614242

research-article2015
JOU0010.1177/1464884915614242JournalismYu

Article

Journalism

Women in ethnic news media

121
The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/1464884915614242
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Sherry S Yu
Temple University, USA

Abstract
The representation of women in so-called mainstream media has been well studied;
however, less is known about this representation in ethnic media, especially in North
America where the ethnic media sector is constantly growing. Ethnic medias unique
news sourcing strategy that is, a mix of news locally produced by local staff writers,
news outsourced from local mainstream media, and news internationally imported from
the country of origin suggests that the underrepresentation of women in mainstream
media can spill over to and be reproduced in ethnic media. A content analysis of Korean
news media in Vancouver and Los Angeles finds an interesting interplay between the
transnational effect and the local effect. That is, while a pervasive influence of mainstream
media from the country of origin is evident (transnational effect), strong female leadership
in the local community and the active roles of these leaders as news sources and actors
contribute positively to overall representation of women (local effect).

Keywords
Ethnic news media, Korean-language media, local effect, representation of women,
transnational effect

Introduction
The role of women in media in general and news media in particular has been studied
widely. One of the leading efforts to study the representation of women in news media in
the past two decades is the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). The most recent
monitoring report (2010) finds that women continue to be underrepresented both as news
subjects and as news producers, and the situation is similar in over 100 participating
countries. What is missing in the discussion, however, is what this representation is like
in ethnic media.

Corresponding author:
Sherry S Yu, Department of Journalism, School of Media and Communication, Temple University, 2020
North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
Email: sherry.yu@temple.edu

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2 Journalism

Understanding the representation of women in ethnic media is important for a number

of reasons. First, ethnic media have been the most rapidly growing media sector around
the globe over the past two decades as a result of continued and intensifying global migra-
tion, advancement of new media technologies, and the influence of transnational politics
and economics. There are approximately 300 ethnic print media outlets in Canada and
3000 broadcasting and print media outlets in the United States (National Ethnic Press and
Media Council of Canada, n.d.; New America Media, n.d.). These media are an important
part of the broader media system as producers and distributors of ethnic discourse, a role
that is critical in multicultural societies for functioning democracy. Indeed, one in four
Americans use ethnic media for their daily news feed (Pew Research Centers Project for
Excellence in Journalism, 2006). Second, gender has been given little attention in the
study of ethnic media. Studies monitor news content across languages; however, the focus
is often on what is in terms of news topics or whether or not certain cultural groups are
represented in general (Lin and Song, 2006; Lindgren, 2011; Murray, Yu and Ahadi, 2007)
rather than women in particular. Finally, and most importantly, ethnic media use unique
news sourcing strategies, in that news presented in ethnic media is a mix of news locally
produced by local staff writers, news outsourced from local mainstream media, and news
internationally imported from the country of origin through content licensing, although
news origin is not always clearly identified (Lin and Song, 2006; Murray etal., 2007). On
average, over 50percent of news output (with a variation by language) consists of news
from external sources, and much of these news is just inserted as is or translated. Thus,
if ethnic medias dependency on mainstream media of the country of origin or country
of settlement is high, it is likely that the underrepresentation of women in the original
source will spill over to and be reproduced in ethnic media. In other words, the influence
of mainstream media can be broad and pervasive.
This study pays careful attention to ethnic medias unique news sourcing strategy and
analyzes ethnic news content by news origin in order to understand the level of contribu-
tion of each source to overall gender representation. Some of the guiding questions include
the following: How does gender representation differ by news origin? Is news produced
by local staff writers any different from news produced by external sources? Is there any
spillover effect on ethnic media from external sources? Considering the continued under-
representation of women in mainstream media, as reported by the GMMP, tracing the
potential influence of mainstream media (both local and transnational from the country of
origin) on ethnic media will help identify the broader impact of mainstream media.
In order to answer these questions, this study analyzes news content in Korean media
in Vancouver and Los Angeles. Korean media provide interesting case study material
for a number of reasons. First, Korean media in Vancouver and Los Angeles are one of
the most rapidly growing media groups. As a monolingual and first-generation domi-
nant diaspora, the dependency on mother-tongue media is high (BC Stats, 2006; Murray
etal., 2007; US Census Bureau, 2010). Second, the Korean media market is highly
competitive, consisting of local immigrant media (locally developed media based on
immigrant capital), branches of transnational media (media conglomerates from Korea
that expand across the national border) in the case of Los Angeles, and multicultural
media (mainstream media that offer multilingual services). These media outlets together
demonstrate an interesting localtransnational dynamic by offering diverse stories and
perspectives by news origin. Third, the Korean communitys attachment to their home

