Live Broadcasting and the News – A Student Study

For this section, a survey was done on gender discrimination in current news released from national broadcasting channels. Around twenty news videos from national broadcasting channels were used such as ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News. The news videos in their home pages of the websites that have been released from July 1st to August 1st, 2015 were included in the survey. The videos were selected randomly to prevent bias. Three main points according to gender role were analyzed from the video broadcasts. These included the anchors and their roles, reporters and their roles, and interviewees and their roles. Overall, the survey shows there is still significant gender stereotyping in current news releases from national broadcasting channels.

First, the anchors of the broadcasts were analyzed. Out of twenty news videos, and out of twenty-seven anchors, nine were women anchors, and eighteen were men anchors. Men were represented two times more than women. CNN and ABC news were the ones which women or men anchor hosted the news individually, whereas Fox news and CNBC news were the ones which women and men anchored the news at the same time. In this case, men anchors played a more significant role than women anchors. From the news from CNBC, ‘Casually Fast: 4 trades in fast food’ which was broadcasted on 7/31/ 2015, the four men anchors explained the story, while the women appeared to just listens to them.

Secondly, the reporters of the broadcasts were considered. Out of seven reporters, four reporters were women and three reporters were men. Unlike the anchors or the interviewees, the ratio of men and women reporters was almost the same. Most of the women reported on life, culture, and some incident related news, whereas men reported on wars, political issues, or about stocks. For example, women reported on life related news, ‘Legionnaires' disease outbreak in New York ‘ (Cnn, 7/30/2015), ‘This 19-Year-Old Will Spend the Next 25 Years as a Registered Sex Offender’ (ABC news, 7/30/2015) ‘Little Boy Gets a Double Hand Transplant’ (ABC news, 7/30/2015), incident such as ‘Delta Pilot Spots Drone Just Before Landing’ (ABC news, 7/31/2015). On the other hand, men reports on ‘U.S. GDP grows at annual rate of 2.3%’ (CNN, 7/30/2015), stock related issues such as ‘If China falls, buy this stock’ (CNBC, 7/30/2015) , ‘CEO: This is the crude oil bottom’ (CNBC, 7/30/2015).

Lastly, the genders of the interviewees and the people that were featured in the news were examined. Out of twenty interviewees, seven were women and thirteen were men. When men and women appeared together, men usually talked more than women. Women also tended to talk more about feelings and men described the situations and the facts surrounding them. From the CNN news, ‘Former Campus officer pleads not guilty in DuBose Death’, which was broadcasted on July 31st, there were three victims including two brothers and a sister. The two brothers discussed the crime and the facts surrounding it, while the woman talked about her sad feelings.