By Jess McCabe | 23 May 2005, 21:37

Women are cited far less frequently than men in news stories, a report out today reveals.

The study, by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, surveyed nearly 17,000 news reports from all types of media excluding radio, magazines and local TV stations. It found that women were quoted in 33% of news stories, while men were quoted in 76% of stories.

Once more, reporters were more than three times as likely to cite two or more men within a news story as to cite a comparable number of women
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The study, as reported in Newsday.com is about America, but speaking from personal experience I’m sure the same is true here in the UK.

While power (political, economic, social) resides disproportionately in one section of society, it is only to be expected that this will be reflected in news coverage.

And then there are journalists, who bring their own set of assumptions to the table.

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the think tank which carried out the study, said:”These numbers are really striking. I didn’t expect that women would have made as little progress as these numbers seem to suggest in terms of becoming sources and being references in the news.”