A new study has validated a scale for measuring the prominent stereotype that female journalists have sex with their sources. The findings by Frank Waddell, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Journalism associate professor, and doctoral students Jessica Sparks and Chelsea Moss are featured in “Using Sex to Get the Story: Testing Reliability and Validity of a Scale Measuring a Sexist Stereotype of Female Reporters” published in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media on April 8.

In the study, the authors identified the factors that foster hostility toward female journalists and developed and validated a novel scale for measuring a variable that possibly underlies growing hostility toward female journalists, namely, the specific stereotype that female journalists have sex with their sources.

According to the authors, “Collectively, the results of this study across two data sets show that the proposed scale is negatively related to news credibility, has a reliable factor structure that replicates across samples, and is related to, yet also distinct from, hostile sexism, perceptions of female reporter competence, and general distrust of journalists. The proposed scale can be used by scholars interested in measuring a prominent stereotype both found in popular media and experienced by female reporters in real life.”

Posted: April 14, 2024
Category: College News
Tagged as: Chelsea Moss, Frank Waddell, Jessica Sparks, Journalism, Sexual Stereotypes