A Personalized Self-image: Gender and Branding Practices Among Journalists

Abstract

As the field of journalism becomes increasingly unrecognizable, the messages that identify the journalist, their work, and their affiliations are of increasing importance. This study envisions journalism and social media both as gendered spaces and examines their intersection as the setting of much of journalists’ branding work. In this setting, gender’s influence on the extent, style, and target of journalists’ branding efforts is examined using data from two different datasets (content analysis and survey). The findings suggest that female journalists take a more personalized approach by speaking about themselves in their profiles and their tweets and focusing more resources and attention on their individual brands. This suggests that female journalists are not well served by male-dominated news organizations and therefore turn to a more personalized self-image in their branding efforts. This understanding is particularly important as societies and newsrooms both work toward a more inclusive, egalitarian future.