Do journalists believe in gender specificities of news topics? The impact of professionalism and family status

Abstract

While women have made significant progress in gaining access to the field of journalism over the few past decades, some scholars have noted a persistent tendency for men and women journalists to be assigned to different types of news work, as if some news topics are gender specific, i.e., some news topics can be better handled by men, whereas others can be better handled by women. But do professional journalists themselves perceive news topics to be gender specific? What individual level factors may explain beliefs in the gender specificities of news topics? Drawing on a representative survey of 459 professional journalists in Hong Kong, this article showed that journalists did not treat many types of news stories as gender specific. Women, journalists with a stronger commitment to professional ethics, and single journalists were less likely to believe in gender specificities of news topics. Among women journalists, educational level was related to beliefs in gender specificities. Implications of the findings were also discussed.