gender

Examining gender representations in the New Media Index

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

Here at The Gender Report, we’ve been wondering: Of the most talked about articles on the web, how many feature women? How many are produced by females?

In addition to our monthly (and quarterly) roundups of our findings on gender representation in online news through our Gender Checks, we’ve been seeking other ways to examine these issues.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism‘s weekly New Media Index gave us a way to try to answer those questions. The New Media Index chronicles the top five linked to and discussed news stories and opinion pieces around the web in a Monday through Friday week based on leading commentary on blogs and social media sites.

Starting with the first week of the year, The Gender Report has pulled a Gender Check on each of the top articles based on the links PEJ provides in addition to our geographical checks each week. We chose to focus on the main top five in the blogosphere and not that just for Twitter or YouTube. When more than one link was provided on the subject, we’ve selected the first mentioned or that which appears based on the writing as more dominant, unless it is specifically mentioned that two articles shared the glory for that subject, in which case we checked both. It’s noteworthy that the vast majority of the links PEJ provides come from either the Washington Post or the LA Times with occasional appearances by the BBC. Other news sources are rarely used as the link article.

From these articles and posts, we’ve been recording the subject matter, the gender of the authors or creators, and the source breakdown by gender. This first post on these checks provides a round-up of the first four months of the year. In the future, we’ll be sharing them on a monthly basis.

Overall, the four-month span had these findings:

  • Approximately 21.5 percent of sources in were women. Of those whose gender could be identified, the articles contained 55 female sources and 201 male sources.
  • One or more woman authored 21 of the articles, while a man or multiple bylined 46. Four had a shared byline between a man (or men) and a woman. Also interesting, of the op-ed pieces that made their way to the weekly top five, two were by women and five were by men. One was a staff editorial.

Here are the findings by month:

January 2011

For the month of January, with weeks starting Jan. 3 through that ending Jan. 28, these were our results.

In that time, there were 23 articles referenced at a rate of the top five per week. One week had two at No. 5. One article (a video interview with Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer) repeated in the top five two weeks in a row, so these numbers only count it once. For one subject, the shooting in Tuscon, Ariz., no link to a specific individual article was provided. Another link, that for the subject of violence in Zimbabwe, was dead.

Here’s the gender breakdown:

  • Overall, there were 37 male sources and 10 female sources referenced in these articles during the month of January. That made women 21.3 percent of sources.
  • Of the authors or creators that could be identified by gender, 12 were male and six were female. One article had a shared byline with a man and a woman. Four had no byline.

In addition to those statistics, it was also noteworthy this month that while eight articles explicitly were about male subjects, only one was specifically about a female subject. The single article about a woman, which occurred in the first week of the month, was regarding the death of actress Anne Francis, whose obituary (the link provided) cites her most-remembered role as that of “Honey West” in a 1960s TV series about a “sexy female private detective.” She’s also described as a “shapely blond with a beauty mark next to her lower lip.”

This is a trend that carried throughout the months. More articles appeared in the top five about male subjects for any number of reasons (like this fun one on a 103-year-old male cyclist). Articles on female subjects usually made it around the blogosphere when an actress died, like Francis, and later Elizabeth Taylor.

February 2011

Between Jan. 31 and Feb. 25, these were the findings. There were 14 articles, with two No. 1’s one week. In subsequent weeks when Egypt and then Libya were the No. 2 story, the PEJ roundups did not include a link to an article.

Here’s the breakdown:

  • This month women made up 28 percent of sources. The articles included 41 males sources and 16 female sources.
  • In February seven articles were written or produced by one or more male, five were by females and one was by both a man and a woman. One article had no byline.

March 2011

For the weeks that began Feb. 28 and ended April 1, a total of 23 subject articles or links were provided at the top-five-per-week rate. This month saw much more tying among subjects in terms of their percentage of the links referenced in the blogosphere. Two links were either not provided and couldn’t be externally identified or were no longer functioning.

The breakdown was as follows for the month:

  • In the low of the first four months, women made up only 15.2 percent of sources. Of sources that could be gender identified, just 14 were female while 78 were male.
  • Six articles were written by a woman, 15 by a man, three by two or more men and one with a shared byline with a man and a woman. One had no byline.

April 2011

Starting with the week of April 4 and ending April 22, a total of 17 articles were referenced. It appears that no New Media Index was completed for the week of April 25 to 29, at least not that we could find. Both the second and third week had six articles, as two articles shared the No. 2 spot for economy during the second week and the fourth week saw two subjects sharing No. 1 and No. 4 (with no No. 5).

