New Media Index

Second month in a row with dismal female byline count in New Media Index stories

October 14, 2011November 17, 2011Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

Following a methodology change for the New Media Index reports, The Gender Report has for the second month in a row found the lowest count of female bylines yet, this month coming in at a dismal 9.5 percent.

Here at The Gender Report, we’ve been monitoring the web’s top articles based on links provided in the Project for Excellence in Journalism‘s weekly New Media Index roundups since January. PEJ’s reports the top five news stories and opinion pieces around the web in a Monday to Friday week based on commentary on blogs and social media sites. For the purposes of our study, we’ve chosen to focus on the top five in the blogosphere. When more than one link was provided on the topic, we’ve tried to monitor the first mentioned or the one that appears based on the writing to be more dominant, unless it is mentioned that articles shared the attention for that particular subject.

As we mentioned last month, August marked some changes to the New Media Index’s methodology, including the use of more sites to track the top stories as well as using a larger sample size and range of sources. (Read more about those change and the process here.) As a result, we’ve continued to notice changes in link diversity (particularly from blogs) and in topics, with more technology topics making it into the top five. As we’ve seen so far, this has meant a decrease in the number of sources and the percentage of female bylines. We’ll be continuing to monitor the differences in our results for the months following this methodology change.

Here’s what we found in the past month:

September 2011

: PEJ New Media Index: September 26-30, 2011

Between Sept. 5 and Sept. 30, the New Media Index included 24 articles that could be checked. News regarding the new iPhone, usually from tech blogs, appeared every week in the top five. An apology message from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings regarding recent changes to the company’s services appeared in the top five two weeks in a row but is only counted once here. For three top stories during this time, no specific link was provided. Those topics were Facebook (No. 3, Sept 26-30), Google News (No. 3, Sept. 5-9), and Carol Bartz ousted from Yahoo (No. 4, Sept. 5-9).

In the stories we were able to monitor, here’s what we found:

Women were 17.6 percent of sources in this month’s articles. The articles contained 28 male sources and 6 female sources.
Half of the articles contained no human sources. Nearly all of those links were to blog posts with two coming from opinion columns. In addition, four articles featured only male sources.
Only two articles or posts were written or produced by a woman while 19 articles were by one or more man. That means women wrote only 9.5 percent of articles or posts by authors of one gender or the other. One article was by a male and female. Two were by staff. This tops last month’s eight-month low of female bylines, which was at 10 percent.

We’ll be keeping an eye on these findings in the coming months to see if we deduce other trends emerging now that the methodology for the top five articles has changed. 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.

Lowest percentage of female authors yet in August’s New Media Index count

September 9, 2011January 28, 2012Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

August’s look at articles in the New Media Index produced an eight-month low in female bylines and one of the lowest percentages of female sources. Time will tell whether these numbers are related to a change in the methodology for determining the top five most discussed and linked to articles on the web.

Aug. 1 marked some changes to the New Media Index report. PEJ updated its methodology to use more sites to track the top stories and began using a larger sample size and range of sources. (Read more about those change and the process here.)

For the purpose of our study, this has meant changes in the sources of links. During the first seven months of the year, the majority of links provided mostly came from the LA Times, Washington Post and in less frequency the BBC, and were mostly news articles with some opinion pieces (in other words, almost exclusively traditional media sources). This month we’ve noticed more diversity in the link sources, including from blogs and company’s direct postings.

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 mentioned that two articles shared the attention for that particular subject. This happened in higher volumes this month, resulting in a larger sample of articles overall.

In July, we released our findings from the first six months of monitoring. In that time, women were 20.2 percent of sources and had 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).

Here’s what we found specifically in the past month:

August 2011

: PEJ New Media Index: August 1-5, 2011

Between Aug. 1 and Sept. 2, the New Media Index included 33 articles that could be checked. Reoccurring topics included the 2012 presidential campaign and the new iPhone — both appeared in the top five in four out of the five weeks. More than one link was included for nine topics. One link related to the iPhone in week four was no longer functioning and no link was provided for the No. 3 story of Google buying Motorola in week three.

Here’s what we found:

Women were 14.1 percent of sources in this month’s articles. The articles contained 67 male sources and only 11 female sources. This is the second lowest female source total we’ve seen. The low thus far came in May with women at 13.3 percent.
Most shockingly 18 out of the 33 linked to articles contained no human sources at all (though one or two did reference a company or an unnamed and unidentified official). Nearly all of those links were to posts or reviews as opposed to traditional news articles. In addition, eight articles featured only male sources.
Only three articles or posts were written or produced by a woman while 27 articles were by men. That means women wrote only 10 percent of articles or posts by authors of one gender or the other. Two were uncredited and one was by staff. That percentage of female authors fell below our previous low of 11.1 percent in May.