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Yu 3

country as well as home country media sources (both news and entertainment) has
become ever stronger in the past few years as a result of recent regulatory and sociocul-
tural changes in Korea. These changes range from the newly enacted voting rights
granted to overseas Koreans in 2009 (Chung, 2010) to the widespread Korean wave and
the popularity of Korean cultural products in North America.
Finally, during the time of data collection in 2010, Haninhui, the most representative
organization in the Korean diasporic community, was headed by female presidents in both
cities: Eunice Oh of the Korean Society of British Columbia for Fraternity and Culture and
Scarlet Um of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles. Haninhui which literally
means Korean (hanin) organization (hui) is commonly found across North America
where Koreans are concentrated. Indeed, there are over 20 regional Haninhui chapters
across the United States (Kim, 2014). Despite a negative reputation within the community,
owing to constant struggles over political and financial conflicts of interest among mem-
bers, the organization is recognized as the first or official point of access to the Korean
diaspora for both Korean and host governments and for many local interest groups, as
Korean embassies or regional consulate offices often list contact information for Haninhui
on their website, among other reasons. Presidents are elected by registered members of the
organization who are local residents of Korean descent, and citizens or permanent residents
(in the case of Vancouver) in their respective regions. Eunice Oh (20092012) and Scarlet
Um (20082012) were two of the few female presidents in the highly male-dominant
organization and served the longest terms in the organizational history (Korean American
Federation of Los Angeles; Korean Society of British Columbia for Fraternity and Culture,
2012). Their leadership in the community during the time of study adds an interesting
dynamic to the analysis, as to see whether or not female leadership influences gender rep-
resentation in local Korean media in any meaningful way. Additionally, Koreas first
female president, Geun-hye Park (who assumed office in February 2013), adds further
significance to this analysis. Since the sample for this analysis was collected approximately
3years prior to the presidential election, the study offers an important benchmark for future
studies to compare the representation of women in Korean media in general and Korean
ethnic media in particular in the pre- and post-Park period.
The first part of this article will review the literature on gender representation in
media in general and news media in particular. The second part will discuss the main
findings from the analysis of Korean news media in Vancouver and Los Angeles. Gender
representation in news (women as news subjects and news producers) will be thoroughly
discussed. Finally, this article will discuss the interplay of the transnational effect and
the local effect. The former represents the spillover effect from imported news from
Korea, in that the gender representation in the original news source spills over to and is
reproduced in ethnic media. The latter is a local construction of gender produced by local
Korean Canadian/American journalists.

Theoretical considerations
Women in mainstream media
The representation of women in media has been well studied. The analyses focus on both
quantity and quality of representation since it is not only the absolute quantity of women

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4 Journalism

appearing in media that matters but also the ways in which women are represented.
Fleras (2011: 8384) argues that media are gendered. Media are ideologically slanted
toward, by, around, and for men and male realities, and women are constantly rendered
either decorative or invisible blatantly stereotyped as the second sex, whose worth
and value revolved primarily around appearances or relationships in various media
types (television, news, and films).
Such gendered representation in news media has been confirmed by the GMMP
(2010) the worlds largest and longest running longitudinal research and advocacy
initiative on gender in the news media since 1995, involving the participation of 108
countries from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East,
North America, and the Pacific (pp. vivii). The most recent 2010 report finds that only
24percent of news stories from 1281 media monitored globally represented women as
news subjects (up by 3% from 2000) compared to 76percent for men (GMMP, 2010: 7).
North American media are doing slightly better (28%), ranking second after Latin
American media (29%) (GMMP, 2010: 7). What concerns us more is that women are
represented not only less overall but also less in professional categories. Among the 25
occupational categories, women are predominantly represented as homemakers (72%)
and students (54%), while men are represented as scientists (90%), legal professionals
(83%), health professionals (69%), and educators (69%) (GMMP, 2010: 10).
The case of women as news producers (reporters) is better, but only marginally. Women
presented 49percent of the news stories across media types with a slightly higher
appearance in television news (52%) than radio news (45%) (GMMP, 2010: 22). North
American media are performing below average: only 35percent of news is covered by
women, a significant drop from 48percent in 2005 (GMMP, 2010: 22). Incidence of
reporting is much lower: only 37percent of news is reported by women with a slightly
higher representation in television (44%) than radio (37%) and newspapers (33%) (GMMP,
2010: 22). Nevertheless, there is a strong positive relationship between gender of the
reporter and gender of the news subject. Female reporters are more likely to cover women
as news subjects (28%) than their male counterparts (22%) (GMMP, 2010: 24), confirming
once again the importance of a female presence in the newsroom. The Main findings sec-
tion will discuss how all these dimensions women as news subjects and producers, as
well as the relationship between the two play out in the case of Korean media.

Minority women in mainstream media

What does the picture look like when we narrow it down to minority women specifi-
cally? The answer is even more concerning. Minority women tend to be doubly margin-
alized at the intersection of gender and ethnicity. Jiwani and Youngs (2006) frame
analysis of 128 articles on the missing women case in The Vancouver Sun between 2001
and 2006 finds that aboriginal women in Vancouvers Downtown Eastside the poorest
postal code in Canada are marginalized in a hegemonic discourse of violence against
women in general and aboriginal women in particular. Jiwani (2006) further argues in
Discourse of Denial: Mediations of Race, Gender, and Violence that hegemonic dis-
course blames individuals rather than the social structure which constructs what is con-
sidered fitting or accepted.

