Trump, Clinton, and the Gendering of Newspaper Discourse About the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election Debates

Abstract

Electoral politics remains a much-gendered sphere, dominated by men political actors and masculine behaviors. Media coverage of politics has often reinforced gendered norms. This article uses qualitative thematic analysis of three U.S. newspapers’ coverage of the 2016 presidential debates between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to explore how the mediated construction of political leaders is gendered. We identify four clear themes in news coverage: performing masculine leadership, debate as violence, emotionality, and transgression. Our findings suggest that media coverage repeatedly framed political debate in masculinist terms, framed the debate using violent rhetoric, focused on the emotional performances of the candidates, and positioned the candidates as insiders or outsiders depending on gender and political experience.

Keywords:

• Gender
• media
• politics
• presidential debates
• violence