The statistical results of the content analysis raised questions of why female journalists produced significant amounts of news for the ―hard‖ sections but were noteworthy as a minority in opinion and sports sections. The editors of the newspapers included in the survey were approached and asked to suggest reasons for the results obtained. All five editors are men, and four responded to the request. They have not been named here in order to facilitate open discussion.
In general, the metropolitan newspaper editors said the reason for a high proportion of female bylines on national/local news stories was simply because half of reporters employed in this area are female. One editor wrote:
We place an emphasis on health, education and crime stories (probably like the other major papers: there‘s no mystery here, readership studies have shown these are of high interest). Both our health reporters are women, our two education reporters were, until recently, both women and one of our two crime reporters is also female. There‘s no deliberate policy to place women on those rounds…we simply review the staff we have and decide who has the reporting skills needed.
However, the editors noted that women do not tend to stay in the journalism industry long term, thereby not working up to the specialised areas of business and opinions. ―Women tend to stay less time in the game, getting out before they get to senior ranks,‖ said one editor,
115 ―Sometimes it‘s frustration at the time it takes to get there, better alternatives, family or child pressures and financial pressures as well.‖
On the subject of the low proportion of females writing opinion pieces, one editor said the problem was finding reliable female correspondents:
[W]e have had a bad slew in favour of male columnists…We consider this a problem and are always searching for women who can write regularly and effectively…The difficulty is finding those who can write well, make a cogent argument and sustain this contribution 52 weeks a year.
Another editor noted that this just reflects society:
In general terms, more men are still in positions of influence in academia, business, politics, and government than women (although, of course, that is changing), and those are the usual writers of op-ed pieces.
This comment was made at the same period that women held many of the very top jobs in government and corporations, such as the country‘s prime minster, chief justice, governor general, and CEO of Telecom.
Sports was the section with the lowest proportion of female journalists, and one editor noted that there is very low turnover of staff in sports; hence fewer opportunities for young journalists to break into this area. The general feeling among the editors was that, in the relatively rare cases where positions as sports journalists arise, women are not interested or competent to fill them. ―I haven‘t had a quality female writer apply for a sports job here in three years,” one editor said. Another suggested a list of reasons why women do not enter
116 sports journalism: ―little interest in sport, too blokey a sector, limited career path, has to be a former player to really get a chance.‖
Despite more women than men training to become journalists, the editors said many do not stay in the industry long term, nor do they wish to do sports or opinion pieces. While the editors suggested the demands on journalists do not suit women, none of the editors suggested in the open-ended questions that the newspapers needed to change their workplace practices or culture to improve matters. The workplace practices and culture are discussed further in Chapter 7.
4.7 Summary
This part of the study used content analysis to measure bylines to answer Research Question One, on the visibility of female journalists in New Zealand‘s five metropolitan daily newspapers. The answer was fairly clear, female journalists‘ bylines accounted for only 38% of bylines, despite the fact females comprise half the population and, according to other studies, they dominate the media industry. The results show that all five metropolitan newspapers published considerably more articles by male journalists.
In each newspaper, the ratios were similar, with female journalists accounting for 34% to 41% of the bylines at each newspaper. The highest female ratio was 41%, at both the Dominion-Post and Waikato Times, and the lowest was 34% at the South Island Otago Daily Times. There was no trend in the figures as to ownership of the individual newspapers.
117 The disaggregated results also showed that articles authored by women did not exceed those by men in any section of the newspapers. Female bylines were lacking particularly in sports, business and opinions. On the positive side, women produced an almost equal number of stories in the ―hard‖ news sections, which are the front page and national/local news.
However, the situation is more complicated than it first appeared. When the different sections in each individual newspaper were examined, sub-question 1(a), it appeared that there were pockets of female byline dominance in some newspapers. Female bylines were the clear majority on front page stories on two newspapers, the New Zealand Herald and the Dominion-Post. They were also prevalent in the national and local news section of three newspapers (the New Zealand Herald, the Dominion-Post and the Waikato Times), as well as in the business section of The Press. At the other end of the spectrum, however, female journalists were relatively invisible on the sports pages and in opinion pieces of all newspapers.
The second part of the research question, sub question 1(b), asked metropolitan newspaper editors to comment on the reasons for the percentages. They said that in general newsrooms tend to be half female, and this accounts for the high proportion of female bylines on the national and local news pages. However, the editors said many women subsequently leave the industry and few make it into a senior position, which is required to write for business or opinion pages. Looking at the sports desk, the editors confirmed staff levels are overwhelmingly male and unlikely to change because of entrenched staff and the attitude that women cannot do the job nor want to do the job. The editors said the relative lack of female opinion writers may reflect a lack of females in senior positions in the community at large,
118 although they made no comment about the country's high number of female politicians and corporate leaders at the time of the survey.
It appeared from the research results that the relative feminisation of this country's newspaper newsroom is confined to the ranks of young news reporters, and judging from the editors‘ comments this will continue if the current newsroom culture remains the status quo. It appeared from the editors‘ comments that gender balance in authorship is hampered by the exodus of female journalists early in their newspaper career. The findings of this chapter prompted the attitudinal survey of new journalists to further ascertain the apparent exodus of some journalists from newspaper journalism. The next chapter describes the survey results and examines the reasons some journalists leave the newsroom early in their career.
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Chapter Five: RESULTS OF ATTITUDINAL SURVEY
5.1 Introduction
This chapter reports the results of the second research method, a closed-sample web-based survey of journalists conducted in late 2008, which explored the attitudes of new-career journalists towards employment in the newspaper industry. This survey followed from the content analysis in the previous chapter, which paints the daily newspaper industry as a workplace staffed by competent new-entry women journalists who are given the respected hard news assignments. However, these women apparently (as demonstrated by the content analysis and confirmed by interviews with newspaper editors) seldom transfer to the more stable senior assignments such as business, editorial, and sports.
Using this picture of the environment, the survey explored the challenges and barriers as perceived by formally trained journalists. The journalists were previously students at Wellington School of Journalism from the years 2000 to 2008, thereby having reputable qualifications even before entering the industry. The surveyed journalists were asked their opinion of the industry when they first entered, and how that may have changed after working in it. The chapter presents the responses in light of the two-part second research question.
Research Question Two: How do early-career journalists describe their decision to remain in or leave the newspaper industry? What gender differences are there in the decision-making process?
120 First, the chapter covers the survey‘s response rate and the demographic profile of the respondents. Then it moves to their answers to questions about what originally enticed respondents into journalism, and if their experience in newspapers met those expectations. Those who still worked in daily newspapers were asked to give the reasons they remained in the industry. Those who had left the industry were asked to give the reasons they left and where they were then employed. Finally, the ex-students who were on their pre-career overseas experience were asked about their future intentions to work in daily newspapers. The main findings are presented first, followed by a detailed explanation and disaggregation of the survey tallies.