It's in the visuals!
Journalists and Gender Issues in Television Network News Coverage
of the
1996 U.S. Presidential Election
Kimmerly S. Piper-Aiken, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Journalism
Michigan State University
355 Communication Arts & Science Building
(517) 353-6405
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Submitted for presentation at the annual meeting of the
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Kansas City, July 30 - August 2, 2003
Radio-Television Journalism Division
ABSTRACT
It's in the visuals!
Journalists and Gender Issues in Television Network News Coverage
of the
1996 U.S. Presidential Election
Content analysis of 157 election stories from ABC, CBS, and NBC found
striking
differences between news stories created by women and men. Women reporters
were more
likely to report on women's issues than men reporters. They were also more
more likely to use
gender-relevant verbal frames, refer to the "women's vote" and include more
female sources in
soundbites than men. An exploratory video content analysis method was also
tested with
promising results for future studies.
It's in the visuals!
Journalists and Gender Issues in Television Network News Coverage
of the 1996 U.S. Presidential Election
A press release from the Center for the American Woman and Politics at
Rutgers University the day following the 1996 U.S. Presidential Election
proclaimed, "Women Make News as Voters, Edge Upward as Officeholders"
(Walsh, 1996, p. 1). The lead sentence of the release reads, "Women once
again made headlines in the 1996 elections, this time as voters, with women
giving President Clinton his margin of victory" (p. 1). While this
emphasis on the importance of the women's vote would be expected from a
Center whose "mission is to promote greater knowledge and understanding
about women's changing relationship to politics and government and to
enhance women's influence and leadership in public life" (p. 2), the
prominence of similar gender-specific news stories in the mainstream media
is more indicative of the issue's salience in the 1996 Presidential Election.
During the campaign, all of the major television networks featured news
stories highlighting the gender gap and/or the importance of the women's
vote. The CBS "Evening News" on July 24, 1996, aired a story by reporter
Sandra Hughes that focused on the women's vote and Republican Candidate Bob
Dole's attempt to bridge the gender gap. On August 12, 1996, during
coverage of the Republican National Convention on ABC's "World News
Tonight," anchor Peter Jennings and political analyst Cokie Roberts
discussed the Republicans' attempt to bridge the gender gap. That same
week, on the August 13, 1996, NBC "Nightly News" program, anchor Tom Brokaw
provided poll results detailing President Clinton's lead among women voters
over candidate Dole, followed by a four minute news package by reporter
Lisa Myers titled, "In Depth: Republican Convention: Gende
It's in the visuals!
r Gap." And on CNN's evening news on November 6,
1996, anchors Bernard Shaw and Judy Woodruff cited statistics on the
women's vote.
It's in the visuals!
Although this sample of stories does not represent all types of news
media, it does seem to support Norris's (1997) contention that "gender is
one of the primary fault-lines running through contemporary American
politics" (p. 1). In Women, Media, and Politics, Norris (1997) contends
that political issues involving gender divide politicians, parties, and
voters in the United States. Additionally, she raises questions about the
way media cover gender politics, how women journalists are faring at the
end of the 1990s, and whether or not the growth of women in newsrooms has
influenced news coverage. The purpose of this study is to examine network
television news coverage of the 1996 Presidential Election for gender
factors that relate to women's involvement in the political
process. Additionally, this study is designed to explore the visual images
associated with the audio component of these election stories. The study
attempts to answer these questions as they relate to television network
news coverage of the 1996 Presidential Election Campaign. This election is
appropriate for a gender-based study because of the notable
eleven-percentage-point split between men and women voters (Connelly, 1996).
The significance of the study
This is an important area of study because little systematic research has
focused on the mainstream news media's coverage of gender politics in the
1996 Presidential Election. In fact, it is routinely excluded from
analysis. For example, Domke et al. (1998) conducted an extensive study on
the "News media, candidates and issues, and public opinion in the 1996
presidential campaign" and did not include any specific analysis of the
women's vote or gender issues. The issue categories developed for this
study were character, pocketbook, ideology, social policy, civil liberties,
foreign affairs, political reform, and horse race, with no separate mention
of how gender issues might impact public opinion.
Interestingly, the authors used these examples to explain their research
design. "An example of text that would have been scored pro-Clinton is
this statement: 'Clinton has been successful at attracting women
voters'...For example, the statement 'Clinton has not been successful at
attracting women voters' would have been coded as con-Clinton" (p.
722). As a result of the study, the researchers concluded that "the
evidence strongly indicates that news media coverage, alone, explained a
substantial portion of the variance in the public's preference for either
Clinton or Dole in 1996" (p. 733). This conclusion, along with the gender
differential in voting patterns mentioned above, lends support to the need
for additional research about how mainstream news media cover gender
politics.
This study adds to the existing body of knowledge by systematically
analyzing political news stories aired on the evening newscasts of the
mainstream television networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC. Television news
warrants analysis because it continues to be the medium where the majority
of Americans say they receive news (Jamieson and Campbell, 1997). Although
voters were less likely to get their news from television during the 1996
Presidential election campaign than they were in the 1992 campaign (72%
versus 82%), television news was still the leading source of campaign
information (Pew Research Center, 1996).
There is also evidence that television news coverage of the 1996
Presidential Election was better than in recent prior elections. Graber
(1998) discussed these improvements following a retrospective of the
campaign attended by academics, pollsters, and news media representatives:
The changes in issue coverage in the 1996 campaign satisfied several of
the demands for reform that had been widely aired by scholars and
pundits. Stories were made more meaningful by placing them into richer
contexts and by emphasizing their relevance to average citizens. The time
devoted to issue coverage was expanded, as was the time given to
candidates for making their cases in their own words. The tunnel
vision favoring beltway elites was replaced by broader perspectives on
politics from other parts of the country and from other types of people.
(p. 119)
This expansion of issue coverage noted in televised election news, combined
with an increased emphasis on multiple political perspectives, should make
a gender-relevant[1] study even more meaningful by asking, how does the
increased salience of the women's vote and gender-related issues play out
in television news content, both verbally and visually? The stories will
be analyzed for a number of gender factors, including sources used as
soundbites, issues covered, which aspects of issues were covered, and from
what perspective, as well as whether any of these gender factors can be
linked to the gender of the journalist writing the story. This approach
illuminates similarities and differences between the stories created by
women and men television journalists.
