Framing and gender-stereotyped personality traits : a study of media coverage of senatorial candidates in the 1998 election

This study examines the use of gender-based personality traits in media coverage of two 1998 U.S. senatorial races, including two male and two female candidates. A content analysis of three newspapers uses frame analysis to quantitatively determine the nature of the representation of Barbara Boxer and MattFong in the California race and Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Dottie Lamm in the Colorado race. The prevalence of gender stereotypes in society, the importance of personal appeal to American voters and the existence of particular gender-based personality stereotypes, as determined by a previous study, enhances the importance of pursuing such a study. This study determines to an extent how the media present the four candidates in terms of gender-charged adjectives and whether the material is attributed. Results show that gender framing occurs much more frequently for females than for male candidates, and all candidates are generally framed as being more masculine than feminine. Also, unattributed gender-based personality traits occur much more frequently than attributed material—especially for the female candidates.