Style over Substance? A Content Analysis of the Gendered Style of Political Pundits on the "Big Five"

Abstract

It is well known that males dominate politics, both in elected positions and in the media as political pundits (Melber, 2011). Is it the masculine style that is appealing to society? Do popular political pundits (male and female) emulate this masculine style in order to appeal to and persuade their audience? Through a content analysis of the rhetoric of six specified political pundits, it is hypothesized that both males and females are more likely to incorporate masculine styles of rhetoric, and those who display more masculine style traits will be more acceptable to the general audience leading to more airtime and appearances across networks. Through the analysis of the programs' 2013 transcripts, the communicative style of both male and female political pundits of the top five news programs from the big five networks will be studied: ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CBS's Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley, Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, and NBC's Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.