Strength v.s. Smile: A Student Journalist Perspective on the Future of Gender-Biased TV Media

The 2024 presidential election was one of high stakes, energy, anxiety and excitement. It was also a second crack at electing a female president and breaking one of the longest-standing glass ceilings in American political history. 

Throughout this eventful year, many Americans turned to their TVs to learn about the issues and the candidates in the election. From 2020 to 2024, 64% of Americans said they get their news from TV in some capacity, with 32% saying they often get their news from TV. Compared to the 11% from radio and 7% from printed newspapers or magazines, TV media is clearly the top source of news for the majority of Americans. 

Gina Montagna—a fourth-year student journalist and political science and creative writing double-major at the University of Chicago—said that, overall, “news media does not cover enough about candidates and their political beliefs and the policies they are backing,” especially when it comes to female candidates. 

Montagna worked as an intern at ABC News during the Democratic National Convention in 2024 and after this experience found that “news media [can] really play a significant role in helping people break down what is going on in DC.” However, that power can sometimes be misused, affecting how the public views candidates of different genders. 

A research group at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications analyzed this trend through 600 news articles and 450 press releases during the 2020 presidential primaries. They found that men are more likely to be called “honest, courageous, persistent, independent, and aggressive,” while descriptions of women focused on their physical appearance more than anything. Montagna observes that in media coverage, word choice is key. “Some verbs have certain tones and are charged with certain meanings,” she says. 

Her observations and the trends found by the University of Florida group were reflected in the PBS coverage of the DNC and the RNC. Throughout the coverage of both conventions, the words describing Harris were often softer or casual than the ones describing Trump. Harris was “joyous” and “enthusiastic,” while Trump was “strong” and carried “authority.” 

While Harris’ and Trump’s personalities could account for these different descriptors, there were many moments during both conventions where PBS Newshour coverage described similar actions completely differently. Both candidates were received well by the delegates when they first entered their conventions. President Trump, however, was met with “thunderous applause” while Vice President Harris entered into her “pep rally.” Montagna described the DNC as “electric,” and she believes that mood had a much more confident energy than the PBS news broadcast mentioned. 

Throughout the DNC, Vice President Harris was described as extremely “sympathetic” and “empathetic,” while President Trump was consistently called “defiant,” “strong” and “confident” during the RNC. For Montagna, this discrepancy is ironic given how confident and defiant Harris actually was throughout her convention. 

PBS is public media and very truthful or “down the line” as Montagna describes, yet it is still guilty of perpetrating biased views of men and women. Montagna describes NBC news, a left-leaning source, in a similar way and they are also not free from fault in this case. 

In a breaking-news broadcast about Nikki Haley’s controversial decision to stay in the 2024 race, NBC focused their coverage of Haley on the portions of her speeches where she spoke about her husband and her family, shedding no light on her policy ideas or her executive experience. Throughout the broadcast, she was characterized as “emotional,” “human” and “squishy” more often than she was “former Governor of South Carolina.” 

Fox News, a right-leaning source, also had several instances of portraying bias among candidates based on their gender. Granted, President Joe Biden and Governor Nikki Haley are very different candidates with different career histories, but the disparities in how they were described in the media are substantial. In the weeks between the first presidential debate and him dropping out, Biden was broadly characterized as unfit to be president. However, when he dropped out, Fox News made sure to mention Biden’s “active, selfless devotion” to the country. They did say that Biden was “old” and that his mental fitness was waning, but the focus was more on celebrating his service and his character. 

Similarly to Biden, Haley stayed in the race long after Republican voters thought she should. When she dropped out, Fox News immediately described her as “disingenuous” and “flimsy.” A couple days after the announcement, Fox ran a panel where six anchors discussed for five minutes how Haley’s attitude towards President Trump was clearly a “ploy” for a VP position. According to Fox News, when Biden dropped out, it was a smart and tactical decision that benefitted the party, whereas Haley dropped out and was immediately accused of ‘negotiating’ with Trump. Montagna says that this is typical of Fox News, saying that “they focus a lot on superficial aspects” 

“Women running for office may not have their policy agendas represented with the same level of importance or without irrelevant mentions of their looks and gender,” says Rachel Wayne, a writer and anthropologist who summarized the findings of the University of Florida study. Montagna agrees: “It’s gotten worse,” she says. “People are less scared to voice their mean, rude, outlandish opinions that have nothing to do with the policy that they disagree with or a certain political standpoint.” 

These lopsided descriptions projected on national TV to a large portion of Americans on a daily basis have the potential to change how the electorate views female and male candidates before their policies are even discussed. Gender bias is a huge issue in American politics and it can be improved or it can be exacerbated by TV media. 

This image featured in this article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. No changes were made to the original image, which was taken by Lorie Shaull and can be found here.