News sourcing and gender on Twitter

Abstract

Traditional news sourcing practices that favor official, male voices have been widely documented over time and across media. But do these patterns persist in today’s social media environment, where women outnumber and spend more time than men? This study explores news sourcing and gender on Twitter by analyzing more than 2700 tweets from reporters at 51 US newspapers. Guided by hegemony and set within the framework of social networking technology, the research examines quoting practices and interaction with sources by gender, beat, newspaper size, and live coverage. The analyzed tweets show a severe underrepresentation of women in quotes, indicating perpetuation of the status quo. The data also suggest a conformity mechanism may be at work in larger newspapers, where female reporters quoted fewer women than their counterparts in smaller news organizations. But at the same time, the research offers evidence that both male and female reporters are using the technology to engage with a more diverse community via @mentions and to share conversations by retweeting those messages to their networks.