When women journalists covering the 1996 Presidential Election campaign
were asked whether or not women report the news differently than men,
opinions were mixed. Woodruff (1997) quotes Susan Page of USA Today as
saying "the sex of a reporter is no longer relevant. 'The battle has been
fought and won in terms of getting women into high profile political
reporting jobs'" (p. 3). Woodruff also quotes CNN's Candy Crowley as
saying, "The bottom line is that journalists think alike; having journalism
in common is a stronger bond than the differences that result from gender"
(p. 3). On the other hand, Woodruff notes that some reporters feel women
provide a different perspective on certain issues. "NBC's Gwen Ifill says
women reporters are more likely to identify with the plight of women
welfare recipients and to be more interested in the subject of welfare
reform. The New York Times' Katherine Seelye says women are more sensitive
to questions about abortion and more sympathetic to calls for family and
medical leave for working parents" (p. 3). Woodruff concludes by saying:
Yet the idea of going a few steps further, and actively "pushing" a
women's agenda is rejected by most female political reporters. They
acknowledge that their antennae may be more attuned to some issues, but
not to the point of advocacy. The year 1996 may have been the first year
that women voters determined the outcome of a presidential election, but
it wasn't because women reporters were pleading their case. In fact, as
Feeney (Susan Feeney of the Dallas Morning News) notes, women
reporters didn't need to bring up so-called women's issues like education,
the war on drugs, and family leave because the Clinton campaign was
appealing "to soccer moms every 15 minutes." (p. 4)
Woodruff also reports that in 1996, more than one-third of the reporters
covering Bob Dole and Bill Clinton on a regular basis were women.
Literature Review
As noted by Graber (1987), the visual nature of television news messages
had been routinely ignored by researchers through the mid-1980s. She
challenged the results of television content analysis research in which
only the words on television news transcripts were studied and called for
audio-visual coding. Graber developed "gestalt coding" as a method to
address the meanings conveyed by television messages. "The major factors
considered during gestalt coding are: (1) the general political context
prevailing at the time of the broadcast; (2) the anchor's lead in and
subsequent anchor and reporter verbal and non-verbal editorializing; (3)
the audio-visual message conveyed by the combination of words, non-verbal
sounds, and pictures; and (4) the interactive effect among episodes within
the same news story and among stories in the same newscast" (pp. 74-75).
Graber (1990) then used "gestalt coding" procedures in a study which
analyzed 189 television network news stories with political themes which
aired during the first two weeks in February, 1985. First the verbal
themes were coded, followed by coding of shots within the story. Then
coders identified the general theme or "gestalt" of the story based on the
overall meaning conveyed by a combination of the audio and video, plus they
considered the placement and context of the story. Graber reported
intercoder reliability coefficients in the .80 range. Based on this
analysis, she concluded that the short length of television news stories
makes it difficult for people to learn from them and that the types of
scenes used for television stories are notable for their stereotypical,
routine approaches. Despite these drawbacks, however, the research also
indicated that visuals did convey a great deal of information.
There is now a growing body of research addressing the visual component of
television news but most of these studies have not attempted to integrate
both the visual and audio component or they defy systematic quantitative
content analysis. Grabe, Zhou, and Barnett (1998) analyzed the content and
visual form of news segments on "60 Minutes" and "Hard Copy" but limited
their non-video content analysis to story topics alone. This content
analysis found striking differences between the two programs. "60 Minutes"
covered political news most prominently and relied on less intrusive visual
production techniques. "Hard Copy" focused more on the lives of
celebrities, featured more negatively compelling visual material about sex,
gore, and violence, and used "flamboyant production techniques (or
'structural features') such as slow motion, digital editing effects, music,
and obtrusive voice tone during reporting..." (p. 3). Grabe (1996) also
did a systematic content analysis of the visual structures of the South
African Broadcasting Corporation's election coverage in 1987 and 1989 and
found visual indicators of bias; however, the verbal component of these
news programs was excluded from the content analysis. Kepplinger (1982)
analyzed the television camera positions used in the video of news stories
about two candidates for the office of Chancellor of the Federal Republic
of Germany in the 1976 election, along with verbal statements made by
journalists. This study did find evidence of a negative bias in the visual
presentation but not in the verbal presentation. Both of these researchers
developed visual bias measures based on a well-established body of visual
communication media aesthetics research.
As noted by Metallinos (1996), there are standard compositional rules or
production techniques that should be followed in order to create high
quality television video. These rules cover such things as lighting,
camera movement, and camera angles. For example, when people are the
subject of television shots, they will appear differently on the screen,
depending on if the camera is shooting them at, below, or above their eye
level. Zettl (1990) describes this effect:
When we look up with the camera (sometimes called low-angle or a below
eye-level point of view), the object or event seems more important, more
powerful, more authoritative than when we look at it straight on (normal angle
or eye-level point of view), or looking down on it (high angle, or above
eye-level point of view). When we look down with the camera, the object
generally loses somewhat in significance; it becomes less powerful, less
important, than when we look at it straight on or from below. (pp.
216-218)
Adams (1992) calls the eye level shot a neutral angle that "adds no meaning
and is typically used to present straightforward information, as in an
interview. A less-than-neutral angle is often used to give a specific
meaning to the shot" (p. 179). In order to minimize the possibility of
visual bias in television news, Shook (2000) writes "the rule of thumb is
to photograph people at eye level, and to show two eyes" (p. 48).
These structural rules were used successfully by Shidler, Lowry, and
Kingsley (1998) in a television network news content analysis of the 1992
and 1996 Presidential Campaigns to determine if video shots were positive,
neutral, or negative based on a combination of camera angle and
appearance. The study found that positive visual images of the candidates
far outweighed the negative images; however the study was limited because
only edited video shots were analyzed and not the accompanying audio tracks
or sound bites.
Sound bites, individually, have been the subject of content analysis (See
for example: Cutbirth & Coombs, 1999; Hallin, 1992; Lowry & Shidler,
1995). These studies documented the fact that the average length of
television news sound bites has declined from 43 seconds in 1968 to 9
seconds in 1988. Hallin (1992) interprets this change "as part of a
general shift in the style of television news toward a more mediated,
journalist-centered form of Journalism" (p. 5).