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Yu 5

The under-/misrepresentation in mainstream media, however, is not only a matter

specific to minority women but minorities in general. A content analysis by Henry and
Tator (2005) confirms how Canadian media continue to marginalize and racialize minor-
ities. The authors argue that racial profiling is inherent in the everyday culture, prac-
tices, and operations of the industry (Henry and Tator, 2005: 35), echoing Jiwanis
findings. Such arguments are also supported by Mahtani and Mountzs (2002) content
analysis on coverage of immigrants in British Columbia in Vancouver and Prince
Georges newspapers between 1995 and 2000. The study finds that representation of
immigrants has become more negative over the years with an increasing association with
criminality. Similar negative representations are pervasive globally. Dunn and Mahtanis
(2001) comparative content analysis of Vancouver and Sydneys media further confirms
under-/misrepresentation of immigrants. The image of bad migrants is perpetuated by
equating urban gentrification with monster homes and religious establishments with
other (Dunn and Mahtani, 2001: 7). Immigrant-concentrated areas are further stigma-
tized with crime and violence by equating other with bad.

Women in ethnic media

Is the representation of women in ethnic media then any better than what is seen in main-
stream media? There is no evidence of this. Ethnic media studies analyze news content
in general (see, for example, Lin and Song, 2006; Lindgren, 2011; Murray etal., 2007)
rather than the representation of gender in particular. For example, Murray etal.s (2007)
content analysis of Vancouvers ethnic (Chinese, Punjabi, and Korean languages) and
mainstream broadcasting and print media finds that ethnic media tend to cover news
content that contributes significantly to immigrants settlement and integration to broader
society, although with a higher emphasis on the news about the country of origin rather
than Canada. This finding is consistent with that of Lin and Songs (2006) study on
Chinese, Hispanic, and Korean newspapers in Los Angeles. These media provide geo-
graphically bound and ethnically and culturally relevant stories, yet again with a higher
emphasis on the news about the country of origin. Similarly, Lindgrens (2011) study on
Ming Pao, the Chinese-language daily newspaper in Toronto, finds that although the
newspaper covers the local Chinese community more than mainstream media do, there
is again a higher emphasis on news about the country of origin. None of these studies,
however, discussed the representation or role of women in ethnic media.
As such, the representation of women in general and minority women in particular in
mainstream media has been well studied. However, the case of ethnic media is unknown.
Ethnic media studies focus predominantly on overall news content with no attention given
to how these media represent women. Therefore, this study attempts to respond to this
blind spot in the research in order to understand how gender is portrayed in ethnic media
analyzed by news origin and identify potential factors that contribute to such practices.

Methodology
A content analysis of Korean news media in Vancouver and Los Angeles was conducted
based on a sample collected in March and April 2010. The method of a constructed

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week was used as it considers cyclic variation of content for different days of the week
and requires that all the different days of the week be represented (Riffe, Aust and Lacy,
1993: 54). A constructed week of 6days from Monday to Saturday generated a total of
1839 news items: 200 news items from Vancouvers 4 Korean news media (3 local dai-
lies and 1 TV news program), and 1639 news items from Los Angeles 14 Korean news
media (7 evening TV news programs, 3 evening radio news programs, and 4 daily
newspapers).
A total of 51 coding protocols or variables (Bulck, 2002: 82) were observed.
Special attention was given to the gender of the following protocols: news source (who
is providing news), news actor (who is being depicted), and news producers (who
present news such as reporters and anchors). These protocols were examined in their
relationship with other variables such as news origin (news produced by staff writers,
news outsourced from local US and Canadian mainstream news media, and news
imported from Korea), source of capital (local immigrant media, transnational media,
and multicultural media), and media type (television, newspaper, and radio) to under-
stand which categories within the variable contribute more or less to gender representa-
tion in particular ways.
Note that for news origin, the news outsourced from local mainstream media or
imported from Korea is news produced by mainstream media of Canada and the United
States (such as CBC, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Canadian Press, and
Associated Press) and Korea (such as KBS, MBC, SBS, The Korea Times, and The
Korea Daily) that is used by ethnic media through content licensing. For news from
Korea, media organizations are affiliated with either headquarters in Korea or Los
Angeles branches (KBS America, MBC America, SBS International, The Korea Times
L.A., and The Korea Daily L.A.). For news from local mainstream media, however, affili-
ation is less clear unless identified in the companys website such as The Korea Times
L.A., which is affiliated with Los Angeles Times (www.koreatimes.com/info/hkib/
hankookilbo). The items from external sources are identified through bylines: for exam-
ple, a reporters name with an email address ending with co.kr denotes imported Korean
sources. For source of capital, immigrant media are locally developed media based on
immigrant capital such as The Vancouver Chosun, The Koreatown Daily, and Radio
Korea, whereas transnational media in the case of Los Angeles are branches of Korean
media conglomerates that expand across the national border, such as KBS America and
The Korea Times L.A. Multicultural media are mainstream media that offer multilingual
services such as Rogers OMNI and KSCI LA18.
The column proportions tests (or z-tests) were conducted to compare column propor-
tions in which the different subscript letter next to the numbers denotes the categories
whose column proportions differ significantly from each other at the 0.05 level.
Conversely, the same subscript letter denotes that the difference is not statistically sig-
nificant. For example, Table 1 compares media by different sources of capital for news
origin. When Vancouvers local immigrant media and multicultural media are com-
pared for the portion of news stories written by staff writers, the different subscript letters
next to local immigrant media (a) and multicultural media (b) denote that the differ-
ence between the two is statistically significant and that local immigrant media tend to
produce more locally by staff writers than multicultural media. On the other hand, for the

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Table 1. News origin by source of capital.

