Negative information about political candidates is readily available in contemporary political communication. Moreover, negativity is tightly connected to gendered expectations about what constitutes ...appropriate behavior for politicians. Yet, existing theoretical models of negativity and candidate evaluation typically do not address the role of gender and the available empirical evidence remains inconclusive regarding the electoral consequences of the interaction of negativity and gender. This article tackles these gaps in two studies to investigate how negativity manifests in voters’ thoughts about women and men politicians in response to negative media cues and how these thoughts affect vote preference. Study 1 uses a mixed methods think-aloud approach to trace the first impression formation and subsequent decision-making process (N = 78). Study 2 replicates the design as an online thought listing survey experiment (N = 142). A similar quantitative pattern emerges across both studies: (a) Negative cues elicit similar amounts of negativity in voters’ thoughts for women and men politicians, (b) these negative thoughts strongly lower candidates’ electoral chances, (c) but less so for women candidates. The qualitative analysis suggests that negative cues heuristically affect earlier stages of impression formation while voters are likely to rely on gender cues when they rationalize their vote decision.
Objectives:
The goal of this study is to map the share of COVID-related news articles over time, to investigate key subtopics and their evolution throughout the pandemic, and to identify key actors ...and their relationship with different aspects of the discourse around the pandemic.
Methods:
This study uses a large-scale automated content analysis to conduct a within-country comparison of news articles (N = 1,171,114) from two language regions of Switzerland during the first 18 months of the pandemic.
Results:
News media coverage of the pandemic largely mirrors key epidemiological developments in terms of the volume and content of coverage. Key actors in COVID-related reporting tend to be included in news articles that relate to their respective area of expertise.
Conclusion:
Balanced news coverage of the pandemic facilitates effective dissemination of pandemic-related information by health authorities.
The disciplinary identity and self-image of communication science have recently been objects of intense discussion and reflection in scholarly journals and conference panels. These debates focus on ...the questions of the objects, theories, methods, and thus also on the social role of communication science in times of digitalization. From a Swiss perspective, it is also necessary to ask about the role of different language and cultural areas as well as the strongly positioned universities of applied sciences on the subject’s repertoire of theories and methods and thus the existence of a communication science “Helvetian Manner.” So far, these discussions have been led through the lens of researchers’ own professional experience and their preferred theoretical and conceptual approaches. However, they lack empirical data. Based on a diachronic and synchronic quantitative analysis of the theories, methods and objects used at Swiss communication science institutes, this article derives propositions regarding the current debate and submits them for further discussion. The analysis draws on an original sample of graduate theses of different qualification levels. This study thus enriches current discussions with empirical findings on the discipline’s “lived” research and teaching practice.
Abstract Academia and political campaigners conventionally cast gender stereotypes as an electoral liability for women in politics. Incongruent stereotype expectations place women in a double-bind ...where they either fail the social demands of political leadership or they breach gender norms related to femininity—with potential backlash due to stereotype violation in both cases. Two decades of research offer conflicting conclusions regarding the role of stereotype incongruity in candidate evaluations and its electoral consequences for women in politics. This paper theoretically revisits and empirically tests core assumptions of stereotype incongruity as a driver of gender biases in political communication. In a series of four online survey experiments, this study examines incongruity in trait expectations (study 1), trait inferences (studies 2 and 3), and trait evaluations (study 4). Results show that voters expect and infer incongruity in candidate traits for women and men politicians only in few but notable cases. Moreover, voters punish candidates of both gender groups similarly for displaying stereotypically undesirable traits but reward female politicians more strongly for displaying desirable communal traits. The findings have important implications for the understanding of persistent biases that women face in electoral politics.
While the persisting issue of women’s underrepresentation in political news partly arises from biases in the social reality, journalism plays a crucial role in mediating these biases. This study ...proposes a multilayered framework of gendered influences in journalistic news production to understand how journalistic factors exacerbate or mitigate women’s media representation. Drawing from a mixed-methods design (content analysis, survey, interviews), journalists’ own gender emerges as the strongest predictor of gendered representations. Women’s underrepresentation is also influenced by professional roles but not by organizations’ gender guidelines. We explore how journalists perceive these influences and discuss conceptual and practical implications.
Abstract
How do different types of media coverage shape—and potentially bias—voter evaluations of women and men politicians? Theoretically reviewing 50 experimental studies and statistically ...synthesizing 671 evaluation outcomes from more than 23,000 participants, this meta-analytic review shows that gender bias in media-induced voter evaluations is conditional rather than universal. Our findings suggest that voters respond similarly to most media messages about women and men candidates. When gender-differentiated media effects are found, for instance, based on trait, appearance, or family coverage of politicians, this is mostly harmful for women candidates as it reaffirms gender stereotypical beliefs and lowers their viability ratings and vote preferences. Shedding light on the conditional nature of media-driven voter bias, this study adds to a better understanding of how the mediation of gender stereotypes sustains the underrepresentation of women in politics.
