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Gender stereotypes in the newsroom

Gender stereotypes in newsrooms remain

Gender stereotypes in journalism have not really changed. A new survey of 12 000 US journalists shows that 60% of journalists who cover politics and 58% of journalists who cover news about science and technology are men while  64% of journalists who report about health are women. Biggest imbalance is not surprisingly in sports: 83% of sports journalists are men.

The survey by the Pew Research Center comes amid continued discussion about the demographic composition of US newsrooms.

A recent survey of 12 markets by the Reuters Institute shows only 22% of 180 top editors across 240 news outlets are women, despite that on average, 40% of journalists in the 12 markets investigated are women. 

Among the 38 new top editors appointed across the brands covered, 26% are women. In the US and Finland, half of the new top editors appointed in the past year are women, but in many other markets, few are.

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In all 12 markets, the majority of top editors are men, including in countries where women outnumber men among working journalists.

The percentage of women in top editorial positions varies significantly from market to market, from 5% in Mexico to 44% in the US.

The Pew survey shows that women are more likely than men to cover three of 11 news beats studied: health, education and families, and social issues and policy. 

Economy, crime and law, local and state, environment and energy, and entertainment and travel – are more evenly split between men and women journalists. Overall, 51% of the reporting journalists surveyed are men and 46% are women. 

Journalists’ beats also vary by their employment status – that is, whether they are freelance or self-employed journalists, or full- or part-time journalists at a news organization.

“Entertainment and travel stands out as the only topic area in which a majority of those who cover it (57%) are freelance or self-employed journalists. Nearly half of journalists who cover science and technology (46%) are also freelancers or self-employed”, the report says.

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“On the other hand, some beats are overwhelmingly covered by either full- or part-time employees of news organizations. For instance, 87% of reporting journalists who cover crime and law fall into this category.”

Overall, about a third of the reporting journalists surveyed (34%) indicated that they are freelance or self-employed, compared with about two-thirds (65%) who are full- or part-time employees of a news organization.

“Journalists’ beats also differ modestly by other demographic factors, including race and ethnicity”, the survey shows.

“One reporting area particularly stands out by the race and ethnicity of the journalists who cover it: social issues and policy. Hispanic and Black journalists make up a greater portion of those who cover this beat (20% and 15%, respectively) than any other studied.

“White journalists make up about half (53%) of those who report on social issues and policy, but they make up large majorities of the other 10 beats studied, including 84% of those who cover environment and energy. Asian journalists account for no more than 7% of those who cover any of the 11 beats studied.”

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