gender

Gender Check: 2/18/11 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.

Website: The Miami Herald

On the Miami Herald, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3 p.m. (EST) on Friday, Feb. 18 was titled “Accused Child Abusers’ Granddaughter Also A Victim.” Its subject was the developing legal case involving alleged abuse of a grandparents’ adopted children as well as their biological granddaughter.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Female – mother of the victim

2. Female – judge

3. Female – child welfare lawyer (as quoted from court documents)

4. unknown- group of unidentified prosecutors

Notes/analysis: No male sources were directly quoted in the article. Both the male and female grandparents are being charged with attempted murder. Both male and female victims were targeted.


Website: Patch (Seminole Heights)

On Patch of Seminole Heights, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3:30 p.m. (EST) on Friday, Feb. 18 was titled “Early Voting for Tampa Election Begins Saturday.” Its subject was a basic summary of information for voters in the upcoming municipal election.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male – county supervisor of elections

Notes/analysis: For this election in Tampa, 1 of the 5 mayoral candidates is female, and 8 of the 28 city council candidates are female. Tampa currently has a female mayor and 3 of 7 city council members are female.

Gender Check: 2/16/11 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 3 p.m. EST on Feb. 16 was titled “As the Mainland Shivers, Hawaii Basks in Tourism’s Glow.” Its subject was the increased travel to Hawaii from the continental United States in recent months and potential reasons for the increase.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male – tourist visiting Hawaii

2. Male – tourist visiting Hawaii

3. female – president of marketing for a California-based tour operator

4. male – president of Hawaiian hotel chain

5. male – professor

6. male – vice president of brand management for Hawaii Tourism Authority

7. male – vice president for sales at a national hotel chain

8. male -meteorologist

9. male – president of a hotel consulting firm

10. male -tourist

11. female – tourist

Notes/analysis: The gender imbalance in this story is particularly striking because of the relatively high number of sources for a story of this length. A small accompanying photo appears to picture two women, although the shot does not show their faces.

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3 p.m. EST on Feb. 16 was titled “The Reform for Disabled Borrowers that the Education Dept Refuses to Adopt.” Its subject was a follow-up to an investigation into the policies surrounding student loan repayments for the disabled.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. male – spokesman for department of education

2. male – educational consultant

3. female – lawyer

Notes/analysis: Because this story makes several references to previous quotes or stories, I only included the breakdown of newly included sources.

Gender check: 2/10/11 – 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 the Stltoday.com, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3:30 p.m. (MST) Thursday, Feb. 10, was titled “Busch girlfriend had lethal doses of cocaine and oxycodone; no prosecution planned.” Its subject was the cause of death of the girlfriend of the former chief executive of Anheuser-Busch.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, prosecuting attorney

2. Male, boyfriend of the deceased

Notes/analysis: It’s noteworthy that the deceased woman whose death is the subject of the story is always defined as being a famous man’s girlfriend, in the headline and the lede. There are details about earlier parts of his life, but readers, at least of this particular article, learn nothing about her — where she’s from, what she did, her family, etc. The only background about her is that she’d been dating him for two years.


Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3:30 p.m. (MST) Thursday, Feb. 10 was titled “The bigger picture of Pruitt-Igoe.” Its subject was a documentary about the myths surrounding a federal housing project.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, resident in housing project

2. Male, documentary producer

3. Male, director

4. Male, journalist

5. Female, film participant

Notes/analysis: The article also contains three mug shots, all of male sources.

Gender Check 2/9/11 – 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 5 p.m. EST on Feb. 9 was titled “NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Borse in Merger Talks.” Its subject was the developing talks which would lead to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange acquiring the NYSE.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Males (two bylines)

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. male – analyst

Notes/analysis: Most of the article was numbers-based and information came from released company statements rather than human interviews.

Website: ProPublica

On ProPublica, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 5 p.m. EST on Feb. 9 was titled “Gov’t Considering Rolling Back Rule Against Private Planes To Keep Flights Secret.” Its subject was a possible change in the U.S. Department of Transportation policy to allow the public to track private flights in real time.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. male – president of National Business Aviation Society (from a published letter on the organization’s website)

2. female – FAA spokeswoman

Notes/analysis: This is a developing story, so most of the information is simply updating announcements or developments from the parties involved.

Gender check: 2/8/11 – 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 3:15 p.m. (MST) Tuesday, Feb. 8, was titled “Kemper Freeman quits Bellevue business group his father founded.” Its subject was the departure of a key figure from a business association over differences in opinion, including over an endorsement of light rail.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, developer (main subject)

2. Female, president of the business association

3. Male, chair of the board

4. Male, mayor

5. Male, former association president

Notes/analysis: See below notes.


Website: Seattle P-I

On the Seattle P-I, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 3:15 p.m. (MST) Tuesday, Feb. 8, was titled “Man accused in threats against Seattle Democrat Jim McDermott pleads not guilty.” Its subject was the plea of a California man who made threatening phone calls to a Congressman’s office.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, suspect charged

2. Male, special agent

3. Female, U.S. attorney

Notes/analysis: The headlines on both articles this week included mentions of at least two male subjects, one by name in each. These men were then the focal points of the articles. Prior studies, such as the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project, have shown that less than 15 percent of news items focus on women or female subjects.