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

August 5, 2011August 30, 2011Jasmine 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.

Recap: A look at The Gender Report’s first six months in numbers

July 29, 2011August 23, 2011Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

Editor’s note: Six months ago, we set out to look at how women are represented in online news both as sources and as authors. To mark our progress, this week we’re reviewing our findings as well as unveiling new statistics based on what we’ve uncovered thus far in a series of posts. View other six-month coverage here.

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We’ve spent the past six months looking at gender in Internet news through our own studies and as well as those by others. To review what we’ve accomplished in that time and what it says about the state of women in online journalism, we’ve pulled together our stats through a roundup list as well as some graphs (Scroll below the slideshow for the full list of stats plus links). Here’s our refresher as well as a great way to check out our work if you’re new to The Gender Report.

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Gender Checks

Through our weekly Gender Checks, which started the week of Jan. 18 and were our cornerstone study, we’ve looked at a total of eight U.S. news websites (one associated with a traditional newspaper and another that is online-only), two from each of the four geographic regions. In that study, we’ve thus far found the following:

–Month 1: Women as 27.6 percent of sources and with 32.3 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)
–Month 2: Women as 20.8 percent of sources and with 33.3 percent of bylines
–Month 3: Women as 23.5 percent of sources and with 26.9 percent of bylines
–First quarter totals: Women as 24.6 percent of sources and with 31 percent of bylines
–Month 4: Women as 30.4 percent of sources and with 57.1 percent of bylines
–Month 5: Women as 19.5 percent of sources and with 33.3 percent of bylines
–Month 6: Women as 27 percent of sources and with 43.3 percent of bylines
–Six month totals: Women as 25.3 percent of sources and with 37.7 percent of bylines (34.7% overall)

In addition, we’ve also been examining the sourcing and authorship from the most linked to and talked about articles on the web, via the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s New Media Index:

–January 2011: Women as 21.3 percent of sources and with 33.3 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)
–February 2011: Women as 28 percent of sources and with 41.7 percent of bylines
–March 2011: Women as 15.2 percent of sources and with 28.6 percent of bylines
–April 2011: Women as 25 percent of sources and with 28.6 percent of bylines
–May 2011: Women as 13.3 percent of sources and with 11.1 percent of bylines
–June 2011: Women as 20.2 percent of sources and with 36 percent of bylines
–Six months: Women as 20.2 percent of sources and with 31.3 percent of bylines (26.3 percent overall)

News Frontier Database

We’ve also spent some time looking at the information that can be gleaned through or as an off-shoot of the Columbia Journalism Review’s News Frontier Database.

Women made up 28 percent of the “principal staff” of online news outlets (as of June 3, 2011)
Women were 22 percent of sources and bylined 30 percent of articles overall in a July 1 sample of the lead articles from the 40 “national” online news outlets in the database.

The Gender Report got a shout-out for these studies from Michael Meyer who is in charge of the database during an interview he did with the media blog 10,000 Words in July.

Newsroom staff breakdowns

To look at gender representations in news creation in a different way aside from a byline count, we’ve been taking stock of the breakdown in each newsroom of the news sites included in our Gender Check monitoring via their online staff lists:

West:

Seattle Times: Women as 45.5 percent of staff.
Seattle P-I: Women as 30 percent of staff.

Midwest:

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Women as 31.3 percent of staff.
St. Louis Beacon: Women as 60 percent of staff.

*Data from the Northeast and the South still to come.

Author gender and source selection

With our six-month statistics in hand as well as those from our monitoring of the 40 sites located nationally in the News Frontier Database, we decided also to look at whether the author’s gender affected the use of female sources. Here’s what each of these studies showed:

–News Frontier Database “national site study: Women were 38 percent of sources in articles by females and 10 percent of sources in articles by males. Women were 37 percent of sources in those articles with a shared byline by a male and a female.

–New Media Index study: Women were 28.9 percent of sources in articles by females and 19.3 percent of sources in articles by males. Women were only 11.9 percent of sources in articles with a shared byline by a male (or several) and a female.

–Gender Check study: Women were 28.1 percent of sources in articles by females and 21.8 percent of sources in articles by males. Women were 33 percent of sources in articles with a shared byline by a male (or several) and a female.

This issue is one that we’ll continue to look at in the future, particularly because of the differences we are seeing in the shared bylines.