Here’s what the month brought:

  • Approximately 25 percent of sources were women in April. A total of 15 sources were female and 45 were male.
  • On the byline front, four articles were by one or more woman, 10 were by a man and two had shared bylines between a woman and one or more man. Again, one article had no byline.

Looking at the New Media Index is again one of several ways we’ll be examining the issues of gender representations in both the coverage and creation of online news. For some context or a basis of comparison for these statistics, read our earlier post on the statistics found in the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project’s report. For more information or research on women’s representation in the news media, check out our “Useful Resources” page.

First quarter: Women are 24.6 percent of sources, 31 percent of authors

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

Women were represented as 24.6 percent of sources and 31 percent of authors in the first quarter of Gender Checks here at the Gender Report.

In our first three months of Gender Checks, we monitored two websites — one associated with a newspaper and one that was online-only — in four different geographic regions. We recorded information on the gender of the author and the breakdown of the genders of the human sources referenced in the articles among other details. (For more on what Gender Checks are, read our introductory post here.)

Before we share our findings, it’s important for our readers to understand that these results reflect a limited amount of data. We hope you understand the limitations of this when we’ve only sampled a few articles from eight news sites. Further research will be needed.

Sources

For sources, the results fall closely in line with other studies (like the Global Media Monitoring Project) that have pegged women at 24 percent of sources on traditional platforms and 23 percent of sources online, though the web part of that study was in its first year.

Of the geographic regions, the Northeast (NYTimes.com and ProPublica) had the lowest representation of women at 19.8 percent of sources. This region also had the highest source total overall. The South performed best for women at 32.8 percent, though we’ll note that we did miss a couple of weeks of Gender Checks there and that may have skewed our results.

Online-only sites had a slightly more equitable representation of women in their sources than those that are attached to traditional newspapers at 25.9 versus 23 percent as well as the most sources overall (Thanks in part to lengthy pieces by ProPublica and the St. Louis Beacon).

Authorship

Authorship numbers, at an average of 31 percent of bylines going to women, are below what other studies have measured at traditional media. The latest American Society of News Editors reports that women make up 36.9 percent of those working full-time at U.S. daily newspapers. A separate global study by the International Women’s Media Foundation found that in positions that produce the news, women hold 36 percent of reporter jobs, or positions at the “junior professional level” and 41 percent of positions at the senior professional level, which includes anchors, senior writers and producers.

Our lower findings could reflect a difference in which reporters solely write for the web as well as which gender tends to write the stories about certain topics (crime and government in particular) that tend to appear as lead stories on news pages, from which we select our articles to monitor. We intend to explore this further in future posts.

The byline totals are still low when divided out among geographic regions, so it’s early to lean too heavily on those numbers. It’s looking like the Northeast has low representations of women in its bylines and the Midwest and South appear more equitable.

While online-only sites were better for women as sources, they were not when it came to giving them bylines. Women only had 19.1 percent of bylines in the first quarter of our study at these sites, while those sites connected to newspapers had a far more equitable representation at 45 percent. Again, this may reflect web writing staffs, and perhaps staffs at online-only sites lean male more so than those at newspaper sites. We’ll be looking at that breakdown in the near future as well.

To see how our findings broke out by month, see these related posts:

Below you’ll find the complete breakdown of our results from the first quarter.

First quarter: Jan. 18 – April 15, 2011

We reviewed 96 articles, two in each Gender Check. That amounts to 13 Gender Checks per geographical region, with one less in the Midwest and two less in the South.

Sourcing

The articles contained 334 male sources and 109 female sources, which put women at about 24.6 percent of the human sources referenced in these articles. (Not including those whose gender could not be identified)

Here’s how it broke down by geographic region:

  • West: 75 males, 31 female (Women at 29.2 percent)
  • Northeast: 130 males, 32 females (Women at 19.8 percent)
  • Midwest: 86 males, 25 females (Women at 22.5 percent)
  • South: 43 male, 21 female (Women at 32.8 percent)

And, here’s the breakdown by news sites associated with a traditional newspaper and those that are not.

  • Newspaper website: 157 males, 47 females (Women at 23 percent)
  • Online-only:  177 males, 62 females (Women at 25.9 percent)

Authorship

Overall, 27 articles were written by an individual woman and 60 by one or more man, which meant women were 31 percent of authors during the first quarter. In addition, eight articles had a shared byline with a man (or several) and a woman.