Digital media have become integral to the everyday life of people with disabilities. So far, research about disability and digital media use is rather scarce and narrowed on issues of accessibility ...and social media. This paper draws on qualitative interviews with people with visual or motoric impairments to provide an in-depth analysis of their everyday experiences relating to barriers and benefits of digital media. The findings reproduce previously identified barriers and extend these by adding novel sub-aspects of individual cognitive and attitudinal barriers like non-use of digital media due to their (perceived) complexity and a feeling of greater dependence on digital technology. However, the results also shed light on highly individualized ways that people with disabilities actively make use of digital media to improve their daily life. Despite persisting and new barriers, the general findings suggest that, with the appropriate training and support, digital media are largely beneficial.
Points of interest
About 15 percent of the population worldwide are directly concerned by the issue of disability and digital media (for example smartphones, apps, online news).
In this study, forty people with visual or motoric impairments were interviewed about their everyday experiences with digital media. They reported both benefits and problems of digital technology.
Benefits: digital media allow people with disabilities to lead a more independent life; for example, shopping without assistance, reading the newspaper, or using social media.
Problems: fear of technology, feeling dependent on digital devices, and lack of know-how are obstacles for digital media use. Increasingly complex websites and apps create additional barriers.
A solution would be individual support and training.
Verstärkt wird in den vergangenen Jahren in Fachzeitschriften und auf Tagungspanels über die Identität und das Selbstverständnis der Kommunikationswissenschaft diskutiert und reflektiert. Im Fokus ...dieser Debatten stehen die Fragen nach dem Gegenstand, den Theorien, den Methoden und damit auch nach der gesellschaftlichen Rolle und Leistungsfähigkeit der Kommunikationswissenschaft in Zeiten der Digitalisierung. Aus Schweizer Perspektive gilt es zudem nach der Rolle verschiedener Sprach- und Kulturräume sowie der stark etablierten Fachhochschulen für das Theorien- und Methodenrepertoire des Fachs und damit nach der Existenz einer Kommunikationswissenschaft «helvetischer Manier» zu fragen. Die Diskussionen werden zumeist durch die jeweilige «Brille» eigener Berufserfahrung sowie präferierter theoretisch-konzeptioneller Ansätze der FachvertreterInnen, jedoch kaum unter Berücksichtigung empirischer Daten geführt. Der vorliegende Beitrag formuliert auf der Basis einer diachronen und quantitativen Analyse von verwendeten Theorien, Methoden und Fachgegenständen an Schweizer kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Instituten Thesen zu den debattierten Fragen und stellt diese zur Diskussion. Analysiert werden studentische Abschlussarbeiten verschiedener Qualifikationsniveaus. Die bisher vor allem theoretisch und erfahrungsbasierte Debatte wird so um empirische Befunde zur «gelebten» Forschungs- und Lehrpraxis angereichert.
The disciplinary identity and self-image of communication science have recently been objects of intense discussion and reflection in scholarly journals and conference panels. These debates focus on the questions of the objects, theories, methods, and thus also on the social role of communication science in times of digitalization. From a Swiss perspective, it is also necessary to ask about the role of different language and cultural areas as well as the strongly positioned universities of applied sciences on the subject’s repertoire of theories and methods and thus the existence of a communication science “Helvetian Manner.” So far, these discussions have been led through the lens of researchers’ own professional experience and their preferred theoretical and conceptual approaches. However, they lack empirical data. Based on a diachronic and synchronic quantitative analysis of the theories, methods and objects used at Swiss communication science institutes, this article derives propositions regarding the current debate and submits them for further discussion. The analysis draws on an original sample of graduate theses of different qualification levels. This study thus enriches current discussions with empirical findings on the discipline’s “lived” research and teaching practice.
Gender bias in the media coverage of political elections has long been theorized as a major obstacle to women’s success in elections and their institutional representation. However, this view of ...persistent media bias against women politicians is increasingly subject to pressure by inconsistent evidence of size and patterns of gender bias. This paper argues that some of these inconsistencies derive from a lack of attention to contextual influences of electoral coverage. This study analyzes gender bias in the amount and content of media coverage in the run-up to Swiss federal elections in 2015 by means of a quantitative content analysis. Drawing on an extensive sample of print, online and audiovisual election coverage from the most important tabloid and broadsheet media of three different language regions, the results reveal mixed evidence of gender bias: On the one hand, women candidates remain underrepresented in Swiss media. On the other hand, however, once they are covered by the media, candidates are overwhelmingly presented in a gender-neutral way. Several differences emerge between language regions and media type. Extending the traditional gender bias hypothesis to account for contextual influences, the study illustrates that the geo-cultural and media-specific contextual influences of election coverage impinge on the gendered mediation of candidates together with known drivers of political communication, such as incumbency, the electoral system, and party ideology.
Search engines like Google have become major information gatekeepers that use artificial intelligence (AI) to determine who and what voters find when searching for political information. This article ...proposes and tests a framework of algorithmic representation of minoritized groups in a series of four studies. First, two algorithm audits of political image searches delineate how search engines reflect and uphold structural inequalities by under- and misrepresenting women and non-white politicians. Second, two online experiments show that these biases in algorithmic representation in turn distort perceptions of the political reality and actively reinforce a white and masculinized view of politics. Together, the results have substantive implications for the scientific understanding of how AI technology amplifies biases in political perceptions and decision-making. The article contributes to ongoing public debates and cross-disciplinary research on algorithmic fairness and injustice.
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