4. Findings
4.2. Amount of coverage
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4.2. Amount of coverage
After reviewing the descriptive information about the articles used in the study, the results of the research will be offered in next sections. The topic of amount of coverage is addresses in the research question one:
RQ1: Is there a difference in the amount of coverage of male and female candidates?
As shown in the Figure 4, there were nine articles included in the analysis that were not discussing any of the candidates. The study‘s selection criteria allowed these articles to be included in the analysis, but these articles didn‘t mention the candidates21.
More than a half of the articles (54.9%) were talking about both candidates, providing important or substantial information about both of them. The articles talking about male candidate, comprised from articles talking mostly about male (9.2%) and only about male (13.9%), embrace almost a quarter of all the articles (23.1%). While articles talking mostly about female (12.1%) and only about female (4.6%), comprised 16.7% of all the articles, which makes a difference between the amount of coverage of male and female candidate of 6.4%.
21 This situation was caused by the headline including the words candidate, election, or campaign, but the article was talking generally about the candidates, elections or campaign, and didn‘t talk concretely about candidates.
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If we take into account articles talking mostly and only about one of the candidates22, 58%
of these articles talk about male candidate and 42% talk about female candidate.
There are 24 articles focusing only on male candidate, while 8 articles focus only on female candidate, which means there are three times more articles dedicated to the male candidate only. Moreover, in average the articles dedicated to only male are longer that the articles dedicated to only female candidate. The average only male article is 19.7 sentences long, while the average only female article is 16.1 sentences long.
When the number of sentences about candidates is counted, we can see that overall number of sentences for male candidate is higher. There are 1,103 sentences about male candidate and 939 sentences about female candidate during the studied period.
Based on these findings we can state that Iveta Radičová was less frequently covered than her male counterpart in Slovak media during the presidential election in 2009.
22 Excluding articles talking about both candidates, and articles not talking about candidates not about
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4.3. Prominence of the coverage
To the prominence of coverage, this research dedicated research question two:
RQ2: Is there a difference in the prominence of coverage of male and female candidates?
Comparing the prominence of the coverage of two candidates means to compare the location of the articles, whether the candidates` names appear in headline and whether there is a picture of the candidate attached to the article.
In terms of the location of the article, there are 25 articles located on the front page (both below and above the fold), 64% of these are articles focusing both on female and male candidate.
More than a quarter of the articles on the front page (28%) focused only or mostly on male candidate, and less that ten percent (8%) of the articles on the front page were talking mostly or only about female candidate.
As we can see in the Table 1, from the seven articles on the front page dedicated to male candidate, four of them were articles written about only male candidate; but from the two articles on the front page talking about female candidate, none of them was talking about only female candidate23.
There are no other differences from gender bias point of view in terms of location of the article between female and male candidates.
23 Both articles are categorized as mostly female, which means that male candidate is also mentioned in the article.
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Table 1: Crosstabulation of Location of Article and Sex of Candidate
Location gender of the candidate
between the candidates. Male candidate‘s name appeared in headline in 51 articles, and female‘s candidate name appeared in headline in 50 articles.
As for the picture of the candidate attached to the article, around one third of the articles for each candidate came with a picture of them attached. Specifically it was 34.7% of articles for male and 31.2% for female candidate.
Based on these findings, it can be concluded that in terms of location of the article female candidate received less prominent coverage during the presidential elections in 2009, but this is not true in terms of candidates` name appearing in the headline and in terms of pictures attached to the articles.
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4.4 Gendered coverage
To assess the idea of gendered coverage, a summary question was raised, there are various categories included in it:
RQ3: Is the female candidate portrayed by Slovak media in a gendered way?
According to the literature review, there are many possible categories measuring whether the coverage of candidates is gendered. In this study there were six categories included:
marital status of candidates mentioned in the articles
number of sentences talking about candidates` spouse or partner
children mentioned in the articles
number of sentences talking about the physical appearance of the candidates
direct mentions of the gender of the candidates
age of candidate mentioned in the articles
The category less presented in Slovak media, was the category of children of the candidates. In total, only four articles mentioned children of one of the candidates; and children of male candidate were mentioned three times, meanwhile children of female candidate were only mentioned once. According to this category, there is no gender bias toward female candidate.