City News origin Total Source of capital

Local immigrant Transnational Multicultural

media media media
Vancouver N 168 134 34
Staff writers 40% 46%a 15%b
Imported from Korea 45% 44%a 50%a
Local Canadian media 9% 5%a 27%b
Local US media 2% 2%a
Other 4% 3%a 9%a
Los Angeles N 1104 356 706 42
Staff writers 57% 64%a 52%b 76%a
Imported from Korea 32% 25%a 38%b
Local Canadian media 0.1% 0.1%a
Local US media 9% 9%a 8%a 24%b
Other 2% 3%a 2%a
Total N 1272 490 706 76
Staff writers 54% 59%a 52%b 49%a,b
Imported from Korea 34% 30%a 38%b 22%a
Local Canadian media 1% 1%a 0.1%b 12%c
Local US media 8% 7%a 8%a 13%a
Other 2% 3%a 2%a 4%a

portions of news imported from Korea, the same subscript letter next to the numbers
for local immigrant and multicultural media (both a) denotes no statistical difference.
Also note that some of the columns such as Vancouvers staff writers (N=23) and
other (N=10) in Table 2 do not have a sizeable enough base (less than a minimum
N=30) to draw a statistically significant comparison. Those with insufficient base are
noted with asterisk (*), and only comparison within the column is meaningful. These
columns were presented nonetheless for the consistency of the VancouverLos Angeles
comparison. The analysis in the Main findings section is based on only those columns
that reached a statistically significant base.
The analysis in the Main findings section also focused on the news items in which
gender has been specified. The portion of these items varies by protocol and city. Overall,
less than half of news items specified the gender of the news source: 39percent in
Vancouver and 29percent in Los Angeles. The gender of the news actor is relatively
more visible: 49percent in Vancouver and 37percent in Los Angeles. The gender of
reporters is coded based on visual, voice, and name, and 61percent of Vancouver and
50percent of Los Angeles news items specified gender. The gender of television and
radio anchors is specified in all items. The author was the sole coder of 1839 items.
Intercoder reliability testing was conducted on 10percent of the items by a second coder
to confirm that obtained ratings are not the idiosyncratic results of one raters subjective
judgment (Tinsley and Weiss cited in Macnamara, 2006: 10). The result revealed strong

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Table 2. Gender of news source by news origin.

City Gender of news Total News origin

source
Staff Imported Local US Other Absent/
writers from Korea media unknown
Vancouver N 78 23* 31 10* 14*
Male 85% 78%a 94%a 80%a 79%a
Female 13% 22%b 3%a 20%a,b 14%a,b
Male and female 3% 3%a 7%a
Los Angeles N 474 194 134 38 6* 102
Male 85% 79%a 93%b 87%a,b 83%a,b 84%a
Female 15% 21%a 7%b 13%a,b 17%a,b 14%a,b
Male and female 0.4% 2%a
Total N 552 217 165 38 16* 116
Male 85% 79%a 93%b 87%a,b 81%a,b 84%a
Female 15% 21%a 6% 13%a,b 19%a,b 14%a
Male and female 1% 1%a,b 3%a

*Statistically insignificant base.

agreement and covariance 0.81 for Cohens kappa (agreement) and 0.938 for Pearsons
r (covariance).

Main findings
Ethnic media and news sourcing strategy
Prior to discussing the gender representation in ethnic news media, it is important to look
at ethnic medias news sourcing strategy, that is, what constitutes ethnic news in terms of
news origin. Earlier ethnic news analyses identified a mix of news items by news ori-
gin. Murray etal.s (2007) study on Vancouvers ethnic (Chinese, Punjabi, and Korean)
and mainstream (English) news media found that only about 30percent of 673 news
items from 18 local ethnic newspapers were produced by local staff writers, with the rest
being outsourced either locally or internationally. The local production varied by lan-
guage, with the highest at 88percent for mainstream English newspapers and the lowest
at 14percent for Punjabi newspapers. Mandarin and Korean newspapers were in the
30percent range. This mixed production was consistent with the findings from Lin and
Songs (2006) study on Los Angeles ethnic media. The study found that 48percent of
8255 news items from 51 Chinese, Hispanic, and Korean print media were locally pro-
duced by staff writers, followed by 13percent from wire services, 9percent from other
sources, and 30percent from unknown. By language, Chinese newspapers showed the
highest local production (55%), followed by Korean (30%) and Hispanic (26%) (Lin and
Song, 2006: 374). The studies equally point to the limited sociocultural and financial
capital of most mom-and-pop-type media outlets as the main reason for such mixed pro-
duction. Strategic allocation of resources in news production is thus key to survival.

