Gender in local television news presentation: An analysis of TV news markets in the US Northwest

Television news anchors and reporters have become trusted guests in American households. An important factor regarding television news presentations is who presents the news to the audience, whether as an anchor or reporter. This study compared large and small market newscasts to explore connections or variations between markets regarding gender representation as news personalities in the northwest region of the US. Two specific research questions were developed to guide this study and three hypotheses were formed based on findings significant to recent research. Using a content analysis to analyse 119 news stories and packages from a total of 397 samples from 26 newscasts, this study's results from the northwest indicate no significant difference between female and male news reporters in presenting both soft and hard news stories. Our results reveal no gender-vertical segregation - males and females more frequently present news stories that do not stereotypically match their gender.