Anamika S, M.Manjunatha V
Journalism demands its outputs to be accurate, objective, and
immaculate. Therefore, permitting prejudices to seep into work is staunchly condemned.
Human beings are still vulnerable to cognitive biases based on individual
characteristics, and hence, this paper attempted to identify if one such
characteristic – gender – can influence the works produced by journalists. The
study, through content analysis, examined whether there were any significant
disparities in writing styles between the articles by male reporters and female
reporters concerning story tones prevalent in the articles, the story
structures used, and the gender of the sources selected. The results showed
that there is no significant difference in story tone, story structure, and
selection of sources in articles written by journalists of both genders, thus
indicating that gender might not influence news writing. This conclusion provides
reassurance that hiring more female journalists in newsrooms will not dilute
the quality of work, nor threaten to weaken the existing power that journalism
possesses. The resulting data can reinforce the need to erase gender
stereotypes about female journalists and encourage them to become part of
newsrooms.
Gender, journalism, writing styles, story tones, story structures, sources
VOL.14, ISSUE No.1, March 2022