Covering presidential election campaigns: Does reporter gender affect the work lives of correspondents and their reportage?

Abstract

This study shows that men and women network news correspondents differed in how they covered four presidential elections (1992 - 2004). There were fewer women than men reporters involved in election coverage but on average women reported more stories than men and were tonally tougher watchdogs than men. In terms of framing candidates, male reporters were strongly associated with a masculine approach that emphasizes the competitiveness of campaigns. By contrast, women correspondents employed both more feminine and gender- neutral frames than their male colleagues. These content analysis findings were interpreted against the backdrop of information derived from in-depth interviews with five women reporters who appeared in the sampled content.