Steele and Barnhurst (1996) expanded upon Hallin's (1992) study by
analyzing the work of television news anchors and reporters during the U.S.
Presidential campaigns from 1968 to 1988. The researchers found that as
sound bites got shorter, journalists own speaking time was reduced but by a
smaller margin. They also found that television anchors appeared to
dominate the news by interviewing other reporters and by making more
judgments and evaluative comments about campaign events. Steele and
Barnhurst (1996) called this "the journalism of opinion" (p. 13) and agreed
that journalism had become more journalist-centered.
Similarly, Zhou (1999) did a comparison study of candidate sound bites and
television reporter stand-ups in the 1996 Presidential Election and found
that journalists were on camera for longer periods of time than the
candidates.[2] While the average sound bite was 8.4 seconds, the average
reporter stand-up was 18.3 seconds, leading Zhou to conclude that the
journalists, not the candidates, were the primary communicators in the
stories.
In another subsequent study, Barnhurst and Steele (1997) analyzed the
visual coverage of U.S. Presidential elections from 1968 to 1992. They
found "that shots of journalists did appear more frequently and for shorter
periods. The scale of a journalists' image also grew larger or more
imposing, before more impressive backdrops on screen" (p. 42). They also
determined the video became more fast paced and that "journalists inserted
a much larger number of video clips, graphics, and captions in each report"
(p. 47). The researchers also noted that during the time frame of their
study, "national news became more lively and appealing and drew large
audiences" (p. 56).
No studies were found that incorporated gender issues or the concept of
gender-relevant framing in relation to television news video, although the
number of female versus male news sources and number of women versus men
reporters has been counted (Larson & Bailey, 1998; Liebler & Smith, 1997;
Women, Men & Media, 1998). Also, despite an increased emphasis on visual
analysis of television news, there has been little systematic content
analysis incorporating both the audio and video portion of the
message. This can be seen as problematic because, as numerous studies have
shown (See for example: Crigler, Just, & Neuman, 1994; Drew & Grimes,
1987), both audio and video channels are important for the recall of
television viewers. According to Crigler et al. (1994), "The results
suggest that the power of television as a medium that grabs attention and
is emotionally involving derives not simply from the visuals but from the
combination of audio and visual stimuli" (p. 146).
Based on the information contained in the previously detailed
gender-related research, the following research questions were developed
for the television news election study:
1. Are women reporters more likely to report on women's issues, stories
with topics typically identified as relevant to women and children, than
men reporters?
2. Will women reporters be more likely to use gender-relevant verbal
frames than men reporters?
3. Will women reporters be more likely to refer to the importance of the
women's vote than men reporters?
4. Will women reporters be more likely to rely on references to the
physical appearance of news sources and subjects than men reporters?
5. Will women reporters be more likely to rely on references to the
familial or marital status of the male candidates than men reporters?
6. Are women reporters more likely to include female sources in soundbites
in their stories than men reporters?
7. Will women reporters be more likely to include regular people as
sources in soundbites than men reporters?
8. Will stories featuring women reporters have more negative soundbite
shots than stories featuring men reporters?
9. Will stories featuring a gender-relevant verbal frame have more
negative soundbite shots than stories with a gender-neutral frame?
10. Will stories featuring a gender-relevant verbal frame have more
negative non-soundbite video shots than positive shots?
11. Will stories that refer to the importance of the women's vote have
more negative non-soundbite video shots than positive shots?
12. Will stories featuring a gender-relevant frame have more shots in
which the audio and video do not match than stories with a gender-neutral
frame?
Method
The method used was a content analysis of verbal and visual components of
the population of U.S. Presidential Election television news packages aired
weekdays on the early evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC for the 12
week period between August 5, 1996, and October 25, 1996. News packages
were selected for analysis because they typically feature an individual
reporter telling the story from his or her own perspective. The August 5,
1996, start date was chosen so that both parties' national conventions
would be included in the study. The specific videotaped election news
reports included in the study were identified during a search of the daily
newscast rundowns obtained from the Television News Archive at Vanderbilt
University.[3]
The population totalled 157 stories and included 55 packages from ABC's
"World News Tonight," 56 packages from CBS's "Evening News," and 46
packages from NBC's "Nightly News." The coding involved viewing the
videotaped news packages obtained on VHS tape from the Television News
Archive at Vanderbilt University, reviewing the written newscast rundowns,
and determining time with a stop watch. The written transcripts of the
news stories from the Nexis document service were also accessed whenever
they were available.
Once the population of news packages was identified, a four-part content
analysis coding scheme was designed to address the television news research
questions. (See Appendix A for the complete coding scheme.) The author
was the primary coder for this content analysis and a colleague coded a
random sample of 18 stories, representing 11% of the overall population of
stories to assess the post hoc reliability of the coding scheme. For this
study, Krippendorff's Reliability program, v 3.12a, was used to calculate
intercoder reliability levels for all 53 variable units for 18 stories, six
from each network. From this, an overall coder agreement level of .95 was
calculated. After the coding was completed, the content analysis data were
analyzed using the SPSS 7.5 program.
Findings
There were 33 television journalists who contributed packages that were
analyzed for content during this study. This included 22 (67%) men
journalists and 11 (33%) women journalists, percentages which directly
correspond to the two-thirds, one-third ratio of men to women journalists
noted in the Weaver and Wilhoit (1996) survey of national
journalists. When journalists from the different networks were analyzed,
we see that NBC has the same ratio of men to women journalists (67% to
33%), while the ABC ratio of men to women journalists includes slightly
more women (64% to 36%) and the CBS ratio of men to women journalists
includes slightly more men (69% to 31%).
Additionally, men anchored over 90% of the newscasts analyzed in this
study and were featured in a higher number of packages than women. Of the
157 packages coded in this study, 118 (75%) featured men reporters,
compared to 39 (25%) that featured women reporters. The packages featuring
men journalists were also more likely to be the lead story in the newscast
or located within the first segment after the lead than packages featuring
women journalists (67% to 49%). In other words, just over half (51%) of
the packages featuring women journalists were located in the second segment
of the newscast after the commercial break or later. The different
male-to-female ratios noted here do allow for comparisons based on gender
and lead to the discussion of the research questions.
