Using Sex to Get the Story: Testing Reliability and Validity of a Scale Measuring a Sexist Stereotype of Female Reporters

ABSTRACT

Prejudicial behaviors toward female journalists are on the rise, yet few instruments are available to measure stereotyping of female journalists. The present work validates a new scale for measuring the prominent sexual stereotype that female journalists have sex with their sources using exploratory (N = 561) and confirmatory factor analysis (N = 580). Results reveal that the proposed scale has a reliable and replicable factor structure that is distinct from measures of sexism and journalist mistrust, attesting to concurrent and discriminant validity. The proposed scale also negatively predicts the credibility of news written by women, which demonstrates predictive validity. Theoretical and practical implications of these results for journalism studies is discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

^1. Although not intended by the authors, Horowitz is an Ashkenazi Jewish surname.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

T. Franklin Waddell

T. Franklin Waddell (Ph.D., Penn State) is an associate professor in the College of Journalism and Communication at the University of Florida. His research addresses emerging technological and ethical issues at the intersection of journalism and online storytelling

Jessica Sparks

Jessica Sparks is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Florida. Her research interests include the role of journalism in democracy, news credibility, news trust, political journalism and government transparency. Jessica has more than a decade of local news reporting experience in addition to her work as a researcher.

Chelsea Moss

Chelsea E. Moss (Ph.D., University of Florida) is an incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Media at Samford University. Her research lies at the intersection of media and family as she studies how families are portrayed in media and how family members discuss their media consumption.