Abstract
Positive or negative media coverage may have important consequences for individuals’ lives and ability to succeed. One potential factor that may affect the tone of coverage, in particular for women, is the gender of newsroom managers. Some scholars have suggested that women in key editorial and managerial roles should have a positive effect on the overall coverage of issues in the news, and specifically on the coverage of women. We used fixed effects regression to analyze panel data on the coverage sentiment of 212 U.S. newspapers from various cities and states between 2004 and 2009 to examine the effects of the gendered composition of newsrooms on coverage tone for both men and women. Our results showed that individuals with female names receive more positive coverage than those with male names do in every section of the newspaper. We also found that increases in female representation on newspapers’ editorial boards resulted in coverage for women that is moderately more positive. However, there is no evidence that under female executive editorship coverage sentiment favors women. Our findings are consistent with the work of gender sociologists and media scholars who have highlighted the media’s rigid gender structures and their resistance to change.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society, 4(2), 139–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124390004002002.
Aday, S. (2010). Chasing the bad news: An analysis of 2005 Iraq and Afghanistan war coverage on NBC and Fox News Channel. Journal of Communication, 60(1), 144–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2009.01472.x.
Alvesson, M. (1998). Gender relations and identity at work: A case study of masculinities and femininities in an advertising agency. Human Relations, 51(8), 969–1005. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679805100801.
Alvesson, M., & Billing, Y. D. (2009). Understanding gender and organizations. London: Sage.
American Society of News Editors. (2017). 2017 Newsroom Diversity Survey. Retrieved from https://www.asne.org/diversity-survey-2017.
Anastasio, P. A., & Costa, D. M. (2004). Twice hurt: How newspaper coverage may reduce empathy and engender blame for female victims of crime. Sex Roles, 51(9–10), 535–542. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-004-5463-7.
Ashley, L., & Olson, B. (1998). Constructing reality: Print media's framing of the women's movement, 1966 to 1986. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 75(2), 263–277. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769909807500203.
Bagues, M. F., & Esteve-Volart, B. (2010). Can gender parity break the glass ceiling? Evidence from a repeated randomized experiment. The Review of Economic Studies, 77(4), 1301–1328. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-937X.2009.00601.x.
Baker, T. E., Aldrich, H., & Nina, L. (1997). Invisible entrepreneurs: The neglect of women business owners by mass media and scholarly journals in the USA. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 9(3), 221–238. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985629700000013.
Bautin, M., Ward, C., Patil, A., & Skiena, S. (2010). Access: News and blog analysis for the social sciences. 19th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW 2010), Raleigh, NC.
Beam, R. A., & Di Cicco, D. T. (2010). When women run the newsroom: Management change, gender, and the news. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 87(2), 393–411. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769901008700211.
Benokraitis, N. V., & Feagin, J. R. (1994). Modern sexism: Blatant, subtle, and covert discrimination (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Bissell, K. (2000). Culture and gender as factors in photojournalism gatekeeping. Visual Communication Quarterly, 7(2), 9–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/15551390009363429.
Bolton, S., & Muzio, D. (2008). The paradoxical processes of feminization in the professions: The case of established, aspiring and semi-professions. Work, Employment and Society, 22(2), 281–299. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017008089105.
Braden, M. (1996). Women politicians and the media. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.
Breed, W. (1955). Social control in the newsroom: A functional analysis. Social Forces, 33(4), 326–355. https://doi.org/10.2307/2573002.
Britton, D. M., & Logan, L. (2008). Gendered organizations: Progress and prospects. Sociology Compass, 2(1), 107–121. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00071.x.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.
Bystrom, D. G., Robertson, T. A., & Banwart, M. C. (2001). Framing the fight: An analysis of media coverage of female and male candidates in primary races for governor and US senate in 2000. American Behavioral Scientist, 44(12), 1999–2013. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027640121958456.
Cabrera, S. F., Sauer, S. J., & Thomas-Hunt, M. C. (2009). The evolving manager stereotype: The effects of industry gender typing on performance expectations for leaders and their teams. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33(4), 419–428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2009.01519.x.
Caprino, K. (2014, November). What's wrong with the media’s portrayal of women today, and how to reverse it. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2014/11/21/whats-wrong-with-the-medias-portrayal-of-women-today-and-how-to-reverse-it/#7860d3bc71b2.
