Gender Checks – Page 14 – The Gender Report

Gender check: 11/15/11 – West

November 15, 2011Jasmine 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.

On the Seattle Times, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10:50 a.m. (PST) Tuesday, Nov. 15, was titled “Foreign enrollment skyrockets for UW.” Its subject was a record number of international students.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

Male, admissions director
Male, director of writing
Male, freshman from China
Male, sophomore from China
Male, associate VP of international relations (at community college)
Female, executive dean for international education programs for the community college district
Female, vice minister of education for China
Female, associate dean of extended learning

Notes/analysis: Two photos appear with the story by a male photographer. One features a male student and the other names a female, though she is not in the foreground.

Website: Seattle P-I

On the Seattle P-I, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 10:50 a.m. (PST) Tuesday, Nov. 15, was titled “Wind, rain, snow, cold — what a week ahead.” Its subject was weather.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

None.

Notes/analysis: The story quotes the National Weather Service.

Gender Checks 11/11/11 – South and Northeast

November 11, 2011December 28, 2011Joy 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.

*These two Gender Checks are appearing on a different day than normal. Typically the South appears on Mondays and the Northeast on Wednesdays.

Website: The Miami Herald

On the Miami Herald, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 9:00 p.m. (EST) on Friday, Nov. 11 was “Military Uses Keys For Intensive Anti-Terrorism Training Exercise“. Its subject was a week-long air and missile defense training.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

Male – Major General
Male – Navy Lt. Commander

Website: Patch (Seminole Heights)

On Patch of Seminole Heights, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 9:00 p.m. (EST) on Friday, Nov. 11 was titled “Free Meals and Specials for Vets.” Its subject was programs around the Tampa area for veterans.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned)

None

Website: The New York Times

On The New York Times, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 9 p.m. EST on Friday, Nov. 11 was titled “A Gold Rush of Subsidies in the Search for Clean Energy.” Its subject was a

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Authors: Male (2)

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

Male – chief executive of energy company (from previous statements)
Male – spokesman for Energy Department
Male – chief executive of energy company
Male – chief executive of energy company
Male – president of solar association
Male – policy director
Male – spokesman for General Electric
Male – analyst

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 9 p.m. EST on Friday, November 11 was titled “EPA Finds Compound Used in Fracking in Wyoming Aquifer .” Its subject was the discovery of a contaminant from oil drilling.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned)

None

Gender check: 11/10/11 – Midwest

November 10, 2011Jasmine 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 8:45 a.m. (PST) Thursday, Nov. 10, was titled “Lake of the Ozarks homes can stay.” Its subject was a decision by federal regulators that homes and structures on the shoreline that owners have valid deeds, easements or permits for would not have to be removed.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

Male, commission chairman

Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 8:45 a.m. (PST) Thursday, Nov. 10, was titled “Nixon pushes ahead with MOSIRA, despite threat of lawsuit.” Its subject was the governor holding ceremonial signing ceremonies for the Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act despite the prospect of litigation.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

Male, governor
Female, legislative liaison for Missouri Right to Life (opposing group)

Gender check: 11/8/11 – West

November 8, 2011Jasmine 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 9:20 a.m. (PST) Tuesday, Nov. 8, was titled “Warrant issued for figure in Seattle schools scandal.” Its subject was the main figured in the alleged to scheme to bilk the school district out of $250,000 did not appear in court.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

None.

Notes/analysis: This story since it emerged has often been at the top of the Seattle website’s home pages. View other Gender Checks of articles on the Seattle Schools here.

Website: Seattle P-I

On the Seattle P-I, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 9:20 a.m. (PST) Tuesday, Nov. 8, was titled “Warrant issued for main figure in Seattle schools contracting scandal.” Its subject was the same as above.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

Male, accused (according to police report)
Male, prosecutor

Nine months: Science and health articles showing high female sources, low female bylines

November 4, 2011January 24, 2012Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

At the nine-month mark of our Gender Check study, articles about science and health have the highest percentage of female sources and one of the lowest percentages of female bylines compared to other article subjects.

Last week, we unveiled our findings from the first nine months of our Gender Check project. Another way we’ve been looking at our data is by article subject, to see if there is a difference in the representation of women as sources and authors. We first explored this following our six-month mark and we did, in fact, find some differences. As a result, we’ve gone back through our most recent findings and looked at each of the 272 articles we gender checked by topic, in order to see if those same differences still hold.

We’ve opted to use (to the best of our ability) the Global Media Monitoring Project‘s news stories classification system (Click for a PDF of the system) to categorize stories. This system divides articles into eight categories with a numbering system for further breakdowns within each category. At this point, we are just looking at the larger categories. None of our articles have fallen under the categories of “Other” and ‘The Girl-Child” yet, so we’re sticking with the six remaining categories.

In the first nine months of our Gender Check project, the largest number of our articles still fell under “Crime and Violence” (84 out of 272). “Economy” with 60 articles narrowly passed “Politics and Government” with 58 to be the second highest. Thirty-five articles fell under “Social and Legal,” 20 under “Science and Health” and 15 under “Celebrity, Arts, Media and Sports.” We recognize that the sample of articles in some categories is still small, so please keep in mind that limitation when viewing our data.

Here’s what we found within those categories:

Sourcing

“Celebrity, Arts, Media and Sports” articles moved to the bottom of the pack by producing the lowest percentage of female sources at 19 percent. “Science and Health” has continued to hold the highest percentage of female sources with 31.4 percent. As we’ve seen in our overall findings to date, the total sample shows women as 25.3 percent of sources.

Here’s how it separated out by classification:

Politics and Government: 193 males, 53 females (Women as 21.5 percent)
Economy: 163 males, 48 females (Women as 25.4 percent)
Science and Health: 59 males, 27 females (Women as 31.4 percent)
Social and Legal: 89 males, 32 females (Women as 26.4 percent)
Crime and Violence: 224 males, 92 females (Women as 29.1 percent)
Celebrity, Arts, Media and Sports: 47 males, 11 females (Women as 19 percent)

Authorship

Even with the highest percentage of female sources, “Science and Health” articles still had one of the lowest percentages of female authors at 20 percent. This tied with “Celebrity, Arts, Media and Sports” articles. “Economy” articles continued to show the highest percentage of female authors at 40 percent. Overall, women are 38.2 percent of authors.

Here’s the breakdown by classification:

Politics and Government: 22 stories by women, 30 by men, 5 shared bylines between a man and a woman, 1 other/unidentified (Women as 37.9 percent)
Economy: 24 by women, 34 by men, 2 shared (Women as 40 percent)
Science and Health: 4 by women, 16 by men, 2 shared (Women as 20 percent)
Social and Legal: 13 by women, 20 by men, 2 shared (Women as 37.1 percent)
Crime and Violence: 26 by women, 47 by men, 9 shared, 2 other (Women as 31 percent)
Celebrity, Arts, Media and Sports: 3 by women, 11 by men, 1 shared (Women as 20 percent)

We’ll still be watching these findings to see what other trends emerge in certain subject areas over time. For more information on gender representations in online news, check out our “Findings and Statistics” and “Useful Resources” pages.