A gendered perspective of local news: NewsStyle analysis of 2016 presidential campaign coverage in the Des Moines Register

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2018-01-01
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Liu, Yao
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Kelly Winfrey
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Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication
The Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication offers two majors: Advertising (instructing students in applied communication for work in business or industry), and Journalism and Mass Communication (instructing students in various aspects of news and information organizing, writing, editing, and presentation on various topics and in various platforms). The Department of Agricultural Journalism was formed in 1905 in the Division of Agriculture. In 1925 its name was changed to the Department of Technical Journalism. In 1969 its name changed to the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications; from 1969 to 1989 the department was directed by all four colleges, and in 1989 was placed under the direction of the College of Sciences and Humanities (later College of Liberal Arts and Sciences). In 1998 its name was changed to the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication.
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Abstract

The concept of NewsStyle was developed by Bystrom, Banwart, Kaid, and Robertson in 2004 to examine how media cover candidates in mixed-gender campaigns. The purpose of this study is to investigate the NewsStyle of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’ 2016 presidential campaign coverage in one local newspaper. The selected newspaper is the Des Moines Register, which is the most influential newspaper in Iowa. As a swing state, the voters in Iowa play a key role in the presidential election. Based on previous studies about women candidates’ coverage, the quantity, slant, electability, personal traits, and issues coverage would be recorded. This project used content analysis of 100 articles in the Des Moines Register from July 28, 2016 to November 8, 2016 to provide insights about how media in Iowa covered the mix-gender campaign. The findings suggest that although Clinton still faced stereotypical bias in the news coverage, the gender gap in coverage between Clinton and Trump was less pronounced in this campaign. However, the Des Moines Register paid the most attention to Clinton’s alleged dishonesty about her private email server and the Clinton Foudation, which may have negatively influenced the outcome of Clinton’s 2016 presiential campaign.

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Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 UTC 2018