An Analysis and Antidote for Misogynistic Language in News Media. #HOWNOTTOBESEXIST. By: Roxanne Szal

Transcription

1 An Analysis and Antidote for Misogynistic Language in News Media #HOWNOTTOBESEXIST By: Roxanne Szal

2 How did this project come about? Overcritical coverage of Hillary Clinton How deep does this run? How can we create a solution to avoid it?

3 Where could my project fit in? Goals: 1) I wanted to call more attention to this problem to get reporters and editors to become more aware of the language coming out of their newsroom and the language used by news media in general 2) I wanted to create a safeguard, something more standardized that could prevent this language from making its way into the public at all

4 Project Overview Over the course of two semesters, I hunted for misogynistic language in news media: its causes, its effects and how it can be avoided. The project culminated in: The production of guidelines to help newsrooms better portray women and avoid (even subconsciously) anti-female tone. The watchlist: a live google sheet where anti-female articles and headlines can be tracked and corrected.

5 Methodology: What did I do? Research UNL library, Google and Google Scholar Create watchlist Throughout: populate watchlist with real news media examples Follow conversations on Twitter through search terms (i.e. sexist headlines misogyny news ) and Twitter list Misogyny in Media Watch Create survey Purchase domain and name from Squarespace: Create branding for site: logo + favicon Locate influencers; disseminate survey Via (personal and professional contacts, relevant podcasters and journalists) Via social media listening and promoting Goal: solicit advice and input to help shape the guidelines (so I could call guidelines crowdsourced )

6 When the crowdsourcing survey didn t really work... I hoped people would be compelled to the take the survey without my prompting but that wasn t the case. (mostly was taken by friends and family)

7 If I were to do the survey all over What forms of news media do you consume? (w/ mult choice options) What are some of the ones you watch, listen to, read, use the most? How often? (w/ hour ranges or number of days of the week) How would you define misogyny? How would you like to see women portrayed in the media? Why? Have you ever noticed misogyny in the media? If yes, how? When you have noticed instances of misogyny; how did this make you feel? (If none noticed, please skip) Are there media outlets you feel are doing particularly good jobs portraying women? Are there specific media outlets you feel are NOT portraying women well?

8 Methodology: What did I do INSTEAD? Conducted six 30-minute phone interviews with four editors, a reporter and an employee at the American Press Institute 1. Addy Hatch, former managing editor at The Spokesman-Review (Spokane) 2. Shane Fitzgerald, executive editor at the Bucks County Courier Times, The Intelligencer and Burlington County Times (Bucks County, Pa.) 3. Anne Bequette-Fiore, local news editor for The Janesville Gazette (Wis.) 4. Ashley McCallum, local reporter for The Janesville Gazette (Wis.) 5. Veronica Chao, editor of The Boston Globe Magazine 6. Amy Kovac-Ashley, director of newsroom learning at the American Press Institute (based out of D.C.)

9 What did I ask? 1. In my research, I ve found many examples of misrepresentation of women or unfair coverage, of course in more right-leaning media like Fox and Breitbart but also (perhaps surprisingly) in liberal media outlets, as well as local news. Why do you think this happening? Is it worse now or better than in the past? How do you know? 2. What kinds of misrepresentation or sexist coverage/framing are you seeing? Do you have specific examples? What allowed for those specific examples to happen? 3. How do these examples make you feel personally, or what do you think when you see them? 4. How would you like to see women portrayed in the media? Why? How is that accomplished? What has to happen? 5. Has #metoo had any effect? Why or why not? 6. If you were to create guidelines -- like a set of rules or things to avoid saying -- what would be among the most important guidelines? How would you get newsrooms to adopt them?

10 Methodology: What did I do? Affinity mapping: comb through interviews and survey results to find common trends Creation of guidelines -- or rather a checklist, at suggestion of several interviewees

11 What s next? What will I do now? Send a pitch for this to be featured, starting with Poynter, ACES and API. (already wrote it) ---- Submit as new chapter in AP Style Guide Amy Kovac-Ashley, director of newsroom learning at the American Press Institute, told me, If it s part of the Style Guide, at least it s part of the conversation.

12 What s Next? Social media expansion: Links at bottom of SS page now link Facebook and Twitter [as opposed to my personal pages]

13 "You're doing important work. We all have our issues, and this has raised my ears a little bit. Yeah, there are definitely some things we have to pay more attention to. - Ann Fiore, editor at Janesville Gazette