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Table 1 shows that this study finds a similar pattern. Among the news items that iden-
tify news origin, only around half of local news is produced by staff writers, with a
higher portion of local production in Los Angeles (57%) than in Vancouver (40%). Los
Angeles local immigrant media (64%) and multicultural media (76%) are particularly
strong in local production compared to transnational media (52%). By medium, newspa-
pers show stronger commitment to local production in both cities (Vancouver 46% and
Los Angeles 60%) compared to TV (Vancouver 15% and Los Angeles 49%).
Higher local production conversely means lower dependency on imported news from
Korea. Understanding the portion of imported news from Korea in the total news output
is important as it is presented in local Korean ethnic media as is with almost no or only
minor modification; thus, gender representation in the original story is likely to be trans-
ferred to local Korean media. Indeed, Los Angeles leading Korean newspapers, The
Korea Times and The Korea Daily both branches of Koreas newspaper conglomerates
contain a so-called Korea Section (or Bonkookpan), which compiles direct page inserts
extracted from the headquarters edition. Similarly, television news programs reproduce
video clips from the headquarters with the anchors introduction that adjusts geographic
specificities, for example, from our country to Korea. The dependency on imported
Korean news among transnational media in Los Angeles is rather natural. Easy access to
headquarters news content and a higher editorial emphasis on news about Korea, espe-
cially since 2009 when the new election law was introduced, increase the dependency on
imported news. Indeed, at least three out of the six local TV news programs (MBC News
Tonight, SBS Evening News, and LA18 Prime Time Local News) in Los Angeles were
launched in 2009, and two of them were launched by the branches of major broadcasters
in Korea, in addition to KBS America News: MBC America and SBS International.
Nonetheless, even with the presence of transnational branches, Los Angeles media
depend less on imported news from Korea (32%) than Vancouvers media (45%) where
TV Koreas Korean News even outweighs (50%) that of Los Angeles transnational TV
(39%) and newspapers (31%). Korean News which was aired through Rogers multi-
cultural television OMNI during the time of study but was discontinued in 2011
depended heavily on imported news from Korea due to the same reason as found in the
earlier studies: a lack of sociocultural and financial resources.
Finally, Table 1 also shows that the dependency on Canadian and US mainstream
sources is relatively low 9percent in both Vancouver and Los Angeles although
Vancouvers TV (Korean News) continues to show higher dependency even on these
sources (27%) compared to their newspaper counterparts (5%). Again, given that in-
house staff produce only 15percent of the content for TV Koreas Korean News, a
higher dependency on any external sources seems to be a natural consequence. Another
reason for the higher portion of local mainstream sources is that Korean News was
aired through Rogers multicultural television OMNI as part of four ethnic-language
news programs (along with Cantonese, Mandarin, and Punjabi news), and the program
had access to OMNIs news pool contributed by reporters from all four multilingual
news groups. In Los Angeles, however, there is no significant difference in depend-
ency on local US media among local immigrant media, transnational media, and mul-
ticultural media. However, a relatively higher dependency is found among TV (12%)
than radio (8%).

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Table 3. Geographic focus by news origin.

Geographic focus Total News origin

Staff Imported Local US Other Absent/

writers from Korea media unknown
N 1839 692 431 104 45 567
Local (Korean) 11% 26%d 1%a 7%c 3%a,c
Local (other ethnic groups) 0.2% 2%b 0.4%a,b,c
Local (general) 18% 29%d 1%b 10%a 18%a,c,d 19%c
Provincial/state 6% 6%b 1%c 8%a,b 4%a,b 10%a
National 29% 26%c 10%b 67%a 13%b,c 40%d
International (South Korea) 19% 5%b 58%c 6%a,b 2%a,b 10%a
International (North Korea) 2% 0.3%a 5%b 1%a,b 13%c 1%a
International (general) 14% 5%a 25%b 7%a 40%c 16%d
Absent/unknown 1% 3%b 0.2%c 1%a,b,c 0.2%a,c

Where are women?

Women as news sources.Among those news items that identified gender of news
source, only about 15percent of news items exclusively represent women as news
sources. Overall, there is no significant difference by city (Vancouver and Los Ange-
les), media type (TV, newspapers, and radio), and source of capital (local immigrant
media, transnational media, and multicultural media). However, when compared by
news origin (news produced by local staff writers, news outsourced from local US and
Canadian mainstream media, and news imported from Korea), the difference is rather
clear. Table 2 shows that overall, news items written by local staff writers tend to rep-
resent women as news sources (21%) significantly more than imported news from
Korea (6%). Projecting these figures to the GMMP (2010: 7) findings, the level of
representation in locally produced news (21%) is similar to the global average, 24per-
cent, whereas that of imported news from Korea (6%) is far lower than even the South
Korean media average, which is 25percent (GMMP, 2010: 66). Aside from the com-
parison between locally produced news and imported news from Korea, it is interest-
ing to note that Korean and US mainstream media (Los Angeles) behave similarly.
News imported from Korea and outsourced from local US media both underrepresent
women (7% and 13%, respectively) and overrepresent men (93% and 87%, respec-
tively) as news sources.
The geographic focus of news by news origin and the news sources in those stories
explain the differences. Table 3 compares news origin (e.g. news written by staff writers
vs news imported from Korea) in terms of geographic focus of news. The result shows
that news produced by staff writers focuses predominantly on the US news in general
(61%) and the local Korean community news in particular (26%), whereas news imported
from Korea focuses on news about South Korea (58%). Such a division of labor in
which local production focuses on local/national news about the country of settlement,
while imported news from Korea focuses on the country of origin, is in fact a news

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Table 4. News topic by news origin.

