Premium
Is There a Political Bias? A Computational Analysis of Female Subjects' Coverage in Liberal and Conservative Newspapers
Author(s) -
Shor Eran,
Rijt Arnout,
Ward Charles,
Askar Saoussan,
Skiena Steven
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/ssqu.12091
Subject(s) - newspaper , politics , media coverage , media bias , set (abstract data type) , cover (algebra) , test (biology) , demographic economics , scale (ratio) , advertising , political science , sociology , media studies , law , economics , geography , engineering , computer science , business , biology , programming language , mechanical engineering , paleontology , cartography
Objectives One possible source for the gap in media coverage between female and male subjects is the political affiliation of the media source. The objective of this present study was to test whether there is a difference between more liberal and more conservative newspapers in coverage rates of female subjects. Methods We used computational methods to analyze a unique large‐scale data set (complied by the Lydia Text Analysis System) and compared the 2010 female coverage rates in 168 newspapers. Results Contrary to our expectations, we found that conservative media tend to cover female subjects no less (and even slightly more) than liberal media. However, the difference was no longer significant once we controlled for newspaper distribution. Conclusion The common view that liberal newspapers are more likely to cover female subjects was not supported by this study. Both conservative and liberal newspapers are much more likely to cover males.