The Influence of Reporter Gender on Source Selection in Newspaper Stories

Abstract

This study analyzed the frequency and placement given to male and female sources and story subjects in news-paper coverage and their relationship to the gender of the reporter, A content analysis of 889 stories found that male sources and subjects received more mentions and were placed more prominently in the stories. Controlling for structural and editorial influences, results indicated that the presence of females in the byline is a significant predictor of females appearing within the news story.