Covering Public Officials: Gender and Privacy Issue Differences

Abstract

This article reports the results of two national studies of daily newspaper newsroom managers and their views about coverage of the private lives of politicians and political candidates. The data were collected in 1993 and 1999. The focus of this analysis is on differences between male and female newsroom managers. Studies in both years found some statistical differences between male and female editors, but on different variables from study to study. Overall results, however, found no broad support for the premise that gender shades news judgment on privacy-related matters. In the 1999 study, significant differences were found on issues related to candidate's extramarital affairs and sexual harassment, variables for which men and women arguably have different perspectives.