2026/04/13 by Merryn McKinnon, T.H. Clark, Abby Hodges +8 · 1 voice
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Diversity (politics) #Gender diversity #Gender identity #Media, Gender, and Advertising #Period (music) #Science Education and Perceptions #Theme (computing) #Women in science
paper · pdf · doi:10.22323/172920260106014558
openalex publication_date 2026/04/13 · openalex created_date 2026/04/14 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
This paper explores gender representations in Australian print and online science news over a period of five years. Using a constructed year method, stories relating to any science, technology, engineering, mathematics or health and medicine related theme were collected and analysed to better understand who writes and speaks about these topics. In contrast to earlier studies, the findings show near gender parity of journalists and a higher proportion of women used as direct sources. However, men were still more frequently used as direct sources, even in disciplines dominated by women. Journalist gender does appear to relate to the source gender. This paper proposes actions that journalists, organisations and science communicators can take to increase the diversity of sources presented in science news, recognising that gender is only one small part of the picture and future explorations should adopt an intersectional lens.