Who Talks? Shares the Truth In the Numbers: Women's Voices in the 2016 Presidential Election
Turn on cable news at any hour of the day and night and someone is blathering, or more politely, telling us what to think about the 2016 presidential campaign. Most of those “someones” are men: smart men, not so smart men, Democratic men, Republican men, consultants, authors, etc.
Today GenderAvenger launches Who Talks?
Today GenderAvenger launches Who Talks?, a project of GenderAvenger.com in partnership with Rutgers University Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) and the Women’s Media Center. Who Talks? will monitor, collect data, and analyze the gender balance of pundits who appear on the highest-rated morning and evening cable shows.
True to its mission to ensure women are always part of the public dialog, GenderAvenger will start with the facts and shout in our collective voice not only at the TV screen but also through social media and email to let the program decision makers know that excluding women’s voices from these discussions is not acceptable.
Who Talks? goes beyond tracking just how many on-screen pundits are women or men. Take a look at how often women and men are featured during each show. Were women in most of the conversations or just some of them?
Here is what happened last week:
Let’s show off Anderson Cooper's good work and encourage the others to catch up, and let’s be sure that everyone else knows that they need to do better, that women are important to the conversation about presidential politics. Women bring unique perspectives on the rough and tumble language of the campaign, on campaign issues, and on just about everything campaign-related.
Remember when Morning Joe’s gender balance improved after the GenderAvenger mini-campaign, including a petition, called on the show to do so? Given the current numbers, clearly we can’t let up. That is why we will publish the results for all six shows on a weekly basis throughout the election season, and, if the shows improve, we will be sure to give them a shout out.
There is time to make change and you are the key to making it happen. Start now. Send the message and share this data today.
Come back next week and the week after that to keep up the drumbeat. We can change the face of who does the talking with the power of Who Talks?
What is Who Talks?
Who Talks? monitors the highest-rated morning and evening shows on three major television news networks: CNN, FOX, and MSNBC. Any guest who is not the host (or substitute host) and is asked to comment substantively on the 2016 presidential election is counted as an analyst. We count the total number of election analysts of each gender in each show and then compare aggregate numbers and proportional representation. Data is published monthly.