The categories marital status of candidates and age of candidates showed the same results. In total, the age or marital status of candidates were mentioned in eight articles, and in both categories, four articles mentioned female‘s age and female‘s marital status, and four
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articles mentioned male‘s age and male‘s marital status. These categories didn‘t show any gender bias toward female candidate.
As far as the mentions of the physical appearance of candidates, there were eleven sentences in seven articles stating something about Radičová`s appearance. For male candidates, there were eight sentences in five articles about male candidate‘s appearance. The difference between the candidates is not very strong.
More obvious difference can be observed in the coverage of candidates` spouse or partner, nine articles mentioned at least one of the candidates` spouse or partner; seven of these articles mentioned female candidates` spouse or partner24 using twelve sentences in total. Three articles talked about male candidate`s spouse, and used four sentences in total. We can see a gender bias in this category. Media are focusing more on the partners of the female candidate than on the spouse of the male candidate.
The category, where the gender bias is most visible is the category of direct mentions of candidate’s gender, from all the mentions of candidates` gender, almost ninety percent (89.7%) were referring to female`s gender, the remaining 10.3% were referring to male candidate`s gender. Iveta Radičová`s gender was brought up in 28 articles (16.2% of all the articles), and in one of the articles her gender was mentioned up to eight times. Ivan Gašparovič`s gender was mentioned in 4 articles (2.3% of all the articles), with a maximum of two mentions per article.
In sum, even though the categories age of candidate, marital status of candidates, candidate`s children and the appearance of candidate didn`t show gender bias toward female candidate, the difference between the coverage of male and female candidates was found in the
24 The media mentioned either her deceased husband Stano Radič, or her partner, with whom she lived during the period before elections, Ján Riapoš.
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category number of sentences of candidate`s spouse or partner, and even stronger difference in the category direct mentions of candidate`s gender.
4.5 Viability coverage
Next category observed media`s focus on candidates` viability. The research question raised was as following:
RQ4: Is there a difference in the viability coverage of male and female candidates?
According to the literature, media discuss more often female candidates` possibilities to get elected, and the content of this kind of coverage is often more negative25 than when discussing male candidates. This study fails to find gender bias in the viability coverage.
In this research, there are 117 sentences discussing Ivan Gašparovič`s possibilities to win the elections, meanwhile there are 109 sentences discussing Iveta Radičová`s possibilities to win.
In terms of content of this kind of coverage, as shown in the Table 2, Ivan Gašparovič was more likely to be discussed as likely winner, or likely winner, but losing ground, and Iveta Radičová was more likely discussed as competitive, but gaining ground, or likely winner but losing ground. This difference cannot be attributed to gender bias, because Ivan Gašparovič was leading in all the polls before the first round, so the content of the coverage only copied the results of the polls.
25 In sense that female candidates are less likely to get elected
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Table 2: Horse- Race Content for Male and Female Candidates
Horse- Race Content Frequency MALE (articles) Frequency FEMALE (articles)
Noncompetive, sure loser 1 3
Competitive 1 3
Competitive, but gaining ground 1 13
Likely winner, but losing ground 22 18
Likely winner 22 5
Total 47 42
The development of the tone of the coverage between rounds copied the situation after the first round, when the female candidate succeeded and she passed to the second round with much more votes than expected.
There are other categories that can be taken into account when talking about viability of the candidates: qualifications of the candidates, lack of qualifications and the coverage of campaign quality for each candidate.
If we take all the mentions of qualifications into account, Slovak newspaper stated 238 times the qualifications of Ivan Gašparovič, and 35 times the qualifications of female candidate.
This difference becomes smaller when we exclude the media use of male candidate`s qualification of being President at the time of elections. The fact that he was that time President was stated 199 times.