News topic Total News origin

Staff Imported Local US Other Absent/

writers from Korea media unknown
N 1839 692 431 104 45 567
Sports 9% 9%a 11%a 13%a 9%a 8%a
Crime/violence 7% 4%b 11%a 12%a 11%a 9%a
Act of terror 7% 2%b 18%c 2%a,b 4%a,b 6%a
Politics: parliamentary practices 7% 4%b 7%c 6%a,b,c 9%a,b,c 10%a,c
Economy/business (general) 6% 5%b 4%b 16%a 2%b,c 9%c
Transportation/traffic 6% 14%b 0.7%a 2%a 2%a 2%a
International/bilateral politics 5% 4%a 8%b 2%a 11%b 5%a,b
Economy/business (Korean 5% 8%b 4%a 1%a 4%a,b 2%a
enclave, Korea economy)
Weather/season/daylight saving 5% 11%b 0.9%a 0.7%a
Community (Korean diaspora) 4% 10%a 6%a,b 0.2%c
Education 4% 3%b 2%b 5%a,b 4%a,b 6%a
Stock market 3% 2%a,b 4%b 3%a,b
Migration/migrants/immigration/ 2% 3%a 3%a 4%a 3%a
immigrants
People 2% 2%a 3%a 3%a 4%a 2%a
Entertainment/entertainment 2% 1%c 2%b,c 4%a,b 4%a
industry
State/city politics 2% 1%b 2%a,b 2%a,b 5%a
Health 2% 2%a 2%a 3%a 2%a 2%a
International/bilateral economy/ 2% 0.4%a 5%b,c 2%a,b 9%c 1%a
business
Toyota, other recalls 2% 0.7%b 0.7%b 8%a 2%a,b,c 3%c
Real estate 2% 2%a 0.5%b 1%a,b 2%a,b 2%a
Natural disasters 2% 1%b,c 0.9%b 4%a 4%a,c 2%a,b,c
Other 15% 13% 17% 8% 11% 16%

sourcing strategy commonly found in Korean media. Again, strategic allocation of

resources is key to survival, especially for many mom-and-pop-type locally grown
immigrant media. That said, the higher representation of female sources in locally pro-
duced news would mean that there are far more female sources in local/national stories
than in imported news from Korea.
Higher representation of women in locally produced news is also related to the news
topics covered. Table 4 shows that when news topics are compared, locally produced
news covers relatively more about economy/business, local Korean community, and
migration/immigration than imported news from Korea. Among over 60 news stories
written by staff writers on these three topics, 11percent represent women as news sources
and 25percent as news actors. On the other hand, imported Korean news from Korea
tends to focus more on crime/violence, act of terror, politics, and international

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12 Journalism

Table 5. Occupation of news source by gender of news source.

Occupation of news source Total Gender of news source

Male Female Male and

female
N 552 468 80 4*
Government officials/spokesperson 42% 42%a 39%a 50%a
Experts/professionals 11% 10%a 15%a,b 50%b
Police/attorney/military 11% 12%a 3%b
Corporate/business/investors 9% 10%a 3%b
Community leaders 8% 7%a 16%b
Athletes/sports organizations 5% 5%a 4%a
Academics 3% 3%a 3%a
Religious figures 3% 3%a 2%a
Other organizations/groups/ 2% 2%a 3%a
associations
Think tank 1% 1%a 3%a
Bank/finance/stock market 1% 1%a 1%a
Other 5% 4% 10% 5%

*Statistically insignificant base.

politics and economy. Among over 90 imported news stories on these topics, 6percent
represent women as news sources and 13percent as news actors. It is important to note,
however, that crime/violence and act of terror are seasonal topics, attributed to a
major murder case and the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 soldiers dur-
ing the time of sampling in March 2010.
Who are these news sources then? How are women represented? Table 5 compares
male and female news sources in terms of their occupations. Female news sources
appear mostly as government officials/spokesperson (39%), followed by commu-
nity leaders (16%) and experts/professionals (15%). A total of 80 female sources
includes 27 government officials/spokesperson (such as Hillary Clinton, Nancy
Pelosi, and Jenny Choo (US Census Bureau)) and 13 community leaders (such as
Scarlet Um and Eunice Oh). When compared to their male counterparts, community
leaders is the category in which women are significantly more visible (16% com-
pared to 7% for male sources). Among the 13 community leaders who were identified,
Scarlet Um, the president of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles,
appeared four times and Eunice Oh of the Korean Society of British Columbia for
Fraternity and Culture once. The rest of the community leaders include Jeongyeon
Hong of NAKASEC and Youngran Jin of the Korean Society of British Columbia.
The occupation categories in which women are less visible compared to men (and
conversely the categories in which men are more visible), however, are the economic
and regulatory authority categories: 3percent in the police/attorney/military cate-
gory (compared to 12% of men) and 3percent in the corporate/business/investor
category (compared to 10% of men).

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Table 6. Gender of news actor by news origin.

