A new study has revealed three quarters of Australian STEM stories quoted male experts, prompting experts to call for urgent change.
Researchers sampled a range of stories published in Australia between 2018–2022 involving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics topics, to identify who was directly and indirectly quoted as STEM experts.
The research found male journalists were more likely to quote male experts and vice versa for female journalists.
While the number of female experts quoted did increase from 20 per cent to 45 per cent since 2020, men were still over-represented, even in female-dominated fields such as health and environmental sciences.
Astrophysicist and lecturer at Curtin University Kat Ross says the statistics are depressing, but not surprising.
“Unfortunately, I think there’s still this unconscious bias that leads people to question whether women are actually experts. That bleeds into the types of experts that are being sought out for stories.”
Dr Kat Ross, astrophysicist
Dr Ross says this kind of coverage perpetuates the idea of a ‘typical’ scientist.
“I’m an astrophysicist with an expertise on black holes, but most of the time I’m asked for my expertise on work in science education and women in the media,” she says.
“There’s this dichotomy of wanting to speak about black holes but actually being sought out for expertise in science education.”
Associate professor of gender and inclusive leadership at Curtin University Samantha Owen says media coverage has a significant impact on how roles in STEM for women are perceived.
“Men who are journalists are looking for other men because their vision and their idea of a scientist or someone in the STEM field is a man — that really typical figure of a man in a lab coat, singular, in the lab doing all of the work by himself,” she says.
“The media has both a role and a responsibility to ensure they are representing people in all roles so that people can see themselves in those roles.”
Dr Samantha Owen, gender and inclusive leadership expert
Curtin University Associate Professor of journalism Kathryn Shine is happy to see an increase in the amount of women being included in science stories, but finds it concerning men are being over represented in female dominated-areas, such as health and environmental sciences.
“Historically, arguments have been made that women aren’t being quoted because they’re just not actually in those workforces but clearly that argument can’t be made in these kinds of cases,” she says.
Dr Shine says time-poor journalists will often contact experts who are more likely to say yes to an interview.
She says the onus is on journalists to provide more support to under-represented sources to make the experience less intimidating.
“My research has shown that women are generally very willing to do media interviews. They have some reservations about it, but they want to do it.”
Dr Kathryn Shine, journalism expert
Dr Shine believes DEI targets would go a long way to addressing the problem, with organisations including the ABC and BBC seeing a vast improvement in on-air representation.
“When media organisations have gone to their audiences and asked for their response to coverage that includes more perspectives or more voices, the people in the audience have noticed the difference and they like it,” she says.
“It makes good sense from the perspective of trying to connect with your audiences, as well as increasing the pool of people who are actually participating in the news and contributing to those debates.”
Dr Kathryn Shine explains how journalists can support under-represented talent. Video: Anna Van Gent.