1. Are women reporters more likely to report on women's issues, stories
with topics typically identified as relevant to women and children, than
men reporters?
Story topic was coded first into 17 main topic areas with an option to
code a secondary topic from the same 17 topic areas. The topic area
covering candidate qualifications, poll standings, political strategies,
campaign tactics, and campaign finance was the main topic in 97 (61.8%)
packages and the secondary topic in another 30 (19.1%) packages. This
finding is consistent with prior research (Graber, 1997) which has shown
that election news stories, regardless of the medium, are much more likely
to focus on candidates and their chances for election rather than on
specific issues. When specific issues were examined in this study, women
were more likely to report on the topic areas of welfare and social
security, race, gender and affirmative action, and abortion than their male
colleagues (28% to 7%) while men reporters were slightly more likely to
cover economic growth, the budget deficit, and tax issues than their female
colleagues (8.5% to 3%).
Additionally, each package was analyzed for any reference to a women's
issue, defined as an issue that primarily affects females in society, such
as reproductive health, family planning, abortion, childcare, sexual
harassment, rape, sexual discrimination, domestic violence,
feminism. While over 80% of the packages contained no reference to a
women's issue, in the 30 (19.1%) packages that did contain such a
reference, women journalists were much more likely to include a reference
to a women's issue than men (See Table 1).
Table 1
2. Will women reporters be more likely to use gender-relevant verbal
frames than men reporters?
As noted earlier, gender-neutral is defined as labeling, categorizing, or
describing people or issues with no reference to being
male/female. Gender-relevant does include a specific reference to being
male/female, including references which are gender specific by definition,
such as wife, mother, daughter, matronly, etc. for women or husband,
father, son, patronly, etc. for men. Each package was coded as
gender-neutral; gender-relevant, but the story only includes a reference to
a person's spouse as "his wife" or "her husband"; or gender-relevant in any
other context. This coding eliminated simple spousal references from the
gender-relevant category under study. As shown in Table 2, gender-relevant
verbal frames not including spousal references were noted in 34 (21.7%)
packages, and women reporters were much more likely to include
gender-relevant frames in their stories than men.
Table 2
3. Will women reporters be more likely to refer to the importance of the
women's vote than men reporters?
There was a direct reference to the value or importance of the women's
vote in the 1996 election in only 12 (7.6%) of the packages, with no such
reference in the other 145 (92.4%) packages. When this direct reference
did occur, women reporters were more likely than men reporters to make such
a reference (See Table 3).
4. Will women reporters be more likely to rely on references to the
physical appearance of news sources and subjects than men reporters?
A comparison of the frequency distributions of references to the physical
appearance of female or male sources shows that reporters made more
references to the physical appearance or attire of Bill Clinton and Bob
Dole than they did to other male or female sources, but references to
physical appearance in any way were minimal.
Table 3
And, there was no support for the question about women reporters being more
likely to rely on references to physical appearance than men.
5. Will women reporters be more likely to rely on references to the
familial or marital status of the male candidates than men reporters?
A comparison of frequency distributions shows that reporters made
references to the familial or marital status of either Bill Clinton or Bob
Dole in less than 5% of their stories. However, when those references
occurred, women reporters were slightly more likely to make them than men
reporters (See Tables 4 and 5).
Most of the references to Bill Clinton and Bob Dole's familial or marital
status occurred in packages which emphasized the campaign efforts of their
wives, and these packages usually featured women reporters. For example,
just two weeks before the election, NBC News profiled the campaign efforts
of Elizabeth Dole and Hillary Clinton. On October 21, 1996, reporter Lisa
Myers characterized Bob Dole's wife as "the best campaigner on the
Dole-Kemp-Dole ticket" and said, "Though she would never say so, Elizabeth
Dole has everything her husband lacks, a laser-like focus, pizzazz, even
charisma." On October 22, 1996, NBC's Gwen Ifill did a profile on Hillary
Clinton and her efforts to avoid controversy while campaigning. Ifill
characterized Bill Clinton's wife as "the tough-minded First Lady who's
counting on four more years" and said, "She's careful to appear her
husband's helpmate, not the nation's co-President." Here we see two
packages by women reporters that emphasize the familial and marital status
of the candidates.
Table 4
Table 5
6. Are women reporters more likely to include female sources in soundbites
in their stories than men reporters?
There were 678 soundbites in the 157 coded packages, representing an
average of about four sources per package (M=4.32). About 23% (158) of the
total soundbites were soundbites of women, with an average of about one
female soundbite per package (M=1.01). A crosstabulation also shows that
in about two-thirds of the packages, no female soundbites appear,
regardless of the gender of the reporter (See Table 6). In the case of men
reporters, they included soundbites of women in only one-fourth of
their packages, compared to women reporters who included soundbites of
women in almost 54% of their packages. Women reporters were more likely to
include two or more soundbites of women per story than their male
colleagues. Female soundbites were originally coded based on the total
appearing in the package but were recoded as none, one and two or more for
ease of comparison in the crosstabulation.
Table 6
7. Will women reporters be more likely to include regular people as
sources in soundbites than men reporters?
In this study, regular people were included as soundbite sources 153
times, representing about 23% of the total of 678 soundbites. However, in
nearly 80% (125) of the total packages, there were no soundbites featuring
regular people. The average number of soundbites featuring regular people
came out to about one per story (M= .97), compared to an average of nearly
three soundbite sources of officials per story (M= 2.77). And the data
indicate that women reporters were slightly more likely to include regular
people as soundbite sources than men reporters (See Table 7).
Table 7
8. Will stories featuring women reporters have more negative soundbite
shots than stories featuring men reporters?
The video quality of the majority of soundbite shots as defined in the
coding procedure was neutral, with 71% (479) of the soundbites being medium
shots, camera at eye level, subject's expression was positive or focused
intently. Of the remaining soundbite shots, 26% (177) were negative as
defined in the coding procedure as being long shots or side-view shots,
camera tilting downward (a high angle shot), with the subject appearing
angry, tense, tired, or tentative. Only 3% (22) of the soundbites were
positive as defined in the coding procedure as being a close-up or medium
shot, camera tilted up (a low angle shot), with the subject appearing
confident, enthusiastic, relaxed, and maybe smiling.