Carlin, D. B., & Winfrey, K. L. (2009). Have you come a long way, baby? Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and sexism in 2008 campaign coverage. Communication Studies, 60(4), 326–343. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510970903109904.
Carll, E. K. (2003). News portrayal of violence and women: Implications for public policy. American Behavioral Scientist, 46(12), 1601–1610. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2007.00379.x.
Carter, C., Branston, G., & Allan, S. (1998). Setting new(s) agendas, an introduction. In C. Carter, G. Branston, & S. Allan (Eds.), News, gender and power (pp. 13–22). London: Routledge.
Caul Kittilson, M., & Fridkin, K. (2008). Gender, candidate portrayals and election campaigns: A comparative perspective. Politics & Gender, 4(3), 371–392. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X08000330.
Chambers, D., Steiner, L., & Fleming, C. (2004). Women and journalism. London: Routledge.
Childs, S., & Krook, M. L. (2008). Critical mass theory and women's political representation. Political Studies, 56(3), 725–736. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00712.x.
Cho, S. (2005). A comparison of newspaper coverage of Korean female and male reporters. Asian Communication Research, 2(1), 92–109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-009-9686-5.
Correa, T. (2009). Does class matter? The effect of social class on journalists' ethical decision making. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 86(3), 654–672. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900908600312.
Correa, T., & Harp, D. (2011). Women matter in newsrooms: How power and critical mass relate to the coverage of the HPV vaccine. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 88(2), 301–319. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769901108800205.
Craft, S., & Wanta, W. (2004). Women in the newsroom: Influences of female editors and reporters on the news agenda. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 81(1), 124–138. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900408100109.
De Swert, K., & Hooghe, M. (2010). When do women get a voice? Explaining the presence of female news sources in Belgian news broadcasts (2003—5). European Journal of Communication, 25(1), 69–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323109354229.
Donovan, J. (2000). Feminist theory: The intellectual traditions (3rd ed.). New York: Continuum.
Downs, A. (1972). Up and down with ecology: The ‘issue attention cycle’. The Public Interest, 28, 38–50.
Etzkowitz, H., Kemelgor, C., Neuschatz, M., Uzzi, B., & Alonzo, J. (1994). The paradox of critical mass for women in science. Science, 266(5182), 51–54. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7939644.
Everbach, T. (2006). The culture of a women-led newspaper: An ethnographic study of the Sarasota herald-tribune. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 83(3), 477–493. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900608300301.
Falk, E. (2010). Women for president: Media bias in nine campaigns. ChampaignL: University of Illinois Press.
Ferguson, K. (1984). The feminist case against bureaucracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Flaounas, I., Ali, O., Lansdall-Welfare, T., De Bie, T., Mosdell, N., Lewis, J., … Cristianini, N. (2013). Research methods in the age of digital journalism: Massive-scale automated analysis of news-content—Topics, style and gender. Digital Journalism, 1(1), 102–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2012.714928.
Floge, L., & Merrill, D. M. (1986). Tokenism reconsidered: Male nurses and female physicians in a hospital setting. Social Forces, 64(4), 925–947. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/64.4.925.
Fottler, M. D. (1976). Attitudes of female nurses toward the male nurse: A study of occupational segregation. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 17, 98–110. https://doi.org/10.2307/2136336.
Fowler, L. L., & Lawless, J. L. (2009). Looking for sex in all the wrong places: Press coverage and the electoral fortunes of gubernatorial candidates. Perspectives on Politics, 7(3), 519–536. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592709990843.
Gallego, J., Altes, E., Cantón, M. J., Melus, M. E., & Soriano, J. (2004). Gender stereotyping in the production of news. In M. De Bruin & K. Ross (Eds.), Gender and newsroom cultures: Identities at work (pp. 43–62). Creskill: Hampton Press.
Gans, H. J. (1972). The famine in American mass-communications research: Comments on Hirsch, Tuchman, and Gecas. American Journal of Sociology, 77(4), 697–705.
Gans, H. J. (1980). Deciding what's news: A study of CBS evening news, NBC nightly news, Newsweek, and time. New York: Vintage.
