IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v101y2020i4p1282-1302.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Underrepresenting Reality? Media Coverage of Women in Politics and Sport

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Courtney
  • Michael Breen
  • Claire McGing
  • Iain McMenamin
  • Eoin O'Malley
  • Kevin Rafter

Abstract

Objectives How do surges in female representation in public life affect media coverage? Can the media underrepresent the reality of women's progress? If so, is the source of underrepresentation the media itself or social elites that interact with the media? Methods Using automatic content analysis, we study two remarkable step changes in women's role in public life in Ireland: the 2016 elections and 2012 Olympics. Results The increase in female participation was associated with a new and substantial gender gap in coverage, which we attribute to the media, not other elites. Conclusions We cannot assume that media coverage will increase proportionally as women advance in public life. The reemergence of bias when female representation jumps may also exist outside the media in any context where there are large numbers of decisions about whether to favor males or females.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Courtney & Michael Breen & Claire McGing & Iain McMenamin & Eoin O'Malley & Kevin Rafter, 2020. "Underrepresenting Reality? Media Coverage of Women in Politics and Sport," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1282-1302, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:101:y:2020:i:4:p:1282-1302
    DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.12826
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12826
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ssqu.12826?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marcia L. Bellas, 1997. "Disciplinary Differences in Faculty Salaries," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 68(3), pages 299-321, May.
    2. Alan T. Sorensen, 2007. "Bestseller Lists And Product Variety," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 715-738, December.
    3. Cindy D. Kam & Elizabeth J. Zechmeister, 2013. "Name Recognition and Candidate Support," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(4), pages 971-986, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luca Aguzzoni & Elena Argentesi & Lorenzo Ciari & Tomaso Duso & Massimo Tognoni, 2016. "Ex post Merger Evaluation in the U.K. Retail Market for Books," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(1), pages 170-200, March.
    2. Laurent Bouton, 2011. "Good rankings are bad - Why reliable rankings can hurt consumers," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series WP2011-002, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    3. Luís Cabral, 2018. "We’re Number 1: Price Wars for Market Share Leadership," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(5), pages 2013-2030, May.
    4. Zhan (Michael) Shi & T. S. Raghu, 2020. "An Economic Analysis of Product Recommendation in the Presence of Quality and Taste-Match Heterogeneity," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 399-411, June.
    5. Blomkvist, Katarina & Kappen, Philip & Zander, Ivo, 2014. "Superstar inventors—Towards a people-centric perspective on the geography of technological renewal in the multinational corporation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 669-682.
    6. Michela Ponzo & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2015. "Experts’ awards and economic success: evidence from an Italian literary prize," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(4), pages 341-367, November.
    7. Jeremy C. Roberts, 2020. "The Populist Radical Right in the US: New Media and the 2018 Arizona Senate Primary," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(1), pages 111-121.
    8. Matthew D. Mitchell, 2019. "Uncontestable favoritism," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 167-190, October.
    9. Juho Jokinen & Jaakko Pehkonen, 2017. "Promotions and Earnings – Gender or Merit? Evidence from Longitudinal Personnel Data," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 306-334, September.
    10. Helmers, Christian & Krishnan, Pramila & Patnam, Manasa, 2019. "Attention and saliency on the internet: Evidence from an online recommendation system," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 216-242.
    11. Aguiar, Luis & Waldfogel, Joel & Waldfogel, Sarah, 2021. "Playlisting favorites: Measuring platform bias in the music industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    12. Cicognani, Simona & Mittone, Luigi, 2014. "Over-confidence and low-cost heuristics: An experimental investigation of choice behavior," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 8, pages 1-31.
    13. Gabriel Natividad, 2013. "Financial Slack, Strategy, and Competition in Movie Distribution," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 846-864, June.
    14. Keran Zhao & Yingda Lu & Yuheng Hu & Yili Hong, 2023. "Direct and Indirect Spillovers from Content Providers’ Switching: Evidence from Online Livestreaming," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 847-866, September.
    15. Imke Reimers & Joel Waldfogel, 2021. "Digitization and Pre-purchase Information: The Causal and Welfare Impacts of Reviews and Crowd Ratings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(6), pages 1944-1971, June.
    16. Marc Bourreau & François Moreau & Patrik Wikström, 2022. "Does digitization lead to the homogenization of cultural content?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(1), pages 427-453, January.
    17. Mark Armstrong, 2017. "Ordered Consumer Search," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(5), pages 989-1024.
    18. Mi Hyun Lee & Sang Pil Han & Sungho Park & Wonseok Oh, 2023. "Positive Demand Spillover of Popular App Adoption: Implications for Platform Owners’ Management of Complements," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 961-995, September.
    19. Ziano, Ignazio & Pandelaere, Mario, 2018. "The majority premium: Competence inferences derived from majority consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 339-349.
    20. Charissa Samaniego & Peggy Lindner & Maryam A. Kazmi & Bobbie A. Dirr & Dejun Tony Kong & Evonzia Jeff-Eke & Christiane Spitzmueller, 2023. "Higher research productivity = more pay? Gender pay-for-productivity inequity across disciplines," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(2), pages 1395-1407, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:101:y:2020:i:4:p:1282-1302. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.