University of Alberta “Just the Facts, Ma’am”: Newspaper Depictions of Women Council Candidates During the 2007 Alberta Municipal Election by Angelia Caroline Wagner A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Political Science ©Angelia Caroline Wagner Spring 2010 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author’s prior written permission. Examining Committee Linda Trimble, Political Science James Lightbody, Political Science Harvey Krahn, Sociology Dedications To the memory of my mother, R. Doreen Wagner, who shared my excitement when Kim Campbell became Canada’s first female prime minister in 1993; to my father, Gary C. Wagner, for his unwavering support throughout my graduate studies; and to friends, family, professors, and fellow students for their constant encouragement. Angelia Wagner Abstract Do women municipal politicians encounter the same level of media bias as their national counterparts? This question guided a study of how three daily and three community newspapers portrayed women and men council candidates during the 2007 Alberta municipal election. Using content and discourse analysis, the study compared how journalists covered female and male candidates’ personal traits, campaign platforms, public utterances, and electoral viability as well as how visible both groups of candidates were in newspaper election coverage. Results from the study indicate that while aspiring women councillors do face a subtle sexism, the media environment they encounter while campaigning is generally more gender-neutral and hospitable to them than the one awaiting women competing for elite national office. Thus, scholarly belief that the media act can as a barrier to women’s candidacy are largely unfounded at the municipal level. Acknowledgements Like thousands of other Canadians, I was glued to my television set on June 13, 1993 as delegates cast a ballot to decide who would replace Brian Mulroney as head of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. The vote was significant because Kim Campbell was vying to become the first female leader of the governing party and, by extension, the first female prime minister of Canada. Within hours of Campbell’s victory, my mother, Doreen, and I were gloating over the phone at this important breakthrough for women in national politics. But it would be the last major one she would see: my mother died a decade later, in October 2003, after a long battle with cancer. During one of our final conversations, my mother encouraged me to travel and to get a master’s degree, both of which I have now done. I would like to thank her for the indelible contributions she has made to my life. When I first explored the possibility of returning to university after many years spent working as a journalist, I was encouraged by the enthusiasm that Dr. Linda Trimble showed for academic life in general and for the study of women, politics, and media in particular. I am grateful she agreed to be my thesis adviser, guiding me gently at the start of my program and more intensively as the thesis came together during the summer of 2009. This document was vastly improved by her insight, advice, and feedback. Other professors in the University of Alberta’s political science department also made important contributions to my thesis and studies. Discussions with Dr. James Lightbody and Dr. Yasmeen Abu- Laban early in my graduate program helped me to quickly narrow the focus of my thesis project. I am also grateful to Dr. Catherine Kellogg for getting me started on the long process of writing this document by allowing me to draft the major paper for her class on gender and politics as the literature review chapter presented here. I would also like to thank my other political science instructors for their constant encouragement and feedback. My project was immeasurably strengthened by the involvement of Dr. Harvey Krahn and Laura Templeton of the University of Alberta’s sociology department, who taught me the finer points of conducting quantitative research, statistically analyzing and interpreting data, and presenting all the information in a coherent package. I would also like to thank Barb McLean, who graciously agreed to do the intercoder reliability test and who provided welcomed feedback on the codebook. My colleagues at the Edmonton Sun have been supportive throughout my graduate studies, lending a hand in determining the staffing size of various daily newspapers throughout the province and in acquiring back issues of the Sun for my research project. Finally, I would like to thank my father, Gary Wagner, for the many sacrifices he made to enable me to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Alberta. His unfailing support for my academic ambitions gave me the courage to keep moving forward even when circumstances left me feeling overwhelmed. I could not have completed this research project without his encouragement. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Opening Thoughts 1 Why Study Municipal Government? 4 Why Study Women Municipal Politicians? 7 Why does the Media Matter? 11 Why Study Newspapers? 14 Why This Researcher? 17 Structure of the Thesis 20 Chapter 2: Literature Review 22 Introduction 22 Gendering Politics 23 Style Versus Substance 24 Framing the Narrative 34 Women Journalists to the Rescue? 38 Conclusion 41 Chapter 3: Methodology 42 Introduction 42 Newspaper Categories 42 Newspaper Selection and Characteristics 44 Why Content and Discourse Analysis? 47 Data Collection 49 Measurement 51 Content Analysis 51 Discourse Analysis 55 Limitations of the Study 56 Conclusion 58 Chapter 4: Results 60 Introduction 60 Profile of Council Campaigns 60 Profile of Newspaper Coverage 61 Findings 64 Personal Traits 64 Issues 71 Quotations 74 Framing 75 Viability 80 Sex of Reporter 81 Visibility 84 Conclusion 87 Chapter 5: Analysis 88 Introduction 88 Candidates, Campaigns, and Coverage 89 Personal Traits 92 Issue Coverage 97 Quotations 98 Framing 100 Viability 103 Sex of Reporter 105 Visibility 107 Newspaper Type and Election Coverage 109 Conclusion 112 Chapter 6: Conclusion 114 Summary of Research Findings 114 Media Strategies 116 Future Avenues of Inquiry 121 Final Thoughts 125 Endnotes 127 Chapter 1: Introduction 127 Chapter 2: Literature Review 127 Chapter 3: Methodology 128 Chapter 4: Results 129 Chapter 5: Analysis 133 Chapter 6: Conclusion 134 References 135 Primary Material 135 Secondary Material 138 Appendix 157 Appendix A: Codebook 157 Appendix B: Codesheets 169 Appendix C: Layout 171 List of Tables Table 1 Issue mentions for women and men council candidates 72 Table 2 Average word length of quotations for women and men 74 council candidates Table 3 Game framing of women and men council candidates 75 Table 4 Gender framing of women and men council candidates 78 Table 5 Personal trait depictions of women and men council 81 candidates by sex of reporter Table 6 Framing of women and men council candidates by sex 82 of reporter Table 7 Visibility of women and men council candidates in six 84 newspapers List of Figures Figure 1 Personal trait mentions for women and men council 65 candidates Figure 2 Issue mentions by topic for women and men council 73 candidates Figure 3 Mean scores on prominence index by women and men 85 council candidates Glossary Broadsheet: a newspaper characterized by long, vertical pages; it appears on the newsstand folded in half. Codebook: a document that resembles a survey questionnaire, only the questions it poses are not asked of an individual but of a text; also known as a coding instrument. Coder: a person who applies a codebook to a text. Community newspaper: a publication printed once or twice a week containing news, opinion pieces, correspondence, photographs, advertisements, and other items. Content analysis: a systematic, objective, and quantitative research technique that examines message characteristics in written, visual, and audio communication. Daily newspaper: a publication printed five to seven days a week containing news, opinion pieces, correspondence, photographs, advertisements, and other items. Discourse analysis: a qualitative methodology that acknowledges that language is a form of social interaction and focuses on its meaning based on the cultural and social contexts in which it is used. Editor: a type of journalist; a person engaged in the preparing of language, images, sound, or video through correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications in various media. Factbox: conveys short tidbits of information in textual and/or graphic form and can appear within or adjacent to a story. Intercoder reliability test: a process whereby the accuracy and reliability of a codebook is examined; it involves two or more individuals, or coders, applying the same codebook to the same text to see if they arrive at the same answers. Journalist: a person who practises journalism. Journalism: the gathering and dissemination of information about current events. Mugshot: a small head-and-shoulder picture of a person named or featured in a news story. News hole: Amount of space in a newspaper for editorial content. Newsroom: the physical space in the offices of a news organization where journalists do their work. Photograph: a large picture that features anyone or anything. Pull quote: a design element that features the words of a person quoted in a story.