The reason for excluding the mentions of Gašparovič being President is that the journalists used it mostly to vary the word president with the use of the word candidate or with the use of his name. Only in few occasions it was used to describe his political experience. After this exclusion, the media stated 39 time qualifications of the male candidate and 35 times the qualification of female candidate.
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The statements of lack of qualifications didn`t reveal gender bias toward female candidate. Against the expectations, the male candidate had four times more statements of lack of qualifications than female candidate. Journalists noted his incompetence in total 16 times, while female`s lack of competence was mentioned in total four times.
The quality of the campaign of the candidates was not frequently covered in the media.
Less than ten percent of the articles (9.2%) addressed the quality of the campaign. The male candidate`s campaign was described in more negative and mixed tone (87.4%) than in positive and neutral tone (12.6%). The female candidate had also more negative and mixed coverage (75%) than neutral and positive coverage (25%). However, female candidate had more positive and less negative or mixed coverage than male candidate (see Table 3). Based on these facts we can say that there is no gender bias in term of coverage of quality of campaign.
Table 3: Successfulness of Candidates` Presidential Campaign
Campaign Successfulness Female Male
Positive 25% 6.3%
Neutral 0% 6.3%
Mixed 31.2% 37.4%
Negative 43.8% 50%
4.6. Issue coverage
This research also looked into the issue coverage of presidential candidates to see whether there was a difference covering female and male candidates. This concern was expressed in research question five:
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divide the issues into these groups past research on gender bias was used (Norris 1997; Sczesny, Bosak et al. 2004; Kittilson and Fridkin 2008).In total there are 30 articles (17.3%) that discuss issues in relation to female candidate, and 42 articles (24.3%) mentioning issues in relation to male candidate. There are 18 different issues mentioned for female candidate, and 19 different issues for male candidate, in total there have been 24 different issues counted26. The male candidate has more issue coverage than female candidate.
Many of the issues were similar to the issues discussed in the past research, but some of the issues mentioned often in Slovak media are typical for Slovak environment, these issues couldn`t be labeled as female or male issues, they were labeled as neutral issues.
Female issues mentioned in Slovak newspapers during the elections of 2009 were:
abortions, poverty, social solidarity, social security, social issues, pensions, human rights, women rights, gay rights, environment, unemployment, health care, education. Male issues which appeared within the articles were: economy, economic crisis and development of the country, foreign policy, domestic policy, judiciary, global topics, exercise of power, construction, fees and taxes, and sports. The neutral issues were: candidate`s political contacts abroad,
26 To see the specific issues used, refer to the Appendix III.
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possible cooperation with government and SMER27, Slovak- Hungarian relationship, candidate`s political history28, nationalism, functions, and duties of president.
The issues most commonly used for female candidate were economic crisis and the development of the country, social solidarity, social security and social issues, and nationalism each mentioned at least five times. The issues most commonly used for male candidate were social solidarity, social security and social issues, Gašparovič`s political career, economic crisis and the development of the country, and Slovak- Hungarian relationship each used at least nine times.
After the analysis of the frequency of use of these issues it can be said, that there is no gender bias in terms of media use of issues. The use of male, female, and neutral issues is almost the same for both female and male candidate. The bias in this category would occur if the media discussed more male issues for male candidates and more female issues for female candidates.
As in the Table 4, Slovak media discussed female issues in 35.3% for female and in 33.3% for male candidate, male issues in 37.2% for female, in 39.8% for male candidate, and neutral issues in 27.5% for female and 26.9% for male candidate.
27 Political party at coalition during the time of presidential election
28 Gašparovič was a member of Communist Party. The political scandals he was part of in the past were mentioned often. The facts that Radičová was not involved in any political scandal and she was not a member of Communist Party were also mentioned frequently.
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Table 4: Female and Male Issues
Issues Radičová Gašparovič
Female issues 35.3% 33.3%
Male issues 37.2% 39.8%
Neutral issues 27.5% 26.9%
4.7. Personal traits
Next topic to be observed in this study is the coverage of personal traits of candidates.