When the video quality of the soundbites for the separate candidates and
other men and women sources was examined, it was noted that soundbites
featuring women sources had the highest percentage of both negative and
positive video. Bob Dole had the next highest percentage of negative
soundbite shots, but tied with other male sources for having the lowest
percentage of positive soundbite shots. Bill Clinton had only 10% (8)
negative soundbite shots and the largest percentage (86%) of neutral shots
(See Table 8).
Table 8
Video Quality of Soundbites
Negative Bites
Positive Bites
Neutral Bites
Total
Bill Clinton
8 (10%)
3 (4%)
69 (86%)
80 (100%)
Bob Dole
56 (30%)
3 (2%)
122 (68%)
181 (100%)
Women Sources
49 (31%)
11 (7%)
98 (62%)
158 (100%)
Other Men Sources
64 (24%)
5 (2%)
190 (74%)
259 (100%)
Totals
177 (26%)
22 (3%)
479 (71%)
678 (100%)
When all of the stories with the negative soundbite shots were combined
into another variable for additional analysis, there was no systematic
indication that stories featuring women reporters had more negative
soundbite shots than stories featuring men reporters. As shown in Table 9,
women reporters had a slightly higher percentage of stories containing no
negative soundbite shots than men reporters. And while women had about the
same percentage of stories with one negative soundbite as men, they had a
slightly lower percentage of stories with two or more negative soundbite
shots than men reporters.
Table 9
9. Will stories featuring a gender-relevant verbal frame have more
negative soundbite shots than stories with a gender-neutral frame?
A crosstabulation of these variables indicates that nearly 65% (24) of the
stories containing a gender-relevant frame do feature negative soundbite
shots, compared to only 54% (65) of the stories containing a
gender-neutral frame. In other words, stories with a gender-neutral frame
were more likely to have no negative soundbites than stories with a
gender-relevant frame. However, as shown in Table 10, stories with a
gender-neutral frame were somewhat more likely to have one negative
soundbite than stories with a gender-relevant frame but this changes as the
number of negative soundbites increase per story. Slightly more than 40%
of the stories with a gender-relevant frame contained two or more negative
soundbite shots, compared to about 23% for stories with a gender-neutral frame.
Table 10
10. Will stories featuring a gender-relevant verbal frame have more
negative non-soundbite video shots than positive shots?
As outlined in the coding procedure, stories were only analyzed for
non-soundbite video quality if they contained a gender-relevant frame or if
the importance of the women's vote was referred to in the story. This
limitation was imposed to make the coding process more manageable. For
this analysis, the quality of a non-soundbite shot was coded as neutral if
it was a medium shot, camera shooting level, with the subject(s) appearing
without a positive or negative expression or, if no people were in the
shot, if the content had no remarkable quality. The quality of a
non-soundbite shot was coded as negative if it was a long shot or side-view
shot, camera tilting downward (a high angle shot), with the subject(s)
appearing angry, tense, tired, or tentative or, if no people were in the
shot, if the content had a substantial negative quality. The quality of a
non-soundbite video shot was coded as positive if it was a close-up or
medium shot, camera tilted up (a low angle shot), with the subject(s)
appearing confident, enthusiastic, relaxed, and maybe smiling or, if no
people were in the shot, if the content had a significant positive quality.
In the 37 stories that contained any type of gender-relevant verbal frame,
there were 691 non-soundbite video shots, which represented an average of
18.68 shots per story. As shown in Table 11, the quality of most of the
non-soundbite video shots was either positive (41%) or neutral (40%), with
only 19% of the shots being negative.
Table 11
Video Quality of Non-soundbite Shots in Stories with a Gender-relevant Frame
N
Mean
Sum
Gender-relevant
Neutral Shots
37
7.38
273 (40%)
Gender-relevant
Positive Shots
37
7.68
285 (41%)
Gender-relevant
Negative Shots
37
3.62
134 (19%)
Totals
18.68
691 (100%)
Consequently, there is no reason to believe that stories with a
gender-relevant verbal frame will have more negative non-soundbite video
shots than positive shots.
11. Will stories that refer to the importance of the women's vote have
more negative non-soundbite video shots than positive shots?
Using the same coding procedures and definitions as in the prior section,
the quality of non-soundbite video was also analyzed if the importance of
the women's vote was noted anywhere in the story. In the 12 stories that
contained a reference to the importance of the women's vote, there were 267
non-soundbite video shots, which represented an average of 22.25 shots per
story. Here again, the quality of the bulk of non-soundbite video shots
was positive (44%) or neutral (42%) with only 14% in the negative category
(See Table 12).
Table 12
Video Quality of Non-soundbite Shots in Stories Noting the Importance of
the Women's Vote
N
Mean
Sum
Women's Vote -
Neutral Shots
12
9.25
111 (42%)
Women's Vote- Positive Shots
12
9.83
118 (44%)
Women's Vote-Negative Shots
12
3.17
38 (14%)
Totals
22.25
267 (100%)
12. Will stories featuring a gender-relevant frame have more shots in
which the audio and video do not match than stories with a gender-neutral
frame?
The final content analysis category involved counting the number of shots
in which the audio and video did not match. This was designed to identify
any potential for bias caused by discrepancies in audio and video
messages. However, the number of occurrences of this was minimal with only
6 stories containing one shot in which the audio and video did not
match. As shown in Table 13, stories featuring a gender-relevant frame do
have more shots in which the audio and video do not match than stories with
a gender-neutral frame but the small number of total stories and shots
involved makes these differences insignificant. This also indicates that
the network news packages analyzed from the 1996 Presidential Election had
complementary audio and video messages, which is considered to be the most
effective way to communicate in television news (Crigler, Just, & Neuman,
1994; Drew & Grimes, 1987).
Table 13
To summarize, the data did result in positive responses to 8 of the 12
research questions. Based on the population of television news packages
analyzed for this study, women reporters from ABC, CBS, and NBC were more
likely to report on women's issues - stories with topics typically
identified as relevant to women and children - than men reporters. Women
were also more likely to use gender-relevant verbal frames, to refer to the
importance of the women's vote, to refer to the familial or marital status
of the male candidates, to include more female sources in soundbites, and
to include more regular people as sources in soundbites than men. However,
women reporters were not more likely to rely on references to physical
appearance of news sources than men reporters. In fact, regardless of the
type of source or the gender of the reporter, the inclusion of any
references to physical appearance was minimal.
