My Research

Abstract

            This research addresses a gender discrepancy in journalism. My research looks at the possibility of a gender bias existing in the makeup of news not the actual content. I examined articles from three newspapers: The Daily Iowan, The Iowa City Press Citizen, and The Des Moines Register. The research looked at nearly 240 articles from October to November 2004. I focused on the author gender, length, overall theme, sources, and placement of articles.  The research looked at gender related issues. Using a content analysis I found that a gender bias does exist in the media. Males are found in the news more often than females, male authors have longer articles, male authors have more front page articles, authors use more male sources for their stories, and authors write about male topics more often.  The research indicates that gender bias against women exists in the news. Those women, who do get a chance, receive little to show for their effort. Journalists ignore women and what they have to say. This means that articles discuss male issues with males. Journalists abide by certain ideologies that include a fair representation of the news. By excluding a large portion of the population, the news is anything but representative.

Original Research Paper