sourcing

12th month shows dip in female sources and authors

Joy BaconLeave a comment

Editor’s note: In January 2011, we set out to examine the ways in which women are represented in online news both as sources and as authors. To mark our first year here at The Gender Report, we’re revealing our findings from our year-long studies as well as other statistics and commentaries in a series of posts. View other coverage of our one-year anniversary here.

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During month 12 of our Gender Check monitoring project, women were 24.4 percent of human sources whose gender could be identified.

Here’s our breakdown of this month’s findings:

Month 12: Dec. 26, 2011 – Jan. 19, 2012

During our 12th month, we reviewed 24 articles, two in each Gender Check. That included four Gender Checks from the West and Midwest regions, three from the Northeast and one from the South.The South typically has a higher percentage of female authors and sources, which may be a cause for the lower results this month.

For each Gender Check, we looked at two websites from that region — one connected with a newspaper and one that is online-only. We selected the top or lead articles on their websites at the time of the check and collect information on the author’s (or authors’) gender and the genders of the human sources referenced among other details. (For more on what Gender Checks are, read our introductory post here.)

Sourcing

The articles from this month contained 23 female sources and 71 male sources, making women just under 24.4 percent of human sources whose gender could be identified.

Of the articles we examined this month, nine of the 24 articles had only male sources. Two articles had only female sources and four articles contained no sources.

Here’s how sourcing broke down by geographic region:

  • West:  23 males, 13 females (Women at 36.1 percent)
  • Northeast: 23 males, 3 females (Women at 11.5 percent)
  • Midwest: 23 males, 7 females (Women at  23.3 percent)
  • South: 2 males, no female (Women at 0  percent) – this is just the result of one Gender Check

We’ve also broken down our findings by news sites associated with a traditional newspaper and those that are not. Here are this month’s results:

  • Newspaper website: 45 males, 12 females (Women at 21 percent)
  • Online-only: 26 males, 11 females (Women at 29.7 percent)

Authorship

In the 12th month, six articles were written by a woman and 16 by one or more man. That gave women 27.3 percent of bylines of one gender or another and 25 percent overall. Two articles had a shared byline between a man and a woman.

Here’s the break down of bylines by geographic region:

  • West: 2 by a woman, 6 by men
  • Northeast: 2 by women, 3 by men, 1 by a man and woman
  • Midwest: 2 by a woman, 5 by a man, 1 by a man and woman
  • South: 0 by a woman, 2 by a man

Here’s how women did in bylines between newspaper sites and online-only sites this month:

  • Newspaper website: 2 by a woman, 8 by men, 2 shared
  • Online-only: 4 by a woman, 8 by a man

As a reminder to our readers, these findings stated above reflect a limited amount of data from our simple Gender Checks. We hope you recognize the limitations of this data, since we’ve only sampled a few articles from eight news sites. Further research and time is needed to verify any validity across the board.

Be sure to check back for our analysis and findings from our full year of Gender Checks in this week’s anniversary coverage.

To look at past month breakdowns and other data on gender representations in online news, check out our “Findings and Statistics” category.

*Editor’s note: Some of the numbers in this post have been corrected.

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Female authors rebound to 29 percent in Gender Check study’s 10th month

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

During the 10th month of our Gender Check monitoring project, women made up 25.5 percent of sources and 29 percent of authors of one gender or the other. This marked a higher showing of female authors than the previous month, which resulted in an all-time low in our study thus far at 25 percent.

Here’s the breakdown of our findings:

Tenth Month: Oct. 24 – Nov. 17, 2011

We reviewed 32 articles, two in each Gender Check, during our 10th month. That included four Gender Checks from each of our geographic regions.

For each Gender Check, we looked at two websites from that region — one connected with a newspaper and one that is online-only. We then selected the top or lead articles on their websites at the time of the check and collect information on the author’s (or authors’) gender and the genders of the human sources referenced among other details. (For more on what Gender Checks are, read our introductory post here.)