This interest is formulated through another research question:
RQ6: Is there a difference in the coverage of male and female candidates in terms of personal traits?29
Overall not many articles discussed personal traits of the candidates, there were 31 articles stating female candidate`s personal traits, and 25 articles talking about male candidate`s personal traits. In contrast with issue coverage, there were more articles discussing traits for female candidate than for male candidate. There was more variety in traits when describing female candidate, 28 different traits were used to describe Iveta Radičová, while 18 traits were used to describe Gašparovič30.
29 This category also used an open-ended measure. All the traits used in the coverage were observed and noted in the codesheet. After examining the traits, these were divided into three categories: female, male and neutral issues according to the literature on gender bias and BSRI (Mosher and Danoff-Burg 2005, Ozkan and Lajunen 2005, Atkeson and Krebs 2008, Kittilson and Fridkin 2008, Lopez-Zafra, Garcia Retamero et al. 2008)
30 To see the personal traits used in Slovak media, see the Appendix IV.
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The most frequently used female traits31 were: non-confrontational, dependent, polite, distraught, fair, passive, communicative, calm, sympathetic. The most common male traits32 used by Slovak media were: rational, brave, independent, hypocrite, aggressive, and careerist. The neutral traits used were33: nervous, old-fashioned, nice, happy, and not visible enough.
The most frequently traits used for Iveta Radičová were nonconfrontational, non aggressive, and polite, these were used at least three times. All the other traits were used less
than three times. The traits used most frequently for male candidate were hypocrit, dependent, nervous, old-fashioned and aggressive used at least three times.
As in Table 5, when describing and writing about Iveta Radičová, Slovak media discussed female traits in 55.3%, male traits in 29.8% and neutral traits in 14.9%. By contrast, when describing Ivan Gašparovič, Slovak media focused more on male traits, and used male traits in 48.9%, female traits in 22.2% and neutral traits in 28.9%. In summary, male traits were used more often to describe male candidate, and female traits were used more often to describe female candidate, the gender bias toward female candidate is observed.
Table 5: Traits Used for Female and Male Candidates
Traits Radičová Gašparovič
Female traits 55.3% 22.2%
Male traits 29.8% 48.9%
Neutral traits 14.9% 28.9%
31 Independently of for which candidate it was used.
32 Independently of for which candidate it was used.
33 Independently of for which candidate it was used.
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4.8. Tone of the coverage
The last research question was dedicated to see whether there was a gender bias in the tone of the coverage:
RQ7: Is there a difference in the tone of coverage of male and female candidates?
This study fails to demonstrate that female candidate is covered in more negative way.
Against the expectations, the male candidate was covered more often in negative or mixed tone than female candidate. The male candidate was covered in negative tone in 33 articles, and in mixed tone in 36 articles. On the other hand, the female candidate was covered in negative tone in 8 articles and in mixed tone in 22 articles.
Iveta Radičová was covered in neutral tone in 51.4% of all the articles and Ivan Gašparovič in 46.8% of all the articles. Gašparovič had more coverage in negative and mixed tone than Radičová. Consequently female candidate had more articles covering her in positive tone. There were 17 articles written in positive tone for female candidate and one article covering Ivan Gašparovič in positive tone (see Table 6).
Table 6: Tone of Coverage of Male and Female Candidate
Tone Radičová Gašparovič
Positive 9.8% 0.6%
Neutral 51.4% 46.8%
mixed 12.7% 20.8%
Negative 4.6% 19.1%
articles not about candidate 21.4% 12.7%
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This study also observed and compared the tone of the headlines. For the headlines with female candidate`s name in it, more than half are neutral, and 14% are positive. One fifth is covered in mixed tone and 14% were categorized as negative tone. For male candidate there are fewer headlines in positive and neutral tone and more headlines in negative and mixed tone, the difference is smaller than when comparing the tone of the article (Table 7).
Table 7: Tone of the Headline for the Candidates
Tone Candidate
Radičová Gašparovič
Positive 14% 15.7%
Neutral 52% 35.3%
Mixed 20% 27.5%
negative 14% 21.6%
4.9 Differences between rounds
4.9 Differences between rounds