Among academic scholars in the United States, research led by women often gets less media attention than research led by men, according to a new study from scholars at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
To examine how corresponding authors’ gender relates to scientific media coverage, the authors analyzed 1 million papers authored by U.S.-based scholars with 1.2 million media citations. Overall, women-led papers are cited less frequently in media coverage than men-led papers. However, women’s research is more likely to be featured if it’s in a field where women are underrepresented, rather than in more gender-balanced fields.
Among different outlets, women’s research is less likely to appear in national outlets than local outlets and more likely to be featured in liberal-leaning outlets than conservative-leaning publications. Furthermore, men-led papers are more likely to be associated with positive sentiment in news text, while women-led research is more likely to be viewed negatively.