Gender and mediatized political discourse: a case study of press coverage of Margaret Beckett's campaign for the Labour leadership in 1994

Abstract

Drawing upon the work of the philosopher Carole Pateman and the critical discourse analyst Norman Fairclough, this article will argue that fraternal networks operate within and between the institutional order of masculinist political discourse and the equally masculinist discourse of the print media, marginalizing female political actors. It will be argued further that the colonization of mediatized political discourse by market values has had a particularly detrimental effect on the representation of female politicians. A comparative analysis of press coverage of the three candidates in the 1994 British Labour leadership campaign reveals a distinct gender bias in the way in which they were treated. This is evident at the metadiscursive level in terms of patterns of discourse representation which suggest that the fraternity of media workers address an ideal reader who is gendered as male. The dominant metaphors and collocations used to describe Margaret Beckett's qualities as a potential party leader in both the national tabloids and broadsheets reveal the extent to which the genre of the political interview in particular, and news narratives in general, are premised on masculinist assumptions. There are, however, contradictory tendencies. For instance, much of the coverage addresses the issue of overt gender bias, while at the same time reproducing it in more covert forms. The case study needs to be seen in the broader context of systematic and sustained negative coverage in the media of feminist strategies aimed at challenging patriarchal practices in British party politics.