City Gender of news Total News origin

actor
Staff Imported Local US Other Absent/
writers from Korea media unknown
Vancouver N 97 24* 48 2* 10* 13*
Male 67% 54%a 67%a,b 50%a,b 90%b 77%a,b
Female 20% 21%a 23%a 50%a 10%a 8%a
Male and female 13% 25%a 10%a 15%a
Los Angeles N 607 216 183 47 6* 155
Male 72% 62%b 74%a 87%a 84%a,b 77%a
Female 19% 27%b 18%a 13%a 17%a,b 12%a
Male and female 9% 11%b 8%a,b 11%b
Total N 704 240 231 49 16* 168
Male 71% 62%b 73%a 86%a 88%a 77%a
Female 19% 27%b 19%c 14%a,b,c 13%a,b,c 12%a,c
Male and female 10% 12%b 8%b 11%b

*Statistically insignificant base.

Women as news actors. The representation of women as news actors (19%), however, is
slightly higher than as news sources overall, although it is still far less compared to men,
who dominate 67percent of Vancouvers news and 72percent of Los Angeles news.
There is no significant difference again by city and source of capital, and even by news
origin in the case of Vancouver. However, the difference was clear in Los Angeles
news by news origin. Table 6 compares news origin (e.g. news written by staff writers
vs news imported from Korea) in terms of the gender of news actors. The result shows
that news produced by staff writers in Los Angeles (27%) tends to cover women as news
actors significantly more than imported news from Korea (18%) and local US media
(13%). The same logic can be applied here as in the case of news source: there are far
more female actors in local/national stories produced by staff writers than in imported
news from Korea. Additionally, a similar pattern is again seen when mainstream media
of both Korea and the United States is compared: both underrepresent women (18% and
13%, respectively) and overrepresent men (74% and 87%, respectively) as news actors.
Who are these news actors then? Table 7 compares male and female news actors in
terms of their occupation. The result shows that women as news actors are most com-
monly represented as general public (23%), followed by athletes/sports organization
(15%), government officials/spokesperson (13%), actors/actresses/managers (10%),
and community leaders (8%). High representation of women as general public is con-
sistent with the GMMP (2010) findings, as mentioned earlier: Women are predominantly
represented as homemakers (72%) and students (54%), while men are represented as
scientists (90%) and legal professionals (83%) (p. 10). Seasonality played out for the
athletes/sports organization category, attributed to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and
Paralympics, which took place around the time of sampling for this study. A total of 137
female actors include 20 athletes/sports organization and 15 government officials/

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14 Journalism

Table 7. Occupation of news actor by gender of news actor.

Occupation of news actor Total Gender of news actor

Male Female Male and

female
N 704 500 137 67
Athletes/sports organizations 21% 25%a 15%b 9%b
Government officials/spokesperson 19% 20%a,b 13%b 28%a
General public 11% 7%a 23%b 13%a,b
Corporate/business/investors 8% 9%a 5%a,b 2%b
Criminals/terrorists 7% 9%a 8%a
Victims 6% 6%a 5%a 8%a
Community leaders 5% 4%a 8%b 8%a,b
Actors/actresses/managers 4% 3%a 10%b 5%a,b
Religious figures 3% 5%a 1%b
Students/teenagers 3% 1%a 6%b 13%b
Experts/professionals 3% 2%a 4%a 2%a
Police/attorney/military 2% 3%a
Other 7% 6% 12% 6%

spokesperson. Almost half of the athletes/sports organization actors represented Yuna

Kim, Vancouver Olympic gold medalist in womens figure skating, as she was preparing
for the World Figure Skating Championships, following the 2010 Vancouver Winter
Olympics. As well, half of the government officials/spokesperson category was about
female Prime Minister Han who had been tried for bribery charges and found not guilty.
The only categories in which women are more visible than their male counterparts are
general public (23% compared to 7% of men) and again community leaders (8% com-
pared to 4% of men). Among the 11 examples of community leaders identified, 5 repre-
sent Scarlet Um and Eunice Oh and 3 represent Kyejoo Lee, president of the Los Angeles
chapter of Korean Womens International Network (KOWIN). This is contrasted with
men as news actors who appeared mostly in the categories of athletes/sports organiza-
tion (25%), followed by government officials/spokesperson (20%) and corporate/
business/investors (9%). As in the female representation, seasonality played out for the
athletes/sports organization category.

Women as news producers.Among those reporters whose gender is identified, only

23percent of news items overall are reported by female reporters. This is lower than
GMMPs finding of the global average: 37percent. No significant difference is observed
between local immigrant media and transnational media (in the case of Los Angeles).
However, by news origin, again, Los Angeles news produced by local staff writers
(26%) is more likely to be reported by female reporters than imported news from Korea
(14%) (see Table 8). Conversely, imported news from Korea tends to be reported more
by male reporters (85%) than locally produced news (74%). Again, mainstream media of
both Korea and the United States (Los Angeles) continue to behave similarly by

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Table 8. Gender of reporter by news origin.

