The Portrayal of Powerful Women in the Media

The purpose of this research is to investigate the portrayal of powerful women in the media and to gain a perspective of different ways the media tend to elaborate and focus on gender issues to a greater extent than the general public may think. I intend to demonstrate that powerful women are often portrayed unfairly in the media and that this could affect the progress they make in their careers. I hypothesize that although women are making strides in the right direction, the often negative portrayal of powerful women in the media can be unwarranted and lead to the unfair perception of women in powerful positions. First, I address background information that includes the progress professional and influential women have made in corporate America. I then discuss how many of these advancements, although they are a start, are not as substantial as they should be in the twenty-first century. Next, I investigate the possibility that the media might hinder women’s abilities to move up into positions of power due the influence that the media have on our perceptions and behaviors. To demonstrate that the media do in fact focus on gender issues when portraying powerful women, I investigated how the media portrayed three specific women in power. I chose to examine media portrayals of Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Katie Couric, anchor of CBS Evening News, and Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. By concentrating not only on women in corporate America, but also on a woman in the world of journalism, and one in the political world, I was able to gain a perspective on whether unfair media portrayals of women in corporations are parallel in their portrayals of influential women in general

Winning the Media Campaign: How the Press Reported the 2008 Presidential General Election

Examines the tone, amount, and type of coverage the presidential candidates received from forty-eight news outlets between the conventions and the final debate. Analyzes the factors behind shifts in tone and compares coverage with those of past elections

NBC Peacock North Summer 2006

Highlights include: Katie Couric Farewell -- The Farinet Files -- We Get Letters -- Spring Luncheon Photoshttps://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/media-nbcpeacock/1056/thumbnail.jp

Journalism and the Culture of Othering

In seeking to render problematic traditional conceptions of journalistic identity, this article critiques the seemingly natural, even ‘common sensical’ structures of social exclusion recurrently underpinning its formulation. More specifically, it explores, firstly, a series of insights provided by feminist and gender-sensitive critiques of journalism. In assessing the typically subtle imperatives of sexism in news reporting, it considers the extent to which journalistic identity continues to be defined within the day-to-day ‘macho culture’ of the newsroom, where female journalists’ perceptions of sexual discrimination typically vary sharply from those held by their male colleagues. Secondly, attention turns to the issue of ethnic diversity, where the need to deconstruct the racialised projection of ‘us and them’ dichotomies precisely as they are taken-up and re-inflected in news reporting is shown to be of pressing concern. In bringing together these respective set of debates, primarily from British and US contexts, this article aims to contribute to conceptual efforts to further unravel the ways in which journalists’ routine, everyday choices about what to report – how best to do it, and why –involves them in a politics of mediation, one where all too often a culture of othering proves significant

Vaccine Myths: Setting the Record Straight

Despite their standing as one of the most remarkable public health achievements, vaccines have been surrounded by dangerous myths since the development of the smallpox vaccine in the 18th century. In recent decades, with the publication of a fraudulent article linking vaccines to autism, the involvement of celebrities in the debate, and the rise of the internet and social media as sources for information for patients, these myths have become more widespread. This paper reviews four common vaccine myths: vaccines cause autism, vaccines are not safe, too many vaccines are given too soon, and the influenza vaccine is not necessary. For each of these myths, we review the origin and spread of misinformation. The authors then present the scientific evidence against each myth. Extensive research has found no link between vaccines, and particularly the MMR vaccine or the preservative thimerosal, and autism. The U.S. and world health agencies have effective mechanisms in place to review and monitor vaccine safety. These systems have worked to detect and evaluate even rare vaccine adverse events. The recommended vaccine schedule is safe for infants’ immune systems. The flu vaccine is an essential tool in the fight against the seasonal influenza deaths. A consequence of these myths is that parents are choosing to delay or refuse recommended vaccines for themselves and their children. This has resulted in outbreaks of measles, pertussis, H. influenza type b, varicella, and pneumococcal disease in the United States. Unvaccinated and undervaccinated children risk contracting the disease themselves, and pose a risk to their community as herd immunity decreases. It is important to explore and refute the myths leading to decreased vaccination rates, so health care providers and parents can make educated decisions to protect children and ensure public health

Yahoo! A mobile news service is a bold move

The investment in Katie Couric and senior reporters from The New York Times signals that Yahoo wants to move into Web TV and mobile video content in an effort to take on the the giants of American network and cable television, and perhaps even Netflix, which is rumoured to also be looking at an Australian launch next ye

Gender Specific Rhetoric: A Look at Today

Gender impacts every part of life. From the moment a baby is bom, that child is placed in a gender categoiy. As one grows, these categories define how the person should act as well as how they should speak. These stereotypes become such a part o f an individual that often they are seen as an innate or biological part o f women and men, but this is not the case. These stereotypes can be broken and many are, particularly by women who feel it necessaiy to conform to the male standard to get ahead in business. Therefore, it is important to not only understand the social stereotypes, but it is also vital that their historical evolution be realized. Throughout gender research, many differences between the language of women and men have been observed. These disparities were expected to be apparent throughout the communication between co-hosts, Katie Couric and Matt Lauer, on the Today show. Along with the verbal gender differences, cohost communication was examined for differences, hard and soft news approaches and interruptions. The methodology was a qualitative content analysis using feminist theory and gender communication research. After both the history of stereotypes and gender communication research is discussed, a brief look at qualitative research follows. The artifact, one week of NBC’s Today, from January 30-February 3, 1995, was used to examine gender stereotypes as they do or do not influence the news as well as if and how they might be reflected in the co-hosts speech patterns. A variety of articles on gender research, ranging from Campbell (1973) and Spender (1973) to Borisoff and Merrill (1985) and Sanders (1993), was used to determine i f co-hosts Katie Comic and Matt Lauer follow social gender stereotypes or not. While it was expected that both co-hosts generally would follow the stereotypes, this proved untrue. Comic was not a stereotypical female and Lauer also deviated from the expected patterns