Sourcing

This month’s articles contained 23 female sources and 67 male sources, making women 25.5 percent of human sources whose gender could be identified. Eight articles this month contained no identified sources. Twelve of 32 articles, or 37.5 percent, contained only male sources. Only two had only female sources.

Here’s how sourcing broke down by geographic region:

  • West: 13 males, 6 female (Women at 31.6 percent)
  • Northeast: 23 males, 4 females (Women at 14.8 percent)
  • Midwest: 13 males, 6 females (Women at 31.6 percent)
  • South: 18 male, 7 female (Women at 28 percent)

We’ve also broken down our findings by news sites associated with a traditional newspaper and those that are not. Here are this month’s results:

  • Newspaper website: 53 males, 16 females (Women at 23.2 percent)
  • Online-only: 14 males, 7 females (Women at 33.3 percent)

Authorship

During this month, nine articles were written by a woman and 22 by one or more man. That gave women 29 percent of bylines of one gender or another. There was also one article written by staff.

Here’s the break down of bylines by geographic region:

  • West: 2 stories by a woman, 6 by a man
  • Northeast: 1 by a woman, 7 by one or more man
  • Midwest: 1 by a woman, 6 by a man, 1 by staff
  • South: 5 by a woman, 3 by a man

Here’s how women did in bylines between newspaper sites and online-only sites this month:

  • Newspaper website: 4 by a woman, 11 by men and 1 by staff
  • Online-only: 5 by a woman, 11 by a man

As a word of reminder to our readers, these findings reflect a limited amount of data from our simple Gender Checks. We hope you recognize the limitations of this data, since we’ve only sampled a few articles from eight news sites. Further research and time is needed to verify any validity across the board.

Last month, we released our findings to date at the nine-month mark. At that point, women were 25.3 percent of sources and 38.2 percent of authors overall. Read more of the findings here.

To look at past month breakdowns and other data on gender representations in online news, check out our “Findings and Statistics” category.

Lowest showing of female bylines yet found in ninth month of Gender Check project

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

During the latest month of our Gender Check monitoring project, only 25 percent of authors were women, the lowest percentage yet in this project. The only other time the percentage of female bylines dipped below 30 percent was in the third month of our study, when women bylined 26.9 percent of articles by an author of one gender or the other.

This marked the ninth month of this project, which began in January 2011. Later this week we’ll share findings from the first three quarters of our year-long endeavor.

Here’s the breakdown of our findings:

Ninth Month: Sept. 19 – Oct. 21, 2011

During the ninth month, we reviewed 28 articles, two in each Gender Check. That included five Gender Checks from the West and Midwest geographic regions and two from both the Northeast and the South.

As part of each Gender Check, our monitors look at two websites from that region — one associated with a newspaper and one that is online-only. We then select the top or lead articles on their websites at the time of the check and collect information on the author’s (or authors’) gender and the genders of the human sources referenced among other details. (For more on what Gender Checks are, read our introductory post here.)

Sourcing

This month the articles contained 26 female sources and 70 male sources, making women 27 percent of human sources whose gender could be identified. Three of this month’s articles contained no identified sources.

Here’s how sourcing broke down by geographic region:

  • West: 20 males, 9 female (Women at 31 percent)
  • Northeast: 11 males, 1 females (Women at 8.3 percent)
  • Midwest: 37 males, 11 females (Women at 22.9 percent)
  • South: 2 male, 5 female (Women at 71.4 percent)

We’ve also broken down our findings by news sites associated with a traditional newspaper and those that are not. Here are this month’s results:

  • Newspaper website: 48 males, 14 females (Women at 22.6 percent)
  • Online-only: 22 males, 12 females (Women at 35.3 percent)

Authorship

During this month, six articles were written by one or more woman and 18 by one or more man. That gave women 25 percent of bylines of one gender or another. There were also two shared bylines between a man and a woman (or two), one by staff and another that’s author was unknown.

