Marking a year at The Gender Report: Stay tuned…

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

Yesterday’s Gender Check from the Midwest represented more than just our usual monitoring of gender in lead articles from online news sites — it also marked a special occasion. The completion of this week’s Gender Checks means that we’ve conducted a full 12 months of our monitoring project and, in effect, can celebrate a year since we founded The Gender Report.

In light of this, we are gearing up for a week-long anniversary celebration filled with findings, statistics and commentary. Starting Jan. 29, you can expect to see daily posts commemorating one year here at The Gender Report. Watch for this logo (right) as we start rolling out coverage.

In the meantime, we are putting our weekly Gender Checks on hold until Feb. 6, at which time we’ll announce some changes to this project going forward as well as other additions to the site. Over this next week leading up to Jan. 29, you may see fewer posts from us, but that’s because we are busy crunching and analyzing numbers from our two year-long monitoring studies — Gender Checks and the New Media Index.

We’d also like to use this time to hear from you, our readers. We want to know what questions you have about our studies, what numbers you’d like to know and what you’d like to see from The Gender Report in our second year. Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below or on Twitter using the hashtag #GRdiscuss.

Thanks for joining us for year one. We hope you’ll stay tuned for more.

Gender check: 1/19/12 – Midwest

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

Editor’s note: This post marks a full year of our Gender Check monitoring project. Stay tuned for details on what’s next.

*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)

Stltoday.com, 1/19/2012

On Stltoday.com, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 9:15 a.m. (PST) Thursday, Jan. 19, was titled “Missouri still gets an ‘F’ on annual smoking report card.” Its subject was a report showing the states “failures” on smoking-related health issues.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

None.

Notes/analysis: The article cites a report from the American Lung Association.


Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 9:15 a.m. (PST) Thursday, Jan. 19, was titled “Pipeline rejection angers Republicans, pleases environmental groups.” Its subject was President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline project.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male, U.S. president
  2. Male, U.S. representative (R)
  3. Female. U.S. senator (D)
  4. Male, U.S. representative (R)
  5. Male, U.S. senator (R)
  6. Female, U.S. senator (D)
  7. Male, company’s chief executive
  8. Male, U.S. representative (R)
  9. Male, U.S. representative (R)

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

Gender Check 1/18/12 – 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 p.m. (EST) Wednesday, Jan. 18, was titled “Poll Shows Shift In Independent’s Vote, a Hurdle for Obama.” Its subject was a potential decline in support for the president among independent voters.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Authors: Male and Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male – Independent voter
  2. Female – Independent voter
  3. Female – Independent voter

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10 p.m. (EST) Wednesday, Jan. 18, was titled “From CEO to Candidate, Romney Flip-Flops on Debt.” Its subject was

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male – private equity executive
  2. Male – economist

Gender check: 1/17/12 – 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 9:30 a.m. (PST) Tuesday, Jan. 17, was titled “Wednesday is still expected to deliver the biggest snow punch.” Its subject was snow storm coverage.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male, meteorologist

Notes/analysis: The main link from the home page took readers to a shorter blog post with an update and a link to last night’s story.


Website: Seattle P-I

"Major snowstorm expected this week" - Seattle P-I, 1/17/2012

On the Seattle P-I, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 9:30 a.m. (PST) Tuesday, Jan. 17, was titled “Major snowstorm expected this week.” Its subject was snow storm coverage (same as above).

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male, meteorologist
  2. Male, warning coordinator for the weather service

 

Gender check: 1/12/12 – 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 8:30 a.m. (PST) Thursday, Jan. 12, was titled “’Knockout’ game victim enraged that young suspects walked free.” Its subject was the dropping of a case against seven middle schoolers who allegedly assaulted a man after the key witness failed to show.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female (1) and male (1)

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Male, court spokesman
  2. Male, victim
  3. Female, police spokeswoman
  4. Male, mayor
  5. Female, girlfriend of different victim

Notes/analysis: The story includes four photos of the male victim.


Website: St. Louis Beacon

St. Louis Beacon, 1/12/12

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 8:30 a.m. (PST) Thursday, Jan. 12, was titled “Take 5: Dr. Patricia Wolff on Haiti two years after earthquake.” Its subject was a Q&A with a pediatrician who started a non-profit in Haiti in 2003.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

  1. Female, pediatrician and main subject