In terms of soundbite quality, there was no indication that stories
featuring women reporters had more negative soundbite shots than stories
featuring men reporters but stories featuring a gender-relevant verbal
frame did have more negative soundbite shots than stories with a
gender-neutral frame. When the non-soundbite video shots were analyzed,
neither stories featuring a gender-relevant verbal frame nor stories
referring to the importance of the women's vote had more negative shots
than positive shots. In fact, the number of negative shots was a distant
third behind the number of both positive and neutral shots. And, finally,
stories featuring a gender-relevant frame did have more shots in which the
audio and video did not match than stories with a gender-neutral frame but
the overall number was small enough to make the results questionable.
Conclusions
As noted earlier, in the population of 1996 Presidential Election packages
aired on the evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC, men were still the
dominant force in television news. Male journalists made up two-thirds of
the total reporter pool and were featured in 75% of the total
packages. They also anchored over 90% of the newscasts under study and
were much more likely to have their packages as the lead story in the
newscast or within the show's first segment than female reporters. Male
sources were also featured in 77% of all soundbites. These findings are
consistent with percentages noted in numerous annual studies commissioned
by the Women, Men and Media project, including 1996 (Hernandez, 1995; TV
network news, 1997; Women, Men & Media, 1997; Women, Men & Media;
1998). However, when women television journalists were featured in
packages, they made a dramatic difference in the overall coverage of the
1996 U.S. Presidential Election.
For example, women on television were more likely to report on women's
issues, stories with topics typically identified as relevant to women and
children, than men. Likewise, women on television were more likely to use
gender-relevant verbal frames and refer to the importance of the women's
vote than men. Additionally, in television news, gender is overt, obvious,
and unavoidable because of the visual component of the medium. And, as
noted by Hallin (1992), Steele and Barnhurst (1996), and Zhou (1999), since
television news has become more journalist-centered, women reporters are
more likely to appear on camera for longer periods of time than in the past
and function as the primary communicators in their stories.
In newspapers, the gender of the reporter is only determined by names,
which may or may not be obvious, or by the use of pronouns. Print writing,
it seems, is much more conducive to gender-neutral reporting because the
framing is based exclusively on the word choices of the
journalist. However, because of the gender-relevance of most voices on
radio and the gender-relevance of reporters shown in video, radio and
television are not conducive to gender-neutral reporting. There is no way
to escape being male or female if you work in television news, so women
television reporters become almost representational of the women and issues
they are covering. Additionally, women reporters may also serve as
positive role models which, according to liberal feminist theory, can be
empowering to women. Eaton (1997) noted that "the creation of alternative
female role models within existing democratic political structures" (p.
860) can help change the power imbalance between men and women in terms of
political involvement.
The prominence of gender-relevant verbal framing allowed women journalists
on television the opportunity to highlight areas of interest in the
election that might otherwise have been left out. One example occurred in
a package on August 26, 1996, on the CBS Evening News when reporter Linda
Douglass previewed incumbent Bill Clinton's and First Lady Hillary
Clinton's messages to the Democratic National Convention. In a soundbite,
President Clinton notes that it's been a good four years but Douglass
reports it was tough for Mrs. Clinton "who's become the lightning rod for
conservative wrath." Douglass continues by saying, "There had been talk
that she would soften her image but, instead, the First Lady let it rip in
a rousing feminist speech to women celebrating the right to vote."
This was followed by a Hillary Clinton soundbite, "If you shut your eyes
and imagine the rights that men have, those are the rights women have as
well. Every single right that is available to any man should be available
to any woman, anywhere in the world, at any time." By choosing this
specific gender-relevant frame for her story and this specific soundbite,
Douglass brings women's rights and equality themes into a standard
convention preview story. This is another example of how women television
reporters can help to change the balance of political power between men and
women. Jones and Jónasdóttir (1988) and Sapiro (1983) argued that, in the
past, women have been less politically active because they lacked the
skills and language necessary for a sense of political efficacy. However,
as women's issues increasingly become political issues, women's involvement
in the political process and political power should improve.
In this study, women reporters were also more likely to rely on
references to the familial or marital status of the male candidates than
men reporters. This was because the women normally covered stories
involving the wives of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. Women reporters were
also more likely to include female sources in soundbites in their stories
than men reporters, and women were more likely to include regular people as
sources in soundbites than men reporters. In these instances, women
journalists were able to let women speak more directly for themselves and
the same went for sources who were not officials or experts. This should
be seen as a positive because it represents a more inclusive type of news
coverage for women. Unfortunately, in about two-thirds of the total
packages, no female soundbites appeared, regardless of the gender of the
reporter. This should be seen as a negative because, in presidential
election news, women are still underrepresented as subjects and soundbite
sources.
Other positive factors were noted in the news coverage analyzed in this
study. Reporters were not likely to rely on references to the physical
appearance of news sources or subjects and the quality of most soundbite
shots was neutral. Additionally, most of the non-soundbite video in
stories with a gender-relevant frame or in stories mentioning the
importance of the women's vote was either neutral or positive which means
there was less chance of visual bias caused by negative non-soundbite
video. And although there was an indication that stories featuring a
gender-relevant verbal frame had more negative soundbite shots than stories
with a gender-neutral verbal frame, the correlation was weak.
A similar determination was made in the research question which asked if
stories featuring a gender-relevant frame have more shots in which the
audio and video do not match. Namely, that they do have slightly more
shots in which the audio and video do not match but, since the total number
was only 6 shots out of 157, the significance of the finding is
minimal. However, it is a positive that so few network news packages
featured discrepant audio and video messages. As noted by scholars such as
Crigler, Just, and Neuman (1994) and Drew and Grimes (1987), television
news messages are more effective when the audio and video are complementary.
Along a different line, Jennings (1988) offers a three part model to
explain the evolution of "gender gap" studies in politics. Jennings says
that prior to the 1960s, the convergence model was evident in most studies
because sex explained little variance in voting preferences. "Women's
lesser political involvement, as conventionally defined, was the most
significant exception to this pattern" (p.10-11). By the 1960s and 1970s,
a divergence model took over during the time of the women's movement and
increased involvement in the issue of the Equal Rights Amendment
debate. As Jennings points out, "Divergence is inherent in the term gender
gap" (p. 11). Jennings' call is for a normative model of gender
divergence, saying research should continue to highlight the convergence of
the sexes, but at the same time reveal pressures and tendencies at work
toward divergence.
