On their best behaviour? Newspaper journalists' coverage of women municipal candidates in Alberta

Do women in municipal politics encounter the same level of media bias as women in national politics? Does every type of newspapers exhibit a bias against women municipal politicians, if at all? These questions guided a study of how three daily and three community newspapers portrayed women council candidates during the 2007 Alberta municipal elections. Using content and discourse analysis, the study compared how journalists reported on female and male candidates’ personal traits such as age, appearance, family situation, gender, and emotions as well as their policy ideas and public utterances. Results from the study indicate that while local women politicians do face a subtle sexism, the media environment they encounter while campaigning is generally more gender-neutral and hospitable to them than the one awaiting women vying for elite national office. Thus, women contemplating a bid for council should not be concerned that local journalists will obsess about their looks or otherwise overtly disadvantage them before prospective voters

“Wildrose Wild Card”: Alberta Newspaper Coverage of the 2009 Wildrose Alliance Leadership Contest

This study uses quantitative and qualitative methods to examine Alberta newspaper coverage of the Wildrose Party’s 2009 leadership contest. We compared the overall visibility of the two candidates, Danielle Smith and Mark Dyrholm, and contrasted news framing of their public and private personas and assessments of their ideological positions and leadership skills. Smith was more visible than her male opponent, reflecting her front-runner status during the leadership race. Somewhat surprisingly, Smith was not framed as a woman candidate, nor were evaluations of her performance marked by sexism or gender stereotypes. We argue that these findings are atypical and other women leadership contenders are not likely to receive the glowingly positive assessments Smith enjoyed. Smith’s conservative ideological position, and the possibility that she had the skills and public appeal necessary to topple the longstanding governing party, prompted the remarkably adulatory coverage accorded her candidacy by the Alberta press corps

TRPV4 and KRAS and FGFR1 gain-of-function mutations drive giant cell lesions of the jaw

Giant cell lesions of the jaw (GCLJ) are debilitating benign tumors of unclear origin. The authors identify driver recurrent somatic mutations in TRPV4, KRAS and FGFR1 and show they converge on aberrant activation of the MAPK pathway. Their findings extend the spectrum of TRPV4 channelopathies and provide rationale for targeted therapies at the bedside in GCLJ