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Whose Voices Are Heard? Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Newspaper Sources

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Abstract

A content analysis of 243 U.S. newspaper articles about same-sex marriage from the Boston Globe, the Plain Dealer, the Oklahoman, and the San Francisco Chronicle was conducted. Hypotheses predicted that male sources would outnumber female sources; that gay male sources would outnumber lesbian sources; and that male sources would express more negative views toward same-sex marriage than female sources. Results showed that male sources were over three times as common as female sources. Gay male and lesbian sources were found at near-equal rates in the Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle, but were almost absent from the Plain Dealer and the Oklahoman. Male sources expressed negative views toward same-sex marriage more frequently than female sources.

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Correspondence to Joseph Schwartz.

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Schwartz, J. Whose Voices Are Heard? Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Newspaper Sources. Sex Roles 64, 265–275 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9825-z

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