Glasser, T. L. (1992). Professionalism and the derision of diversity: The case of the education of journalists. Journal of Communication, 42(2), 131–140. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1992.tb00785.x.
Godbole, N., Srinivasaiah, M., & Skiena, S. (2007). Large-scale sentiment analysis for news and blogs. Proceedings of the third international conference on weblogs and social media, 7(21), 219–222.
Goddu, J. (1999). “Powerless, public-spirited women,” “angry feminists,” and “the muffin lobby”: Newspaper and magazine coverage of the Canadian advisory council on the status of women, the National Action Committee on the status of women, and REAL women of Canada. Canadian Journal of Communication, 24(1). https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.1999v24n1a1084.
Grimm, J. W., & Stern, R. N. (1974). Sex roles and internal labor market structures: The “female” semi-professions. Social Problems, 21(5), 690–705.
Grogan, S. (2014). 8 ways the news media discredits female leaders. Retreived from http://www.dearvagina.com/8-ways-the-news-media-discredits-female-leaders/feminism/.
Halvorson, H. (2015). No one understands you and what to do about it. Harvard: Harvard Business Review Press.
Harriman, A. (1996). Women/men/management (2nd ed.). Westport: Praeger Publishers.
Haworth, J. (2000). Women in radio news: Making a difference. In J. Haworth (Ed.), Women & Radio (pp. 250–261). London: Routledge.
Heldman, C., Carroll, S. J., & Olson, S. (2005). “She brought only a skirt”: Print media coverage of Elizabeth Dole's bid for the republican presidential nomination. Political Communication, 22(3), 315–335. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600591006564.
Izraeli, D. N. (1983). Sex effects or structural effects? An empirical test of Kanter's theory of proportions. Social Forces, 62(1), 153–165.
Jia, S., Lansdall-Welfare, T., Sudhahar, S., Carter, C., & Cristianini, N. (2016). Women are seen more than heard in online newspapers. PLoS One, 11(2), e0148434. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148434.
Johnson, R. A., & Schulman, G. I. (1989). Gender-role composition and role entrapment in decision-making groups. Gender & Society, 3(3), 355–372. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124389003003005.
Jolliffe, L., & Catlett, T. (1994). Women editors at the “seven sisters” magazines, 1965–1985: Did they make a difference? Journalism Quarterly, 71(4), 800–808. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769909407100404.
Joo, J. H. (2002). The influence of news frames on the audience's attitudes: Examining news stories on women cabinet members. (Unpublished master's thesis). Seoul, Korea: Korea University.
Kahn, K. F. (1994). The distorted mirror: Press coverage of women candidates for statewide office. The Journal of Politics, 56(1), 154–173. https://doi.org/10.2307/2132350.
Kahn, K. F., & Goldenberg, E. N. (1991). Women candidates in the news: An examination of gender differences in US senate campaign coverage. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55(2), 180–199. https://doi.org/10.1086/269251.
Kanter, R. M. (1977a). Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books.
Kanter, R. M. (1977b). Some effects of proportions on group life: Skewed sex ratios and responses to token women. American Journal of Sociology, 82(5), 965–990. https://doi.org/10.1086/226425.
Kim, K. M., & Kim, Y. J. (2005). Coverage difference of female newsmakers among national newspapers: Influences of journalist gender and gender ratio in the newsroom. Korean Journalism and Information Studies, 29, 7–41.
Kim, K. H., & Yoon, Y. (2009). The influence of journalists' gender on newspaper stories about women cabinet members in South Korea. Asian Journal of Communication, 19(3), 289–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/01292980903039004.
Koenig, A. M., Eagly, A. H., Mitchell, A. A., & Ristikari, T. (2011). Are leader stereotypes masculine? A meta-analysis of three research paradigms. Psychological Bulletin, 137(4), 616–642. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023557.
Krefting, L. A. (2002). Re-presenting women executives: Valorization and devalorization in US business press. Women in Management Review, 17(3/4), 104–119. https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420210425255.
Lavie, A., & Lehman-Wilzig, S. (2005). The method is the message: Explaining inconsistent findings in gender and news production research. Journalism, 6(1), 66–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884905048953.
Lengauer, G., Esser, F., & Berganza, R. (2011). Negativity in political news: A review of concepts, operationalizations and key findings. Journalism, 13(2), 179–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884911427800.
