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New Zealand's 2020 General Election campaign was unusual, though not unprecedented, in featuring women as both Prime Minister (Jacinda Ardern, Labour) and Leader of the Opposition (Judith Collins, National). To explore the extent to which gender, party and style intersected in their social media positioning, we analysed all posts made on the two Party Leaders' public Facebook pages. We found both quantitative (post frequency and composition, main topic and policy issues, audience reactions) and qualitative differences (tone, presentational style) but importantly, our research suggests that neither woman 'performed' gender in normatively stereotypical ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media are increasingly entrenched in politicians' campaigning. Yet even as they become more ubiquitous, evidence suggests widely used platforms normalize rather than equalize the existing power dynamics of the political landscape. Our study of New Zealand's 2017 general election uses a mixed-method approach including analysis of five Party Leaders' (PLs) public Facebook wall posts, campaign coverage in four newspapers and interviews with Party workers and MPs. Our findings show PLs seldom interact with citizens and mostly use posts to promote campaign information. Citizens are more likely to 'like' a PL's post than share or comment and there are important divergences between Party and media agendas. These findings demonstrate not only the importance of social media for Parties' attempts to control messaging and disrupt journalistic interference, but also highlight that neither Parties nor citizens seem much invested in dialogue. However, understanding which posts excite citizen engagement may help all Parties more effectively promote participatory democracy globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media have an increasingly important place in the lives of citizens, and their potential to expand the reach of communication messages beyond individual networks is attractive to those looking to maximise message efficiency. The influence of Facebook in Obama’s 2008 campaign success galvanised many politicians into taking it seriously as a campaign tool. Our study explored the Facebook wall posts (1148 in total) of New Zealand Members of Parliament (MPs) leading up to the 2011 general election to determine posting behaviours and differences. Among other things, we found that women posted more frequently than men and that Labour MPs posted more than their National counterparts. Additionally, most politicians do not invite dialogue with readers of their posts, rarely get involved in comment threads and mostly take a monologic approach, using Facebook as a way of broadcasting information rather than as a medium enabling two-way flow. In other words, same old, same old. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Feminist news researchers have long argued that in the macho culture of most newsrooms, journalists’ daily decisions about what is newsworthy remain firmly based on masculine news values. As such, issues and topics traditionally seen to be particularly relevant to women tend to be pushed to the margins of the news where the implicit assumption is that they are less important than those which interest men. In so doing, men’s views and voices are privileged over women’s, thereby contributing to the ongoing secondary status of women’s participation as citizens. In this article, we draw upon data we collected from the UK and the Republic of Ireland as part of the larger, 108-country study, which comprised the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). We argue that while there have been some positive improvements in women’s representation as news actors, sources and journalists in the British and Irish news media since the first GMMP day of monitoring in 1995, women’s voices, experiences and expertise continue to be regarded by news industries as less important than those of men. Such a situation undermines and under-reports women’s contribution to social, economic and cultural life and in so doing, diminishes democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There has been much recent discussion about the changing nature of 'the public sphere' with the relatively new genre of reality TV being viewed as a space in which the public can at least perform, if not always engage in meaningful debate. This article considers the perspectives of callers to a political talk show - Election Call - in terms of why they call in, what they think about their interactions with politicians and how they regard the programme's potential to constitute a public sphere. It also looks at the gendered aspects of caller experiences and beliefs in order to tease out whether gender has any influence on the public's practice of politics. Election Call is a BBC production, which has been broadcasting since 1974, going out simultaneously on radio and TV (and the web for 2001), in the days immediately preceding the British general election. I argue that while callers mostly felt very positive about the experience of appearing on the show and having the opportunity to put their point of view, and believed that Election Call fulfils an important democratic function, they were much more negative in their assessment of their interactions with politicians, believing that it continues to be difficult to get a straight answer out of those elected to serve and represent us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifies what viewers thought about the ways in which older age is portrayed. Exploration on the viability theme broadcasting targeted at older audiences; Concern of older viewers on the standards of respect; Relationship between the portrayal of older people and the way older people perceived the portrayal.

Focuses on the non-belief in the existence of a disabled audience for radio whose members have qualitatively different needs to those of non-disabled audiences. Role of radio as a mode of communication; Past studies of media portrayal of disability and disability themes; Examination of an empirically-based audience reception study.

Presents a study pertaining to the characterization of disability by the media. Aims of the study; Methodology used to conduct the study; Discussion of disability in programs; Reference to the film `Forest Gump' starring actor, Tom Hanks.

Opinion. Presents views of the authors on the interaction among women, politics and the news media in Great Britain. Women politicians in Great Britain; Impressions on political reporting; Appearance of women politicians as focus of media attention; Domination of men in the news industry; Competence and skill in foreign relations and economics needed by women politicians.

Unravels the interactions between women, media and politics by considering press reports on Margaret Beckett, the sole woman candidate in the 1994 Labour leadership campaign in Great Britain. Beckett's assumption of Labour leadership; Newspapers' bias for Tony Blair; Positive-negative framing; Tabloids featuring Beckett the woman rather than as Labour Party leader; Recognition by `The Mirror.'