He Says, She Says: Exploring Gender Bias in Political News Coverage

Political Communication 

In the thick of a historic presidential election, news media fills a critical role as Americans consider their options. The way media outlets present the candidates matters as much as the story being covered — including the gender attributes of each politician hoping to win people’s votes.

Does election coverage present the female candidates in a stereotypically gendered way or give them a different share of voice? And how does this affect readers’ perception of their agenda?

Despite popular headlines focusing on gender’s importance in recent elections, the news media has achieved greater balance in how it reports on male and female politicians.

Current and former researchers from the University of Florida wanted to see how gender stereotypes might affect the portrayal of the candidates on key issues and if news media shape how effectively politicians can present those issues as salient. They analyzed nearly 600 news articles and 450 press releases to compare how they presented 2020’s female and male presidential candidates in the midst of the Democratic Primary season.

The researchers hypothesized that news coverage of current political issues would correlate more strongly with male politicians’ press releases on those issues. In other words, the media would be more likely to accept what the male candidates push out to the public. They also believed that media coverage would frame female politicians’ issues with gender-specific characteristics, even if irrelevant.

They discovered that the news media similarly represented female and male politicians’ key issues and personal attributes showing balance in terms of the volume of coverage. However, another layer of inequality emerged: electoral media coverage was more likely to focus on masculine-coded issues such as defense, crime, foreign affairs and the economy.

Male politicians were also more likely to be described as “honest, courageous, persistent, independent, and aggressive,” according to the authors. Even if quote length and descriptive reporting were similar, female candidates were more likely to have their physical appearance or gender attributes mentioned along with their agenda. In contrast, none of the male politicians had their looks mentioned in their media coverage.

The authors conclude that news media does equally cover male and female candidates on the surface. However, the gender bias has shifted to something more subtle: female politicians can get their ideas out there, but the coverage is more likely to add gender-specific attributes or focus on their physical appearance. Political news media also tends to feature “masculine” issues more prominently and present the male candidates’ positions on those issues as honest, bold and persistent.

The difference may be slight, note the authors, but small changes can add up over a political campaign. They suggest that media outlets remain cognizant of how candidates’ key messages are framed. It’s not enough to equally quote and discuss male and female politicians. Women running for office may not have their policy agendas represented with the same level of importance or without irrelevant mentions of their looks and gender.

The authors conclude that while the political news media has made strides in gender equality, there’s still work to be done for true equity.

The original article, “Gender, Politics, and the Glass Ceiling: Comparative Analysis of Male and Female Politicians’ Agenda-Building Efforts in the U.S. Primaries,” published online in the International Journal of Strategic Communication on Sept. 11, 2024.

Authors: Ekaterina Romanova, Sofiya Tarasevich, Long Xiao, Hadeel Alhaddadeh, Spiro Kiousis

This summary was written by Rachel Wayne.

Posted: October 18, 2024
Insights Categories: Political Communication
Tagged as: gender, Political News, Spiro Kiousis