Gender Influence on Newspaper Assessment
Gender is used to describe those social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the relationships between women and men; and girls and boys. Gender gears on what is expected, tolerated, and vetoed in both men and women in a given context. In most societies, responsibilities assigned to men and women differ according to their custom and tradition, activities attributed to, and control over all forms of resources, as well as decision-making encounters.”
The implication is that the roles expected may be socially designed and not innate. Males and females are thus brought up to behave in certain ways, within the roles group or society assigned them. There is in fact a social identity theory that “self-concept is derived from memberships in social groups and categories…and intergroup relationships impact significantly in individual’s self-perception and behaviors”. The individual then imbibes and exhibits other-directed, rather than inner-directed gender roles, to signify all those things someone says or does to disclose boyhood/manhood or girlhood/womanhood.
These gender roles have created social differences and thrown the sexes into social gender cocoons. It would appear that parenting in practically all societies imbibes these socially defined expectations of the genders and inculcate them in the course of nurturing children, thus constituting a vehicle for enculturation.
In effect, how will societal expectations affect newspaper readership by the genders?
What in fact is a newspaper? A newspaper is the easiest way to keep a record of happenings. It’s what you seek when vital information about everything that happened on a certain date in that community and surrounding area. Newspapers are valuable information sources that must be respected.
Historically, newspapers evolved in the 17th Century in Europe. The first recognizable newspaper was Coranto's, a one-page sheet of specific events printed in the English Language in Holland in 1620 and imported to England by British book sellers. Their clients were people eager to learn about continental happenings in Europe. Today, multiple newspapers have surfaced.
There are newspapers of varying qualities, appealing to different interests. In the light of the definition of gender roles which are expectedly different, how will these contrasting characteristics affect how often the genders read newspapers, the type of newspapers they read, and the type of news they seek?
Unlike radio which one could listen to while performing other activities, the newspaper requires full attention. Women whose time is devoted much to caring for others and minding the home may not have sufficient disposable leisure time to spare for the reading of newspapers. Secondly, the fact that they are not expected to be intellectual but to be emotional suggests that even when they read the papers, they are likely to choose those newspapers that are described as light-hearted in approach and format.
Drawing the thesis further, what they read, that is, the choices they make from the papers will also be light. In other words, they will shun pages on analytical features, editorials, corporate business, and the like. They will rather focus on music, emotional stories, and human interest stories.