Gender, Politics, and Power: How Women Presidential Candidates are Framed by News Narratives

Abstract

The aim of this study was to look at the coverage of the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Kamala Harris in 2024 during the Democratic National Convention, and analyze the differences in regard to gender, race, and political bias. The examination of these news narratives helps explore a question of whether journalists report with bias when covering politics. The researcher analyzed 11 published pieces from five mainstream media outlets. Findings of the study show that bias is unavoidable even when a journalist strives for objectivity which does not exist in newsrooms across the political spectrum. The findings are expected to support the narrative that journalism is continuously evolving, but cannot escape the systematic biases of gender and race when it comes to reporting on politics