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One of the Most Pointless Covid19 Headlines?

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westv

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Almost three times as many male as female experts featured on the UK’s flagship TV and radio news programmes in March as the media focused on the political handling of the coronavirus outbreak across Britain.

Research focused on the makeup of experts appearing on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, BBC News At Ten, ITV News at Ten, Kay Burley’s breakfast show on Sky News, Channel 4 News and Channel 5 News found an imbalance of 2.7 men for every female expert.

The imbalance represents a three-year high, according to data gathered by the Expert Women project (EWP) from City, University of London.

I'm not saying such things aren't important but there has to be a proper sense of perspective.
 
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scotrail158713

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BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, BBC News At Ten, ITV News at Ten, Kay Burley’s breakfast show on Sky News, Channel 4 News and Channel 5 News
Conveniently left out BBC Breakfast (which has a 50:50 split)
 

CaptainHaddock

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Only in The Guardian... Cloud cuckoo land.

I often while away quiet times perusing the opinion pieces in the Guardian and it's hilarious just how much identity politics there is in there. Every time there's a major issue affecting the public there's a plethora of articles about how it will hit women/ethnic minorities/poor people/the disabled/gays the hardest and it's the same with the coronavirus.

Here's a couple of examples;

"As the lockdown bites, it's women who are taking the strain"


"Coronavirus exposes how riddled Britain is with racial inequality"


"Coronavirus hits ill and disabled people hardest"

 

pdeaves

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I'm not saying such things aren't important but there has to be a proper sense of perspective.
Does the balance reflect the actual number of experts each way in the field? If not, there should be more of one or the other to reflect that balance.

Does the balance reflect the actual number of experts each way prepared to speak on the news? If not, there should be more of one or the other to reflect that balance.

However many experts appear, there will be some way of manipulating the figures to suit an agenda. Maybe change the time period under review, or the number of words spoken, or the number of seconds air time, or a plethora of other measurements.
 

VauxhallandI

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It is annoying but harmless in comparison to the hate inducing antics of the other end of the crazy paper world.
 

Esker-pades

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I often while away quiet times perusing the opinion pieces in the Guardian and it's hilarious just how much identity politics there is in there. Every time there's a major issue affecting the public there's a plethora of articles about how it will hit women/ethnic minorities/poor people/the disabled/gays the hardest and it's the same with the coronavirus.

Here's a couple of examples;









Heaven forbid that some people express some evidence-based opinions.
 

scotrail158713

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Including it wouldn't suddenly change the statistics down to 1:1.
It won’t, but the article implies that all the main TV news programmes are dominated by men. Which evidently is not true, as Breakfast is definitely one of the main programmes.
 

Ianno87

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I often while away quiet times perusing the opinion pieces in the Guardian and it's hilarious just how much identity politics there is in there. Every time there's a major issue affecting the public there's a plethora of articles about how it will hit women/ethnic minorities/poor people/the disabled/gays the hardest and it's the same with the coronavirus.

Here's a couple of examples;










Can we please at least avoid labels you use like "the disabled"....?
 

theblackwatch

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Maybe someone should do some analysis of the Guardian itself and see what the balance/imbalance of their columnists/reporters/expert analysts is?
 

Esker-pades

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Corona worldwide is killing more men than women so yes there is imbalance which the Guardian seems to avoid.
March 26th:
"Men are much more likely to die from coronavirus - but why?"

April 7th:
"Coronavirus hits men harder. Here's what scientists know about it"
 

HH

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They need a better headline writer - "Deadlier for the male".
 

Bayum

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I mean, does it not appear strange to any of you that no women in any of the roles the interviewed men are in were available at all?
 

HH

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No, it was CaptainHaddock.

I don't know the Guardian that well, but I think there are a couple of phrases in that quote which they would generally avoid using.
Follow the link and you'll see it's the Guardian with regard to the word disabled.

I mean, does it not appear strange to any of you that no women in any of the roles the interviewed men are in were available at all?
Go and see the make up of SAGE, which has been published today.
 

Esker-pades

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oops my bad sorry.

However - this bit is unfair as it takes the ultimate toll more on men
More men die, but women are more affected by redundencies/furloughing and increased domestic pressure. Those two positions are not inconsisent.
 

HH

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It's only some of the members isn't it?
My point is that although there are quite a number of women in the group, there is a noticeably higher number of men.
 

kieron

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Follow the link and you'll see it's the Guardian with regard to the word disabled.
I don't think the word "disabled" was what attracted Ianno87's attention.

For the Guardian's take on the terminology, their style guide is on their web site. You would need to search for things, though, as there doesn't seem to be any way to link to a specific term on the (rather long) pages within it.
 

HH

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I don't think the word "disabled" was what attracted Ianno87's attention.
It's strange then that he specifically pointed out that word.

I guess everyone has words that trigger responses, but they're not always the same as the next person's.
 

Darandio

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kieron

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Do those that are affected really care about semantics?
I think it may be like the "no brown M&M" thing. If you use an old-fashioned term when referring to people in a disadvantaged group, people are more likely to worry that other aspects of your attitude towards people in this group are also old-fashioned in some way.

If anyone's interested, by the way, the BBC covered the story which started the thread on Woman's Hour today.
 
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