Politicans in Media
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2. The representation of female politicians in the media:
There are many stereotypical aspects that are drawn to the attention of the public when the media is talking about female politicians. In various studies that have been constructed in order to study the issue of female politicians represented in the media, most studies show that a female politician will gain public support when dealing with stereotypical issues like healthcare, education and charitable work, and not if there are focused on crime and foreign policy for example because that is usually the male politicians job. While female politicians are much less than male politicians the media also plays a strong role in affecting this issue if it wanted to. Kahn and Goldenberg talk about how the media effected the campaigns of female senate candidates when compared to their competing males, and how media plays a strong role in shaping the voters vote; ” one explanation which has yet to receive any attention is that the news media may play a role in influencing the success of female candidates. Recent studies clarify the powerful role the news media can play in campaigns” (Kahn, K., & Goldenberg, E. N. 1991).
And the facts that news channels and newspapers will prefer to focus on male candidates, as typically politicians are more likely to be male. Iversen and Rosenbluth talked about the relationship between female MPs from the Labor force and how females are represented in politics and gave us a reason for ill- representation; “The reason is to be found in the kind of human capital investment that political careers presuppose and that men are in a better position to undertake. Because political systems differ systematically in terms of the type of human capital needed for effective representation, we should expect males and females to be elected into office at different rates under different systems. It is not that voters discriminate against female candidates per se. Rather, fewer female than male candidates are likely to be able to invest in political capital during the early stages of their careers because of females disproportionate likelihood to undertake caring roles at home that interrupt their careers” (Iversen, T., & Rosenbluth, F. 2008).
While female politicians are ill-represented in the media, the wife of a male politician is strongly represented in the media. Look at Michel Obama today,