Other studies

For a comparison, here’s what some other studies on the subject of women and journalism (some specifically related to newspapers and some to online outlets) have uncovered:

American Society of News Editors

2011 Newsroom Census: Women made up 36.9 percent of those working full time at daily U.S. newspapers.

International Women’s Media Foundation’s “The Global Report on the Status of Women in the News Media” (Released March 2011)

Women currently hold 27 percent of top management jobs and 26 percent of governing jobs in the news media globally.

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.

Global Media Monitoring Project (2010)

Overall, 37 percent of stories were reported by women, and 36 percent of stories in the online samples were bylined by women.

Women were 24 percent of news subjects – people heard or read on traditional platforms like newspapers, television and radio in the sample. They were 23 percent of news subjects in the websites monitored.

Our take

Check back on The Gender Report tomorrow (Saturday) for our take on what we’ve learned so far and what we hope to look at in our next six months.

Six months: Our findings of gender representation in the New Media Index

July 26, 2011August 16, 2011Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

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“Of the most talked about articles on the web, how many feature women? How many are produced by females?”

Those were some of the questions we asked at the start of our project that led us to monitor each of the top articles in the Project for Excellence in Journalism‘s weekly New Media Index reports based on the links provided. The New Media Index presented an avenue to look for answers to these questions since it culls the top five linked to and discussed stories and opinion pieces from the web during a Monday through Friday week based on commentary from blogs and social media sites. We chose to focus in on the main top five in the blogosphere.

Each month between 12 and 29 articles could be checked, for a total of 118 articles over the six-month period between January and June 2011. Even though there were on average five subjects each week, at times more than one link was offered on the subject. In those cases, we chose to monitor the first mentioned or that which appeared based on the writing as more dominant, unless it was specifically mentioned that two articles shared the attention, in which case we checked both. For some weeks or subjects, no links were provided, resulting in lower numbers during those months’ totals.

The top news source of the links PEJ provided during this time frame was the LA Times, with more than 60 of the 118 articles we monitored, followed by the Washington Post and then the BBC. All other news sources had two or fewer articles in the sample. From each article, we recorded the subject matter, the gender breakdown of the sources and the gender of the authors or producers, similar to what we’ve done with our weekly “gender checks.”

Here’s what was found:

Sourcing

Women made up 20.2 percent of sources whose gender could be identified during the first six months of the year. This calculated out to 323 male sources and 82 female sources.

The low point for female sources came in May, in which they were only 13.3 percent of sources. The high was in February with 28 percent.

Startling was the fact that 49 of the 118 articles contained no female sources at all (but did have male sources) — or 41.5 percent. Only three articles were the reverse with no male sources. Ten articles had no sources and these were mostly op-eds.

We also took a look at the number of articles with a single male vs. a single female news subject as the focus. Eighteen articles featured a single male subject, versus eight that were about a single female subject. Four of the articles were interviews. All of the interview subjects were male (an interview with Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer popped up twice but is counted once). Of the eight about women, three were about Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican political figure, and two featured GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann.

Authorship

A woman (or two) bylined 31.3 percent of articles by authors of one gender or the other and 26.3 percent overall. A total of 68 articles were by one or more man, 31 by one or more woman, 10 with a shared byline between a man (or several) and a woman, and nine were not bylined.

The low for female authorship occurred in May, when women made up a minuscule 11.1 percent of authors of one gender or the other. The high was again in February with women as 41.7 percent.

Nineteen articles linked to were op-ed or commentary pieces during the past six months. Only three of those were by women. One of the 19 was a staff editorial.

Seven articles were written by more than one person of the same gender. Two were shared bylines with females and five shared bylines among males.

Author gender and source selection

We also decided to take a closer look at whether the gender of the author affected the percentage of female sources.

Females made up 28.9 percent of sources in articles by women in the sample. That percentage dropped to 19.3 percent in articles by men. In articles with shared bylines between a man (or men) and a woman, 11.9 percent of sources were women.

We also examined this during our recent study of the lead articles from 40 online news outlets situated nationally in the Columbia Journalism Review’s News Frontier Database. In that study, women were 38 percent of sources in stories by women and only 10 percent of sources in stories by men. Different than the findings here, in that study the percentage of female sources in stories with a shared byline between both a man and a woman were closer to that of those by female authors, at 37 percent.

This issue is something we will continue to look at with our studies in the future.

A look back

We’ll be continuing to monitor the New Media Index for the next six months, so be sure to check back for our monthly counts. To review our past posts on our New Media Index studies, see the links below:

As a note to our readers, we hope you remember that our study is still young and has some limitations. Further research is still needed. For other data on gender representations in online news and to compare these findings to others’, check out our “Findings and Statistics” category and our “Useful Resources” page.