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Gender, Political Leadership and Media Visibility: Globe and Mail Coverage of Conservative Party of Canada Leadership Contests

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2007

Linda Trimble
Linda Trimble
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
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Abstract

Abstract. When women seek the leadership of competitive political parties, does their sex influence their news visibility throughout the campaign? By conducting a content analysis of all Globe and Mail coverage of each of the three Conservative Party of Canada leadership races featuring competitive female contenders—Flora MacDonald in 1976, Kim Campbell in 1993 and Belinda Stronach in 2004—I measured the news visibility of each of the leading male and female candidates. The findings show a relationship between the sex of the leadership candidate and news prominence, as the female contenders were, on the whole, more visible than similarly situated male candidates. However, as the analysis reveals, sex is not the only factor shaping news coverage. I argue that the news value of the party, the nature of the leadership competition, and gendered mediation of individual leadership candidates intersect to determine the amount and prominence of news coverage accorded male and female candidates for party leadership positions.I would like to thank Ph.D. student Laura Way for her diligent work to test intercoder reliability and for collecting the news articles from the 1976 PC leadership race from the Globe and Mail's digital archive.

Résumé. Lorsque les femmes se présentent à la chefferie d'un parti politique important, leur sexe a-t-il une influence, durant la campagne, sur la place qu'on leur accorde dans l'actualité ? J'ai mesuré la présence dans l'actualité des meneurs des trois courses à la chefferie du Parti conservateur du Canada où une femme était candidate – Flora MacDonald en 1976, Kim Campbell en 1993 et Belinda Stronach en 2004 – à partir d'une analyse du contenu de toute la couverture du Globe and Mail pour chacune des campagnes. Les résultats permettent d'établir un lien entre le sexe des candidats et leur présence dans l'actualité, les candidates étant, dans l'ensemble, plus visibles que les candidats dont la situation était par ailleurs comparable. Cependant, l'analyse démontre également que le sexe n'est pas le seul facteur déterminant de la couverture médiatique. Je soutiens que l'importance du parti même dans l'actualité, le style propre à la campagne, ainsi que la représentation genrée de chaque candidat par les médias se recoupent pour déterminer la fréquence et la visibilité de la couverture accordée aux candidats et candidates à la direction d'un parti politique.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , December 2007 , pp. 969 - 993
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

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