By Darcy Delaney
Photos provided by Time Magazine
The contemporary media research issue of the news media’s coverage of female political candidates has numerous faults within the common ethics of journalism. Ethical codebooks usually list fair and balanced coverage as one of the main components in which all journalists should adhere. However, according to the information from five sources listed below, it is not being followed by all news organizations.
The first source I found was Journalism.org’s The State of the News Media 2009. This source emphasized how news magazine coverage has created biases against current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Democratic primaries. According to the article, current President Barack Obama appeared on the cover of Time 13 times and Newsweek 12 times during the 2008 race. However, Clinton only appeared on Time three times and Newsweek twice during the same time period.
The second source, the Web site of the St. Petersburg Times, provided an article that illustrated some of the biases the media have created against Clinton during the 2008 Democratic primaries. The site referenced The Center for Media and Public Affairs. The Center found that by the time of the Iowa Caucus, 84 percent of the news coverage Obama received was positive, while only 51 percent of the coverage Clinton received was positive.
The Temple News online, a third source agreed, but did not provide percentages. Instead, this Web site used examples of media biases like when Chris Stover, the author of the article wrote, “For example, MSNBC’s David Shuster said in February that former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton was “being pimped out” by her mother. Yet no one says anything about Sen. John McCain’s traveling, blogging daughter.”
The fourth source, Communication Currents, also emphasized that the media coverage of Clinton during the 2008 Democratic primaries were biased. However, this source suggested that these biases existed in coverage of Clinton, the biases were not as strong as previous female candidates had seen.
About.com: Women’s Issues provided a list of articles written about this topic in relation to sexism. “In her Shoes” is a blog by Linda Lowen. This blog allowed the reader to understand how many members of a viewing (or reading) audience can become frustrated with biased coverage.
Overall, each one of these five sources provided information that agreed there were biases in the media against Clinton during this election. While this happens, it is not ethical.
News organizations are supposed to provide factual, balanced and unbiased information to their audience. This does not seem to be the case with political coverage of this election or any election prior. It is important to understand that these biases exist in order to make the necessary changes in the media so that these differences in political coverage no longer occur.
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