This normative model seems particularly appropriate for gender studies of
journalists and news coverage because there are a number of factors that
work toward convergence. These include newsroom socialization, the
structure of news work, and the traditions of journalism which emphasize
balance and objectivity. At the same time, gender-based research should
attempt to reveal pressures and tendencies that work toward divergence
involving journalists and to minimize the potential for misrepresentation
of women in news coverage. If we think about the results of this study in
terms of a normative model, we can see how certain journalistic factors
highlight convergence, such as newsroom socialization, the structure of
news work, and the traditions of journalism which emphasize balance and
objectivity. This results in similarities in news stories created by men
and women. For example, there were almost no instances of journalists
referring unnecessarily to the physical appearance of women or men in
stories, and the overall quality of the television news video was similar
without being excessively negative.
However, this study also uncovered some pressures that work toward
divergence, such as mixed messages about women's involvement in the
political process and the smaller number of women journalists and women
news sources. This normative model works well in conjunction with the
study of gender factors in news stories because it allows for appreciation
of similarity and difference. As noted by Jolliffe (1989, p. 691), "It is
hoped that consciousness of gender differentiation of women--and attempts
to avoid it--may lead to correction of gender differentiation for men and
women."
It's in the visuals!
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Appendix D
Coding Scheme for Television Network News Study
Section One
1. Item Number 3 cols (1-3)
2. Month of story 2 col (4,5)
08=August
09=September
10=October
3. Day of story 2 cols (6,7)
4. Network 1 col (8)
1=ABC
3=CBS
5=NBC
5. Is the newscast anchor introducing the reporter a 1 col (9)
1=Woman
3=Man
6. Location of story within newscast 1 col (10)
1= Lead
3= First segment after lead
5= Second segment after commercial
7= Third segment or later
7. Length of story 1 col (11)
1= Under 1 minute
3= 1:00 - 2:00
5= 2:01 - 3:00
7= 3:01 - 4:00
9= 4:01 or longer
8. Is the reporter a 1 col (12)
1=Woman
3=Man
9. What political party is mentioned 1 col (13)
1= Democratic
3= Republican
5=Both Democratic and Republican
7= Other, including multiple party mentions
9= None
Section Two
10. Main topic 2 cols (14,15)
01= Health, health care
02= Environment
03= Education
04= Religion, school prayer
05= Economic growth, budget deficit, taxes, corporate downsizing, business
06= Welfare, Social Security
07= Race, gender, affirmative action, age
08= Abortion
09= Illegal drug use, smoking, alcohol abuse
10= Gay and Lesbian Rights
11= Crime, gun control, domestic violence, terrorism
12= Defense, military, foreign policy
13= Trade, labor, agriculture
14= Immigration
15= Candidate qualifications, poll standings, political strategies, campaign
tactics, campaign finance
16= Voters' views or opinions
17=Other
11. First Subsidiary Topic 2 cols (16,17)
(Use categories from #10 above)
99=None
12. Does any part of the story include a reference to a women's issue? 1
col (18)
(A women's issue is defined as an issue that primarily affects females in
society,
such as reproductive health, family planning, abortion, childcare, sexual
harassment, rape, sexual discrimination, domestic violence, feminism)
1=Yes
3=No
13. Is any verbal frame gender-neutral or gender-relevant? 1 col (19)
(Gender-neutral is defined as labeling, categorizing, or describing people or
issues with no reference to being male/female. Gender-relevant is defined as
labeling, categorizing, or describing people or issues with a specific
reference to
being male/female. This would include references which are gender
specific by definition, such as wife, mother, daughter, matronly, etc.
for women or husband,
father, son, patronly etc. for men)
[Examples:
#3 Gender-relevant frames, but the story only includes a reference to a
person's
spouse as "his wife" or "her husband":
Reporter states in a sentence about Jack Kemp, "and backed by the even
firmer position of his wife, Joanne"
Reporter states in a sentence about Bill Clinton, "along with his wife,
Hillary"
#5 Gender-relevant frames in any other context:
Reporter quotes Colin Powell directly, "I believe in a woman's right to
choose and I strongly support affirmative action," he said.
Reporter states, "Haley Barbour, the party chairman, made no secret of
the Republicans' effort tonight to appeal to women, who in recent elections
have favored the Democrats by a larger margin than men."
1= Gender-neutral
3= Gender-relevant, but the entire story includes ONLY a reference to a
person's
spouse as "his wife" or "her husband."
5=Gender-relevant in any other context
14. Does the story contain a direct reference to the value or importance
of the
women's vote in the 1996 Election?
1=Yes 1 col (20)
3=No
15. Does the reporter make a reference to the physical appearance
or attire of a female source or subject referenced in the story? 1 col (21)
1=Yes
3=No
16. Does the reporter make a reference to the physical appearance
or attire of a male source or subject referenced in the story? 1 col (22)
1=Yes, about either candidate, Clinton or Dole
3=Yes, about a male source or subject other than Clinton or Dole
5=Yes, about both a candidate AND a male source or subject other than Clinton
& Dole
7=No
17. Does the reporter make a reference to Bill Clinton's familial or
marital status?
(Familial or marital status includes references to his being married, being a
husband, father, son, etc.)
1=Yes 1 col (23)
3=No
18. Does the reporter make a reference to Bob Dole's familial or marital
status?
(Familial or marital status includes references to his being married, being a
husband, father, son, etc.)