Here’s the break down of bylines by geographic region:

  • West: 3 stories by women, 6 by men, 1 by staff
  • Northeast: None by a woman, 3 by men and 1 with a shared byline between a man and two women
  • Midwest: 2 by a woman, 7 by men, 1 with a shared byline between a man and a woman
  • South: 1 by a woman, 2 by a man, 1 unknown

Here’s how women did in bylines between newspaper sites and online-only sites this month:

  • Newspaper website: 4 by women, 9 by men and 1 with a shared byline between a man and woman
  • Online-only: 2 by a woman, 9 by men, 1 with a shared byline, 1 by staff and 1 unknown

As a reminder to our readers, these findings reflect a limited amount of data from our simple Gender Checks. We hope you recognize the limitations of this data, since we’ve only sampled a few articles from eight news sites. Further research and time is needed to verify any validity across the board.

In July, we released our findings from our first six months of monitoring. During that time, women were 25.3 percent of human sources referenced and 37.7 percent of authors of one gender or the author. Keep an eye out for findings to-date from the first three-quarters of the year later this week.

To look at past month breakdowns and other data on gender representations in online news, check out our “Findings and Statistics” category. 

Women see increase in bylines in eighth month of Gender Checks

Jasmine R. LinabaryLeave a comment

Women made up 24.3 percent of sources and 44.8 percent of authors in the eighth month of our Gender Check monitoring project. That reflected a rise in women authors over last month, when women had 35 percent of bylines.

Here’s the breakdown of our findings for the eighth month:

Eighth Month: Aug. 22 – Sept. 15, 2011

We reviewed 32 articles, two in each Gender Check, during our eighth month. That included four Gender Checks from each geographic region.

In each Gender Check, we look at two websites from that region — one associated with a newspaper and one that is online-only. During our monitoring, we pull the top or lead articles on their websites at the time of the check and gather details on the gender of the author, the breakdown of the genders of the human sources referenced in the articles and other details. (For more on what Gender Checks are, read our introductory post here.)

Sourcing

This month the articles contained 81 male sources and 26 female sources. This meant women made up 24.3 percent of the human sources referenced. Five articles this month contained no named sources.

Here’s how that broke out by geographic region:

  • West: 19 males, 8 female (Women at 29.6 percent)
  • Northeast: 18 males, 5 females (Women at 21.7 percent)
  • Midwest: 34 males, 6 females (Women at 15 percent)
  • South: 10 male, 7 female (Women at 41.2 percent)

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

  • Newspaper website: 50 males, 14 females (Women at 21.9 percent)
  • Online-only:  31 males, 12 females (Women at 27.9 percent)

Authorship

This month 13 articles were written by an individual woman and 16 by one or more man. That put women at 44.8 percent of bylines of one gender or another for the month. Additionally, there were three shared bylines between a man and a woman (or two). This was one of the higher byline percentages for women in the study and an increase over the 35 percent women reached last month.

Here’s how bylines broke down by geographic region:

  • West: 3 stories by an individual woman, 5 by an individual man
  • Northeast: 2 by a woman, 5 by men and 1 with a shared byline between a man and a woman
  • Midwest: 4 by a woman, 3 by a man, 1 with a shared byline between a man and a woman
  • South: 4 by a woman, 3 by a man, 1 with a shared byline between a man and two women

Here’s how women did in bylines between newspaper sites and online-only sites this month:

  • Newspaper website: 7 by a woman, 7 by men and 2 with a shared byline between a man and woman (or two)
  • Online-only: 6 by a woman, 9 by a man, 1 with a shared byline

As a note to our readers, these findings reflect a limited amount of data from our simple Gender Checks. We hope you recognize the limitations of this data, since we’ve only sampled a few articles from eight news sites. Further research and time is needed to verify any validity across the board.

In July, we released our findings from our first six months of monitoring. During that time, women were 25.3 percent of human sources referenced and 37.7 percent of authors of one gender or the author.

To look at past month breakdowns and other data on gender representations in online news, check out our “Findings and Statistics” category. 

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

Jasmine 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.

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. These posts chronicle 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. We’ve chosen to focus on the top five in the blogosphere.

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.

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.