Expert voices in Australian science news coverage are still more likely to be those of men, according to recent research, despite journalists themselves being fairly evenly spread between genders.
Our study of print and online science news from 2018–22 found an increase in the proportion of female journalists writing about science. The number of women quoted in science news also increased in comparison to earlier studies, from 20% to 45%.
Our data also shows a relationship between the gender of journalists and sources: male journalists are more likely to quote male experts, and female journalists more likely to quote female experts. This is consistent with earlier findings.
