by Imran Siddiquee
A new study by 4thEstate.net and Women’s Media Center finds that “male journalists have been the primary ‘storytellers’ of this year’s election news since January.” Since the beginning of the primaries, men have had stories printed in traditional media three times as often as women.
Where women are reporting equally on the election seems to be in “social issues,” which includes abortion and contraception conversations.
Yet, while I’m sitting here in the media lounge at the Republican National Convention this week, I can’t help but feel that the room is filled with women (nearing 50%) who – at least in appearance – are working journalists. Most of them haven’t looked up from their computers in a couple hours. Are they all writing online then?
Will be interesting to do this study again, after the election, and to include online publications. The sense here is that there might be reason to be hopeful about better representation for female journalists in the near future.
At the very least, there’s clearly some hardworking women here who might one day end up at a major news outlet.
Imran is the Social Media and Communications Manager at MissRepresentation.org. Follow him on Twitter @imransiddiquee
