  4. Male, superintendent
  5. Male, coordinator for grants

Notes/analysis: The article includes two mugshots — one of a male and one of a female source.

Gender Check 8/3/11 – 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 2 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, August 3 was titled “Syria Sends In Tanks To Storm Center of Rebellious City.” Its subject was the ongoing violence in Hama over political protests.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male – professor
  2. unknown- unnamed opposition leader
  3. Male – Turkish deputy prime minister
  4. assumed Male – political activist
  5. Male – political activist

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 2 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, August 3 was titled “Our Sputtering Economy, By The Numbers.” Its subject was

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

none

Notes/analysis: This story used mostly information from other reports and publications. The photo accompanying the story pictured a male figure.