Tone of the coverage

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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

After the female candidate passed to the second round of the elections with more support than expected, there was a possibility of media covering the female candidate differently in the second round. The question related to this was as followed:

RQ8: Is there a difference in female candidate`s coverage between the first and the second round?

Even though the overall number of the articles was almost equal in the first and the second round, there was a difference between the first and the second round in the number of articles talking about female candidate. In the second round there was an increase of 64% for articles talking mostly or only about female candidate.

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For gendered coverage, there was a difference between the first and second round for female candidate in two categories: candidate`s gender mentioned and number of sentences about candidate`s partner.

For the category direct mentions of candidate`s gender, 36.5% of direct mentions of gender occurred in the first round, and in the second round it was 63.5%. Female candidate was covered in more gendered way in the second round of the campaign.

For the category number of sentences about candidate`s spouse or partner, the result is opposite. The majority (84%) of mentions of female`s partner or spouse occurred in the first round.

For female candidate there is an increase of forty two percent in horse-race coverage in the second round. Before the first round of elections, the female candidate had majority of the coverage as competitive, competitive but behind or noncompetitive, sure loser, less than forty percent covered the female as competitive but gaining ground or likely winner. After her success in the first round, the coverage was comprised from 34.8% as competitive, competitive but behind or noncompetitive, sure loser, and 65.2% as competitive but gaining ground or likely winner.

As for male candidate, the situation is opposing. During the period before the first round, his coverage contained three quarters of coverage as likely winner, and one quarter of likely winner, but loosing ground. After the first round this changed to one quarter of coverage as likely winner and three quarters of likely winner but loosing ground, competitive but losing ground, competitive or sure loser. Because the content of horse-race coverage copies the situation during the election, it cannot be attributed to gender differences.

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In terms of coverage of candidates` qualifications, both candidates have more coverage of qualifications during the first round, during the second round the coverage of their qualifications decreased approximately 33% for both candidates.

As far as the tone of coverage, female candidate had different results in tone of coverage between rounds. In the second round, she had more positive and less mixed and negative articles.

Ivan Gašparovič, opposingly, had more negative and mixed tone articles in the second round.

4.10 Summary

After reviewing all the results for the research questions, it can be summarized that there were no gender bias in terms of candidates` viability, issue coverage and tone of coverage in Slovak media during the presidential elections in 2009.

On the other hand, there were gender differences found in categories of gendered coverage, concretely on physical appearance, information on candidates` partner or spouse and direct mentions of candidate‘s gender. The remaining categories of gendered coverage were not often mentioned in Slovak media.

Similarly, this study found a gender bias in the quantity and prominence of coverage. The Slovak media in general, covered female candidate less frequently, and the difference is even more obvious for articles focusing on only male and only female candidates. There were three times more articles for only male candidate. The coverage of the female candidate was less prominent in terms of articles located on the front page. Moreover female candidate didn`t have any article focused only on female candidate on the front page. There was no difference found in candidates` name in the headline, and picture of candidate attached to the article.

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Next category showing gender bias is the category of personal traits used to describe the candidates. There is a strong evidence that female candidate was more likely to be described using so called female traits, while male candidate was more likely described by Slovak media using so called male traits.

Since this is the first study inquiring about gender biased coverage of female candidates, or female politicians in Slovak media, there are no past studies to compare these results with, and see whether there have been any improvements or change.

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