Here’s a look by geographic region:

  • West: 6 stories by an individual woman, 17 by one or more man (Women at 26 percent)
  • Northeast: 3 by an individual woman, 18 by one or more man (Women at 14.2 percent)
  • Midwest: 10 by a woman, 14 by one or more man (Women at 41.6 percent)
  • South: 8 by a woman, 11 by one or more man (Women at 42 percent)

And, here’s the look by news website association:

  • Newspaper website: 18 by a woman, 22 by one or more man (Women at 45 percent)
  • Online-only: 9 by a woman, 38 by one or more man (Women at 19.1 percent)

We’re interested in what you make of the findings. It’s early, but is there an aspect you’d be interested to see us explore more? Share your thoughts in the comment section below or email us at genderreport@gmail.com.

Gender Check 4/27/11 – 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 8:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday, April 27 was titled “Fatah and Hamas Announce Outline of Deal.” Its subject was the creation of an interim unity government in Palestine.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male – Hamas spokesman

2. Male – Israel prime minister (from news conference)

3. Male – NSA spokesman

4. Male – Hamas representative (from news conference)

5. Male – professor

6. Male – Hamas leader

Notes/analysis: The photo accompanying the story pictured a crowd in Palestine with a male subject and only one recognizably female demonstrator.

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 8:30 p.m. EST on Wednesday, April 27 was titled “Chief Offshore Drilling Regulator Criticizes Lack of Oversight for Contractors.” Its subject was the current policies and their influence on the BP cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male – director of regulatory agency

2. Male – professor

3. Male – senate staff director

4. Female – spokeswoman

Third month finds dip in percentage of female authors

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

Women still made up less than 30 percent of sources in our third month of Gender Checks, while the number of female authors in our sample also dipped below 30 percent this month.

Since this marked month three, we’re working on a quarter roundup of our findings, but in the meantime we’ve tallied up our results from the month to share. Here’s what we found:

Third Month: March 22 – April 15, 2011

We reviewed 28 articles, two in each Gender Check. We aimed for each geographical region to have four Gender Checks, but in this time period we missed one week for the South and one for the Midwest.

For each Gender Check, we looked at two websites — one associated with a newspaper and one that was online-only. We recorded information on the gender of the author and the breakdown of the genders of the human sources referenced in the articles among other details. (For more on what Gender Checks are, read our introductory post here.)

Sourcing

The articles contained 91 male sources and 28 female sources, which put women at about 23.5 percent of the human sources referenced in these articles. This does not include sources whose gender was not identifiable.

Here’s how it broke down by geographic region:

  • West: 23 males, 10 female (Women at 30.3 percent)
  • Northeast: 37 males, 10 females (Women at 21.3 percent)
  • Midwest: 13 males, 4 females (Women at 23.5 percent)
  • South: 18 male, 4 female (Women at 18 percent)

And, here’s the breakdown by news sites associated with a traditional newspaper and those that are not.

  • Newspaper website: 50 males, 8 females (Women at 13.8 percent)
  • Online-only:  41 males, 20 females (Women at 32.8 percent)

Authorship

Overall, seven articles were written by an individual woman and 19 by one or more man, which meant women were 26.9 percent of authors this month. In addition, two articles had a shared byline with a man (or two) and a woman.

Here’s a look by geographic region:

  • West: No stories by an individual woman, 7 by a man, 1 by two men and a woman
  • Northeast: 1 by an individual woman, 2 by an individual man, 4 by two men, 1 by a man and a woman
  • Midwest: 3 by a woman, 3 by men
  • South: 3 by a woman, 3 by men

And, here’s the look by news website association:

  • Newspaper website: 3 by a woman, 7 by a man, 2 by two men, 2 by a man (or two) and a woman
  • Online-only: 4 by a woman, 8 by a man, 2 by two men

Here’s our monthly reminder: These results reflect a limited amount of data from our simple Gender Checks. We hope you understand the limitations of this data, however telling. We’ve only sampled a few articles from eight news sites. Further research is needed to verify any validity across the board.

Check back later this week for our first quarter averages and observations from our Gender Checks as a whole.

Gender Check 4/20/11 – 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 8:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday, April 20 was titled “Ohio County Losing Its Young to Painkillers’ Grip.” Its subject was a former industrial town that has been hit with deaths due to drug overdoses.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male – state governor (from public statement)

2. Male – police chief

3. Female – nurse

4. Male – father

5. Female – mother

6. Male – counselor

7. Female – mother

8. Male – state assemblyman

9. Female – spokeswoman for the governor

Notes/analysis: The photo accompanying the story pictured three victims of drug overdosing, all male.

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 8:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday, April 20 was titled “Fracking Chemicals Cited in Congressional Report Stay Underground.” Its subject was the injection of chemicals into the ground by gas drillers.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Female – policy analyst (from an earlier ProPublica story)

2. Male – spokesman (from an email)

Notes/Analysis: Most of this story came from the Congressional report as well as former coverage of the topic by ProPublica.