Physical Appearance Barriers

In addition to being underrepresented in hard news categories, women also have the pressure to maintain their physical appearance. Unlike men, women are not allowed to age gracefully on screen. They must continue looking young and attractive in order to appeal to viewers. The sexualization of women at the expense of their intellectual capacities if a larger social dynamic that has found its way into the media field. Women in our society are held to certain beauty standards and women who want to gain credibility as journalist have to cope with societal expectations of appearance. Ferri and Kelley (1986) studied the career perceptions of women anchors and found that there was: an overemphasis placed on physical appearance, which led to differential treatment in the hiring process based on their sex. They concluded that women news anchors were evaluated differently than men. Women were judged on their appearance while men were judged more for their work and skills.

News Anchors Natalie Morales and Savannah Guthrie on NBC's Today Show.

The Goal of the Blog

This blog will attempt to answer the question: What career barriers do women reporter face on television news? Television news is extremely influential and has become a main source of information for many people. There are two types of news stories, soft news and hard news. Soft news typically includes topics such as human interests stories, entertainment, and education. Hard news consists of politics, war, and economics. Typically, women are seen reporting the softs new, while men report the hard news, but why is that? Is it psychologically more appealing to viewers to see a woman reporter covering stories about education, while a man covering politics is more credible? It is believed that network choose men and women to represent different types of news stories, and through research and analysis, this blog will shed light on the barriers women news anchors face.

This is a research project being conducted by 3 students in COMM111 at the University of Michigan in the Communication Department.

University of Michigan Communication Department Website
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/comm