Gender in Australian science news

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.