How Cable News Pundits Protect the Glass Ceiling
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BRINGING THE FRAME INTO FOCUS: HOW CABLE NEWS PUNDITS PROTECT THE GLASS CEILING A Thesis Presented by KATHRYN M. CASSIDY Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2012 Department of Communication ! "! BRINGING THE FRAME INTO FOCUS: HOW CABLE NEWS PUNDITS PROTECT THE GLASS CEILING A Thesis Presented by KATHRYN M. CASSIDY Approved as to style and content by: ______________________________________ Erica Scharrer, Chair ______________________________________ Jarice Hanson, Member ______________________________ Lisa Henderson, Department Chair Communication ! "! ! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Erica Scharrer, for her expertise, energy and sincere support. Her guidance was invaluable not only during the thesis writing process, but throughout the course of my graduate career. I would also like to extend my gratitude to my committee member, Jarice Hanson, for her thoughtful suggestions on all stages of this project. Finally, a special thank you is also due for my family and all those whose friendship and encouragement has helped me to stay focused on my studies and this project along the way. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! iii! ! ABSTRACT BRINGING THE FRAME INTO FOCUS: HOW CABLE NEWS PUNDITS PROTECT THE GLASS CEILING MAY 2012 KATHRYN M. CASSIDY, B.A. MUHLENBERG COLLEGE M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Dr. Erica Scharrer In many nations, the 21st century has been about women in politics. Not only are they running for prominent political offices, but they are winning them. The trend toward success for American female politicians has been slower to progress, however, as no women have been elected to the U.S. Presidency to date, and social science research suggests persistent gender biases exist in their news coverage. In order to explore the potential role that media play in continuing this gender disparity in U.S. politics, this comparative study investigates how cable pundit programs – a dramatic, partisan genre of “news” that has risen in popularity since the 2008 election – frame female candidates for the highest national office. A content analysis of pre-election coverage of three prominent U.S. politicians on the national scene, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, on The O’Reilly Factor, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The Rachel Maddow Show reveals a small incidence of gendered coverage across these shows overall. Among said coverage found, however, trends in the data suggest that conservative programs employ more gendered frames than liberal programs, and that those frames are particularly negative when referring to liberal candidates (Clinton), and ! iv! ! positive when referring to conservative (Palin and Bachmann) candidates. Further, the gender of the pundits, the gender of the cable network production staff members, and the political party affiliations of executive staff/owners correspond to the frames employed by these programs in unique ways. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! v! ! TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................1 2. CONCEPTUALIZING CABLE NEWS AND THE RISE OF PARTISANSHIP .........8 3. THE ROLE OF FRAMING ..........................................................................................17 4. REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER IN MEDIA AND POLITICS...........................26 Intersection of Gender Stereotyping and Political Party Affiliation ......................34 Characterizations of Clinton, Palin and Bachmann ...............................................36 ! 5. INFLUNCES OF ORGANIZATION AND GENDER ON NEWS CONTENT .........42 Influence of Individual Journalists on News Content ............................................47 ! 6. GOALS, THEORETICAL LINKAGES AND HYPOTHESES ..................................51 Summary of Study and Hypotheses .......................................................................53 ! 7. METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................59 Sampling Decisions ...............................................................................................60 Defining and Measuring Variables ........................................................................64 Coding Decisions ...................................................................................................66 Assessing Mentions ...............................................................................................66 Assessing Issues and Traits ....................................................................................70 Assessing Intercoder Reliability ............................................................................75 ! 8. RESULTS .....................................................................................................................79 A Description of the Sample ..................................................................................79 Assessing Hypotheses and Research Questions ....................................................86 ! 9. DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................127 ! vi! ! Discussion of Overall Trends ...............................................................................127 Discussion of Hypotheses ....................................................................................134 Discussion of Research Questions .......................................................................140 Limitations and Concluding Thoughts .................................................................144 ! BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................155 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! vii! ! LIST OF TABLES Table ................................................................................................................... Page 1. Transcripts in the Sample by Candidate .............................................................. 63 2. Gender Make-Up of Production Staffs ................................................................ 74 3. Intercoder Reliability - Holsti's Percent Agreement ............................................ 76 4. Intercoder Reliability - Intraclass Correlation Coefficient Testing ..................... 77 5. Frequency of Gendered Terms ............................................................................. 81 6. Frequency of Gendered Terms by Candidate ...................................................... 82 7. Frequency of Issue Coverage ............................................................................... 83 8. Frequency of Positive/Negative/Neutral Coverage ............................................. 84 9. Chi-Square Tests Comparing Conservative vs. Liberal Programming ................ 88 10. T-Tests Comparing Conservative vs. Liberal Programming ............................. 89 11. Chi-Square Tests of Clinton vs. Palin and Bachmann in Conservative Programming ................................................................................................. 94 12. T-Tests Comparing Clinton vs. Palin and Bachman in Conservative Programming ................................................................................................. 95 13. Chi-Square Tests Comparing Male Hosts vs. Female Hosts ............................. 99 14. T-Tests Comparing Male Hosts vs. Female Hosts ........................................... 100 15. Gender of Host and Candidate Interaction ....................................................... 104 16. Differences in Coverage Among Programs ..................................................... 108 17. Chi-Square Tests Comparing Gender of Production Staff .............................. 110 18. ANOVA Tests Comparing Gender of Production Staff .................................. 112 19. Chi-Square Tests Comparing Individual Candidates ....................................... 116 20. ANOVA Tests Comparing Individual Candidates .......................................... 117 ! viii! ! 21. Interaction Between Candidates and Programs ............................................... 119 22. Interaction Between Candidates and Political Affiliations of Programs ......... 124 23. Summary of Hypotheses and Research Questions ........................................... 125 ! ! ! ! ix! ! CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Over the last forty years, gender has become central to the ways that media and society define the identities of political candidates, issues and parties (Norris, 1997). As feminists continue to challenge traditional gender roles and the number of women occupying local and national political office increases – albeit slowly – communication and political science scholars alike have turned their attention to exploring the ways that representations of females