Maddux, D. (2004–2009). Editor & Publisher international yearbook, 84th–89th eds. New York: Editor & Publisher Company.
McCormick, J. (1991, October). Making women’s issues front-page news. Working Woman, p. 78–81.
Meeks, L. (2013). He wrote, she wrote: Journalist gender, political office, and campaign news. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 90(1), 58–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699012468695.
Meyers, M. (1997). News coverage of violence against women: Engendering blame. London: Sage Publications.
Molotch, H., & Lester, M. (1974). News as purposive behavior: On the strategic use of routine events, accidents, and scandals. American Journal of Sociology, 39(1), 101–112. https://doi.org/10.2307/2094279.
Mulac, A., Bradac, J. J., & Gibbons, P. (2001). Empirical support for the gender-as-culture hypothesis: An intercultural analysis of male/female language differences. Human Communication Research, 27(1), 121–152. https://doi.org/10.1093/hcr/27.1.121.
O’Hara, S. (2012). Monsters, playboys, virgins and whores: Rape myths in the news media’s coverage of sexual violence. Language and Literature, 21(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947012444217.
Oliver, P. E., & Maney, G. M. (2000). Political processes and local newspaper coverage of protest events: From selection bias to triadic interactions. American Journal of Sociology, 106(2), 463–505. https://doi.org/10.1086/316964.
Oliver, P. E., & Myers, D. J. (1999). How events enter the public sphere: Conflict, location, and sponsorship in local newspaper coverage of public events. American Journal of Sociology, 105(1), 38–87. https://doi.org/10.1086/210267.
Pantin, L. (2001, April). When women run newsrooms, women are in the news. Wenews. Retrieved from http://www.womensenews.org/story/media-stories/010406/when-women-run-newsrooms-women-are-the-news.
Paustian-Underdahl, S. C., Slattery, L., & Woehr, D. J. (2014). Gender and perceptions of leadership effectiveness: A meta-analysis of contextual moderators. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(6), 1129–1145. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036751.
Phalen, P. F. (2000). " pioneers, girlfriends and wives:" an agenda for research on women and the organizational culture of broadcasting. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 44(2), 230–247. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4402_5.
Powell, G. N. (1993). Women and men in management. Thousands Oaks: Sage Publications.
Reskin, B. F. (1988). Bringing the men back in: Sex differentiation and the devaluation of women's work. Gender & Society, 2(1), 58–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124388002001005.
Reskin, B. F., & Roos, P. A. (1990). Job queues, gender queues: Explaining women's inroads into male occupations. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Risman, B. J. (1998). Gender vertigo: American families in transition. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Risman, B. J. (2004). Gender as a social structure: Theory wrestling with activism. Gender & Society, 18(4), 429–450. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243204265349.
Rodgers, S., & Thorson, E. (2003). A socialization perspective on male and female reporting. Journal of Communication, 53(4), 658–675. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2003.tb02916.x.
Ross, K. (2009). Gendered media: Women, men, and identity politics. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Ross, K., & Carter, C. (2011). Women and news: A long and winding road. Media, Culture & Society, 33(8), 1148–1165. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443711418272.
Rykken, R. (1989). Female editors offer different views of news. Presstime, p. 16–18.
Saner, E. (2014, September). Feisty, flounce and bossy: The words used to put women down. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/sep/01/feisty-flounce-bossy-words-put-women-down.
Sanghani, R. (2017, March). Feisty, frigid, and frumpy: 14 words we only use to describe women. The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11067727/Downton-Abbey-row-14-words-we-only-use-to-describe-women.html.
Schudson, M. (1999). Social origins of press cynicism in portraying politics. American Behavioral Scientist, 42(6), 998–1008. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027649921954714.
Sebba, A. (1995). Battling for news: The rise of the woman reporter. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Shoemaker, P., & Vos, T. (2009). Gatekeeping theory. New York: Routledge Press.
Shor, E. (2008). Contested masculinities: The new Jew and the construction of black and Palestinian athletes in Israeli media. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 32(3), 255–277. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723508316376.
Shor, E. (2010). In search of a voice: Arab soccer players in the Israeli media. In J. Calabrese (Ed.), Sports and the Middle East: A special edition of viewpoints (pp. 8–10). Washington, DC: The Middle East Institute.