1=Yes 1 col (24)
3=No
19. Number of soundbites in the story 2 cols (25, 26)
(Do not include a reporter acting as the source of information, and
include only
sources identified by name, either on screen or verbally)
20. Number of female soundbites in the story 2 cols (27,28)
21. Enter the number of sources identified verbally or visually as
1=a candidate, public officeholder, government official,
or a spokesperson for a candidate 1 col (29)
2=a political party representative not listed in #1 above, including
political convention delegates 1 col (30)
3=an expert, political analyst, or other news media personnel 1 col (31)
4=affiliated with an interest group, a lobbyist, or a business,
corporate, or industry spokesperson 1 col (32)
5=regular or typical citizen 1 col (33)
Section Three
22. Enter the number of TYPES of candidate soundbites featuring Bill Clinton:
1 = Campaign bites from stump speeches or occasions when the
candidate 1 col (34)
is speaking directly to the voters
3= Commercial bites in which video is taken from a commercial 1 col (35)
5= News bites in which statements are made specifically to the news
media 1 col (36)
7= Debate bites 1 col (37)
9= Other 1 col (38)
23. Evaluate the video quality of the soundbites featuring Bill Clinton:
1= Enter the number of neutral soundbite shots. Neutral is defined as
a 1 col (39)
medium shot, camera at eye level, subject(s) expression is positive
or focused intently.
3= Enter the number of positive soundbite shots. Positive is defined
as 1 col (40)
close-up or medium shot, camera tilted up (a low angle shot) and
subject(s) appears confident, enthusiastic, relaxed, and maybe smiling.
5= Enter the number of negative soundbite shots. Negative is defined as
a 1 col (41)
long shot or side-view shot, camera tilting downward (a high angle
shot), and subject appears angry, tense, tired, tentative.
24. Enter the number of TYPES of candidate soundbites featuring Bob Dole:
1 = Campaign bites from stump speeches or occasions 1 col (42)
when the candidate is speaking directly to the voters
3= Commercial bites in which video is taken from a commercial 1 col (43)
5= News bites in which statements are made specifically to the news
media 1 col (44)
7= Debate bites 1 col (45)
9= Other 1 col (46)
25. Evaluate the video quality of the soundbites featuring Bob Dole:
1= Enter the number of neutral soundbite shots. Neutral is defined as
a 1 col (47)
medium shot, camera at eye level, subject(s) expression is positive
or focused intently.
3= Enter the number of positive soundbite shots. Positive is defined
as 1 col (48)
close-up or medium shot, camera tilted up (a low angle shot) and
subject(s) appears confident, enthusiastic, relaxed, and maybe smiling.
5= Enter the number of negative soundbite shots. Negative is defined as
a 1 col (49)
long shot or side-view shot, camera tilting downward (a high angle
shot), and subject appears angry, tense, tired, tentative.
26. Evaluate the video quality of the non-candidate soundbites featuring
women as primary speakers:
1= Enter the number of neutral soundbite shots. Neutral is defined as
a 1 col (50)
medium shot, camera at eye level, subject(s) expression is positive
or focused intently.
3= Enter the number of positive soundbite shots. Positive is defined
as 1 col (51)
close-up or medium shot, camera tilted up (a low angle shot) and
subject(s) appears confident, enthusiastic, relaxed, and maybe smiling.
5= Enter the number of negative soundbite shots. Negative is defined as
a 1 col (52)
long shot or side-view shot, camera tilting downward (a high angle
shot), and subject appears angry, tense, tired, tentative.
27. Evaluate the video quality of the non-candidate soundbites featuring
men as primary speakers:
1= Enter the number of neutral soundbite shots. Neutral is defined as
a 1 col (53)
medium shot, camera at eye level, subject(s) expression is positive
or focused intently.
3= Enter the number of positive soundbite shots. Positive is defined
as 1 col (54)
close-up or medium shot, camera tilted up (a low angle shot) and
subject(s) appears confident, enthusiastic, relaxed, and maybe smiling.
5= Enter the number of negative soundbite shots. Negative is defined as
a 1 col (55)
long shot or side-view shot, camera tilting downward (a high angle
shot), and subject appears angry, tense, tired, tentative.
28. If a gender-relevant verbal frame is noted anywhere in the story,
evaluate the quality of the video:
99= Not a gender-relevant frame. 2 cols (56,57)
1= Enter the number of neutral non-soundbite shots. 2 col (58, 59)
Neutral is defined as a medium shot, camera shooting level, with subject(s)
appearing without a positive or negative expression or, if no people are
in the
shot, if the content has no remarkable quality.
2= Enter the number of positive non-soundbite shots. 2 col (60, 61)
Positive is defined as a close-up or medium shot, camera tilted up
(a low angle
shot), with the subject(s) appearing confident, enthusiastic, relaxed, and
maybe
smiling or, if no people are in the shot, if the content has a significant
positive quality.
3= Enter the number of negative non-soundbite shots. 2 col (62, 63)
Negative is defined as a long shot or side-view shot, camera tilting
downward (a high angle shot), with the subject(2) appearing angry, tense,
tired, tentative or, if no people are in the shot, if the content has a
substantial negative quality.
29. If the importance of the women's vote is noted anywhere in the story,
evaluate the quality of the video:
99= Importance of the women's vote NOT noted. 2 col (64, 65)
1= Enter the number of neutral non-soundbite shots. 2 col (66, 67)
Neutral is defined as a medium shot, camera shooting level,
with subject(s) appearing without a positive or negative
expression or, if no people are in the shot, if the content has
no remarkable quality.
2= Enter the number of positive non-soundbite shots. 2 col (68, 69)
Positive is defined as a close-up or medium shot, camera
tilted up (a low angle shot), with the subject(s) appearing
confident, enthusiastic, relaxed, and maybe smiling or,
if no people are in the shot, if the content has a significant
positive quality.
3= Enter the number of negative non-soundbite shots. 2 col (70, 71)
Negative is defined as a long shot or side-view shot, camera
tilting downward (a high angle shot), with the subject(2)
appearing angry, tense, tired, tentative or, if no people are in
the shot, if the content has a substantial negative quality.
31. Enter the number of shots in which the audio & video do not match. 2
cols (72, 73)
[1] Gender-relevant is defined as labeling, categorizing, or describing
people or issues with a specific reference to being male/female. This
would include references which are gender specific by definition, such as
wife, mother, daughter, matronly, etc. for women or husband, father, son,
patronly, etc. for men. Gender-neutral is defined as labeling,
categorizing, or describing people or issues with no reference to being
male/female.
[2]
According to Shook (2000), the stand-up in a news package occurs when "a
reporter in the field delivers one or more sentences of dialogue while
appearing on camera" (p. 353).
[3] The Television News Archive at Vanderbilt University in
Nashville, TN, can be accessed via the Internet
[http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/index.html].
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