Gender biases and linguistic sexism in political communication: A comparison of press news about men and women Italian ministers
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Sensales, Gilda
Areni, Alessandra
Abstract / Description
This research on press communication uses a synchronic perspective concerning eighteen ministers, balanced by gender, in the Renzi government (in 2014), as well as a diachronic perspective concerning women ministers from five governments (from 2006-2014). The governments in 2014 and of 2013 were predominantly center-left, with the participation of center and center-right parties, whereas the previous governments had technical-professional rather than political ministers (in 2011), center-right (in 2008), and center-left (in 2006) ministers. In the synchronic analysis we explored the different ways in which the ministers are named, the relative presence of sexist/non-sexist, agentive/non-agentive, and abstract/concrete language in which they were presented. The first analysis comprised 332 headlines and the second comprised 1,356 headlines; we conducted a numerical and lexicographical analysis on the headlines. The results showed: more coverage for men than for women; gender biases in naming ministers involving a greater number of citations of women with both first and last name, whereas there were a greater number of citations of men with their first name only; the prevalence of sexist language that uses the generic masculine rather than the specific feminine (that is, the grammatical feminization of a typically masculine form) in representing women; an increment of the specific feminine in representing women in the last three governments over the previous two; no gender differences in the use of “I” and “We” as markers of agency; more quotations of direct discourse for women than for men; language slightly more abstract than concrete, for both men and women; more positive adjectives for women, and more negative adjectives for men. The results are discussed in relation to the international literature and to the Italian cultural-political context.
Keyword(s)
political communication gender biases in journalistic coverage linguistic sexism agentive language pronominal forms linguistic category model lexicographical analysis comunicazione politica biases di genere nella copertura giornalistica sessismo linguistico linguaggio agentivo forme pronominali modello delle categorie linguistiche analisi lessicograficaPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2017-12-07
Journal title
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
Volume
5
Issue
2
Page numbers
512–536
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Sensales, G., & Areni, A. (2017). Gender biases and linguistic sexism in political communication: A comparison of press news about men and women Italian ministers. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 5(2), 512–536. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v5i2.721
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Sensales, Gilda
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Areni, Alessandra
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2018-11-26T12:45:28Z
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Made available on2018-11-26T12:45:28Z
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Date of first publication2017-12-07
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Abstract / DescriptionThis research on press communication uses a synchronic perspective concerning eighteen ministers, balanced by gender, in the Renzi government (in 2014), as well as a diachronic perspective concerning women ministers from five governments (from 2006-2014). The governments in 2014 and of 2013 were predominantly center-left, with the participation of center and center-right parties, whereas the previous governments had technical-professional rather than political ministers (in 2011), center-right (in 2008), and center-left (in 2006) ministers. In the synchronic analysis we explored the different ways in which the ministers are named, the relative presence of sexist/non-sexist, agentive/non-agentive, and abstract/concrete language in which they were presented. The first analysis comprised 332 headlines and the second comprised 1,356 headlines; we conducted a numerical and lexicographical analysis on the headlines. The results showed: more coverage for men than for women; gender biases in naming ministers involving a greater number of citations of women with both first and last name, whereas there were a greater number of citations of men with their first name only; the prevalence of sexist language that uses the generic masculine rather than the specific feminine (that is, the grammatical feminization of a typically masculine form) in representing women; an increment of the specific feminine in representing women in the last three governments over the previous two; no gender differences in the use of “I” and “We” as markers of agency; more quotations of direct discourse for women than for men; language slightly more abstract than concrete, for both men and women; more positive adjectives for women, and more negative adjectives for men. The results are discussed in relation to the international literature and to the Italian cultural-political context.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationSensales, G., & Areni, A. (2017). Gender biases and linguistic sexism in political communication: A comparison of press news about men and women Italian ministers. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 5(2), 512–536. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v5i2.721en_US
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ISSN2195-3325
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1446
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1795
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v5i2.721
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Keyword(s)political communicationen_US
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Keyword(s)gender biases in journalistic coverageen_US
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Keyword(s)linguistic sexismen_US
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Keyword(s)agentive languageen_US
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Keyword(s)pronominal formsen_US
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Keyword(s)linguistic category modelen_US
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Keyword(s)lexicographical analysisen_US
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Keyword(s)comunicazione politicait_IT
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Keyword(s)biases di genere nella copertura giornalisticait_IT
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Keyword(s)sessismo linguisticoit_IT
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Keyword(s)linguaggio agentivoit_IT
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Keyword(s)forme pronominaliit_IT
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Keyword(s)modello delle categorie linguisticheit_IT
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Keyword(s)analisi lessicograficait_IT
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleGender biases and linguistic sexism in political communication: A comparison of press news about men and women Italian ministersen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue2
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Journal titleJournal of Social and Political Psychology
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Page numbers512–536
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Volume5
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Visible tag(s)Version of Record