St. Louis Beacon

Gender check: 5/26/11 – 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 12:15 p.m. (PST) Thursday, May 26, was titled “St. Louis to hand out $43.5 million in development funds.” Its subject was a development agency handing out funds from tax credits to projects in the city.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, runs the program

Notes/analysis: The article mostly listed out the projects that will receive the funds.


Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 12:15 p.m. (PST) Thursday, May 26, was titled “Bright spots in the rubble: St. Louis volunteer finds small joys that ease Joplin’s bigger pains.” Its subject was [subject].

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Female, Americorps, field and operations coordinator

2. Male, promotional director with circus

Gender check: 5/19/11 – 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 Stltoday.com, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of noon (PST) Thursday, May 19, was titled “Man shoots wife, kills teen girl and shoots self in St. Louis domestic dispute.” Its subject was a man shooting his wife, her teen daughter and then himself. The girl died of her wounds while her mother and the man are still in critical condition.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male and female, dual byline

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, police lt.

2. Female, neighbor

Notes/analysis: The incident is a breaking news situation that is still developing. The story notes that a young boy is also a member of the household but was at school at the time. It’s unclear whether the man was the girl’s father or step-father.


Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of noon (PST) Thursday, May 19, was titled “MSD rates are set to go up, one way or another.” Its subject was upcoming rate increases from the sewer district.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, executive director

Notes/analysis: The story mostly cites “officials” with the MSD or just the district as the source.

Gender check: 5/12/11 – 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 Stltoday.com, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 2:30 p.m. MST May 12 was titled “Gunman who caused Rolla campus lockdown captured.” Its subject was the capture of a gunman.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author:
Female and male, dual byline

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, police chief

2. Female, secretary of freshmen engineering department


Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 2 p.m. (MST) May 12 was titled “With veto-proof majorities, legislature passes new abortion restrictions.” Its subject was the Missouri Legislature passing restrictions that would make it a felony to perform an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy unless two physicians determined the woman’s life or bodily function is endangered or the fetus is non-viable.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author:
Male and female, dual byline

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, head of anti-abortion lobbying group

2. Female, Planned Parenthood’s vp for public policy

3. Male, House majority leader

4. Male, state representative

5. Female, state representative

6. Female, state representative

Notes/analysis: Though the split is even for both genders in authorship and sources, it is interesting to note that regarding an issue that directly affects women the sources are divided by gender — the male sources speak on the anti-abortion side of the debate and all the female sources opposing the restrictions.

Gender check: 5/5/11 – 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 Stltoday.com, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 1 p.m. MST May 5 was titled “Zoo’s new sea lion stars are cute-if not compliant.” Its subject was a look at the new sea lions at the local zoo and how their training is going.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author:
Female

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, show manager

2. Female, trainer


Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 1p.m. (MST) May 5 was titled “For farmers, the levee breach ‘is history now,’ but they struggle with how to ‘move on.'” Its subject was residents’ attempts to deal with and recovery from losses.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author:
Female

–Human sources (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, property owner and farmer

2. Male, Spc.

3. Female, part-time rural mail carrier

4. Female, former property owner, grew up there

5. Female, long-time resident

Notes/analysis: Though there are more female sources overall, in both articles this week they came after male sources.

Gender check: 4/21/11 -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 Stltoday.com, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 1 p.m. (MST) Thursday, April 21, was titled “As hail falls, stories about softballs fly.” Its subject was reports on hail size from a recent storm.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Male

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, weather service meteorologist

Notes/analysis:


Website: St. Louis Beacon

On the St. Louis Beacon, one of the lead articles featured on the home page as of 1 p.m. (MST) Thursday, April 21, was titled “Survival jobs: A temporary strategy is becoming the new normal.” Its subject was about  those who were laid off from higher paying or more career-oriented jobs becoming underemployed so they aren’t unemployed.

Here is its gender breakdown:

–Author: Female

–Human sources  (listed in order mentioned):

1. Male, employed in a “survival job,” underemployed

2. Female, former chair of President’s Council of Economic Advisers (while on a panel)

3. Female, federal reserve economist, along with researcher (gender unverifiable) (from study report they wrote)

4. Male, labor analyst

Notes/analysis: It is interesting to note that the author chose a male source as the underemployed example in this story, since it adds to the “mancession” story of the Great Recession. The Gender Report has touched on that briefly in the most recent Week in Review, which noted that the overall unemployment rate is 1 percent higher for men than women over the age of 16, but single women were still hit the hardest by the rise in unemployment. It would be interesting to know what the stats show for this other category the article touches on — those in survival jobs.