Shor, E., & Yonay, Y. (2010). Sport, national identity, and media discourse over foreign athletes in Israel. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 16(3–4), 483–503. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537113.2010.527239.
Shor, E., & Yonay, Y. (2011). ‘Play and shut up’: The silencing of Palestinian athletes in Israeli media. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34(2), 229–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2010.503811.
Shor, E., & Yonay, Y. (2014). Ethnic coexistence in deeply divided societies: The case of Arab athletes in the Hebrew media. The Sociological Quarterly, 55(2), 396–420. https://doi.org/10.1111/tsq.12056.
Shor, E., van de Rijt, A., Ward, C., Askar, S., & Skiena, S. (2014a). Is there a political bias? A computational analysis of female subjects' coverage in liberal and conservative newspapers. Social Science Quarterly, 95(5), 1213–1229. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12091.
Shor, E., van de Rijt, A., Ward, C., Blank-Gomel, A., & Skiena, S. (2014b). Time trends in printed news coverage of female subjects, 1880–2008. Journalism Studies, 15(6), 759–773. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2013.834149#.UnZ0YRBGaQI.
Shor, E., van de Rijt, A., Miltsov, A., Kulkarni, V., & Skiena, S. (2015). A paper ceiling: Explaining the persistent underrepresentation of women in printed news. American Sociological Review, 80(5), 960–984. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122415596999.
Simpson, R. (2004). Masculinity at work: The experiences of men in female dominated occupations. Work, Employment and Society, 18(2), 349–368. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500172004042773.
Skar, N. (2004). Women and the Middle East: Power through self-expression. London: IB Tauris.
Smith, L., & Wright, J. (1998). Women in television news management: Do they make a difference? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Baltimore, MD.
Splichal, S. L., & Garrison, B. (1995). Gender as a factor in newsroom managers' views on covering the private lives of politicians. Mass Communication Review, 22, 101–108.
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33–47). Monterey: Brooks/Cole.
Theberge, N., & Cronk, A. (1986). Work routines in newspaper sports departments and the coverage of women’s sports. Sociology of Sport Journal, 3(3), 195–203. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.3.3.195.
Tuchman, G. (1973). Making news by doing work: Routinizing the unexpected. American Journal of Sociology, 79(1), 110–131. https://doi.org/10.1086/225510.
van de Rijt, A., Shor, E., Ward, C., & Skiena, S. (2013). Only 15 minutes? The social stratification of fame in printed media. American Sociological Review, 78(2), 266–289. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122413480362.
van Zoonen, L. (1994). Feminist media studies. London: Sage.
van Zoonen, L. (1998). One of the girls? The changing gender of journalism. In C. Carter, G. Branston, & S. Allan (Eds.), News, gender, and power (pp. 33–46). London and New York: Routledge.
Weaver, D. H. (1997). Women as journalists. In P. Norris (Ed.), Women, media and politics (pp. 21–56). New York: Oxford University Press.
West, C., & Zimmerman, D. H. (1987). Doing gender. Gender & Society, 1(2), 125–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243287001002002.
Williams, C. L. (1992). The glass escalator: Hidden advantages for men in the “female” professions. Social Problems, 39(3), 253–267. https://doi.org/10.2307/3096961.
Williams, C. L. (1995). Still a man's world: Men who do women's work. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wood, J. T. (1994). Gendered lives: Communication, gender, and culture. Belmont: Wadsworth.
Yoder, J. D. (1991). Rethinking tokenism: Looking beyond numbers. Gender & Society, 5(2), 178–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124391005002003.
Yoder, J. D., & Sinnett, L. M. (1985). Is it all in the numbers?: A case study of tokenism. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 9(3), 413–418. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1985.tb00890.x.
Zimmer, L. (1988). Tokenism and women in the workplace: The limits of gender-neutral theory. Social Problems, 35(1), 64–77. https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.1988.35.1.03a00050.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
The paper fully complies with ethical standards.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DOCX 146 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shor, E., van de Rijt, A. & Miltsov, A. Do Women in the Newsroom Make a Difference? Coverage Sentiment toward Women and Men as a Function of Newsroom Composition. Sex Roles 81, 44–58 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0975-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0975-8