A Long Way to Equality: Women on Television News

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dc.contributor.authorIgleheart, Arden
dc.date.accessioned2018-04-05T20:25:56Z
dc.date.available2018-04-05T20:25:56Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.descriptionRecommended Citation: Igleheart, Arden. “A Long Way to Equality: Women on Television News.” Royal Road, 2018. https://doi.org/10.48497/4DXE-ZY97.
dc.description.abstract“Where can you find a morning news anchor who’s provocative, super smart and just a little sexy?” asked the voiceover in an ad about Paula Zahn, the then host of CNN’s American Morning. The ad, released in 2002, was quickly pulled from television, but its opening line echoes a major problem in thebroadcast news industry. News channels, without stating it as explicitly as CNN, still often portray their female anchors and reporters as “just a little sexy.” These channels rarely portray men this way. Hiring women in broadcast news is still a relatively new practice, and these women face various obstacles, including stations’ sexualization of them, that men do not face. Barbara Walters, the first female host of a late-night news program, wasn’t awarded her position until 1976. “The so-called hard news, a woman couldn’t do it. The audience wouldn’t accept her voice,” Walters told Oprah Winfrey. “She couldn’t go into the war zones; she couldn’t ask the tough questions” (Capretto). Many researchers have addressed the topic of barriers forwomen in broadcast news, but my research examines several different ways that these women face sexism at once, drawing a conclusion from several studies about the effect that these combined aspects have on the audience. This paper argues that the underrepresentation of female reporters overall and in certain types of stories, the lack of women as expert sources and the value that employers and the audience place on the appearance of female reporters on American television news convey to the audience that women are not as authoritative as men. This portrayal could be limiting the job opportunities for women, both in broadcast news and other fields, by reinforcing harmful gender stereotypes. On average, networks
dc.identifier.citationIgleheart, Arden. “A Long Way to Equality: Women on Television News.” Royal Road, 2018. https://doi.org/10.48497/4DXE-ZY97.
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.48497/4dxe-zy97
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11868/404
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherDepartment of English and Writing, The University of Tampaen_US
dc.subjectTelevision news anchorsen_US
dc.subjectTelevision broadcasting of newsen_US
dc.subjectWomenen_US
dc.subjectBroadcast News Networksen_US
dc.titleA Long Way to Equality: Women on Television Newsen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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Volume 2: Spring 2018