City Gender of Total News origin

reporter
Staff Imported Local US Other Absent/
writers from Korea media unknown
Vancouver N 122 50 67 3* 2*
Male 74% 72%a 79%a 33%a,b
Female 26% 28%a 21%a 67%a,b 100%b
Los Angeles N 815 403 330 35 2* 45
Male 77% 74%a 85%b 74%a,b 100%a,b,c 42%c
Female 23% 26%a 14%b 26%a,b 58%c
Male and female 0.5% 1%b
Total N 937 453 397 35 5* 47
Male 76% 74%a 84%b 74%a,b 60%a,b,c 40%c
Female 23% 26%a 15%b 26%a,b 40%a,b,c 60%c
Male and female 0.4% 1%b

*Statistically insignificant base.

featuring more male reporters (85% and 74%, respectively) than female reporters (14%
and 26%, respectively). By media type, the gender difference is also clear in Los Ange-
les, in that female reporters tend to report more TV news (30%) than newspapers (14%),
while the opposite is true for male reporters (TV 70% and newspaper 84%).
In terms of the anchors of television and radio news, comparison by media type
and source of capital is only possible for Los Angeles, as Vancouver had only one
Korean television program at the time of study, TV Koreas Korean News, and it had
only one female anchor running the entire show. Los Angeles, on the other hand,
offered seven television evening news programs and three radio evening news pro-
grams. Table 9 compares news origin (e.g. news written by staff writers vs news
imported from Korea) in terms of the gender of news anchors. The difference is clear
again by news origin: news produced by local staff writers (51%) is more likely to be
reported by female anchors than imported news from Korea (33%). By source of capi-
tal, local immigrant media are more likely reported by female anchors (55%), while
the opposite is true for transnational media (44%). Higher dependency on imported
news from Korea among transnational media (38%) compared to local immigrant
media (25%) contributes to the higher representation of male anchors in transnational
media (see Table 1).
Would women be more likely to report on women as news sources and actors? The
analysis by gender of reporters and anchors confirms that this is the case. Female report-
ers do not necessarily report more about female sources, but certainly more female
actors. Table 10 compares male and female reporters in terms of the gender of news
actors. The result shows that female reporters in Los Angeles are more likely to report on
female news actors (34%) than their male counterparts (20%). Similarly, female anchors
also do not necessarily report more about female sources and actors, but they certainly
report less male actors (66%) compared to their male counterparts (75%).

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Table 9. Gender of anchor by news origin.

City Gender of Total News origin

anchor
Staff Imported Local US Other Absent/
writers from Korea media unknown
Vancouver N 61 5* 17* 12* 27*
Female 100% 100%a 100%a 100%a 100%a
Los Angeles N 1383 473 289 82 22* 517
Male 51% 47%a 67%b 44%a 46%a 47%a
Female 48% 51%a 33%b 56%a 55%a 53%a
Male and Female 1% 2%b 0%a,b
Total N 1444 478 306 82 34 544
Male 49% 46%a 63%b 44%a 29%a 45%a
Female 50% 52%a 37%c 56%a,b 71%b 55%a,b
Male and Female 1% 2%b 0.3%a,b

*Statistically insignificant base.

Table 10. Gender of actor by gender of reporter.

City Gender of actor Total Gender of reporter

Male Female Male and Absent/

female unknown
Vancouver N 97 48 16* 33
Male 67% 65%a,b 50%b 79%a
Female 20% 19%a,b 38%b 12%a
Male and female 13% 17%a 13%a 9%a
Los Angeles N 607 307 91 2* 207
Male 72% 73%a 59%b 100%a,b 75%a
Female 19% 20%a 34%b 13%c
Male and female 9% 7%a 7%a,b 13%b
Total N 704 355 107 2* 240
Male 71% 72%a 58%b 100%a,b 75%a
Female 19% 20%a 35%b 13%c
Male and female 10% 9%a 8%a 12%a

*Statistically insignificant base.

Discussion
The analysis of women as news subjects (news sources and actors) and news producers
(reporters and anchors) in ethnic media confirms that ethnic media are no exception to
the wider trend of low female representation in news media. The overall representation
of women is significantly lower than that of men. What this study uncovered is that the

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Yu 17

level of contribution varies by news origin. News locally produced by staff writers is
more likely to represent women as news subjects and producers than news imported
from Korea. This study labels these findings the transnational effect and local effect.
The former represents the spillover effect from imported news from Korea, in that the
gender representation in the original news source spills over to and is reproduced in
ethnic media. The latter, on the other hand, is a strictly local construction of gender
produced by local Korean Canadian/American journalists.

Transnational effect: The representation of women in imported news spills

over to ethnic media
The underrepresentation of women in ethnic news is in part the influence of imported
news from Korean sources. In all, 45percent of Vancouvers news and 32percent of
Los Angeles news are imported from Korea (see Table 1). These items are presented
as is (or with minor modification), thereby carrying over the editorial of the original
story, including the representation of women, to ethnic news. Indeed, the surprisingly
low representation of women in news imported from Korea only 3percent of
Vancouver and 7percent of Los Angeles news compared to over 20percent in locally
produced news by staff writers in both cities pulls down the overall level of repre-
sentation to 13percent of Vancouvers news and 15percent of Los Angeles news.
This explains the degree of spillover from the original source in the final output (see
Table 2).
Then, the question is whether or not the portion of imported news from Korea in
local ethnic news is likely to change, thereby lowering the degree of spillover.
Considering the two important functions of imported news, it depends on the organiza-
tions financial sustainability and editorial direction. First, imported news from Korea
is important for financial sustainability. A lack of sociocultural and financial capital
often limits local production, and imported news from Korea is an easy alternative to fill
a daily news hole that is, a minimum supply of news every day (Bennett, 2012:
171172) and simultaneously creates ad space that generates revenue. A prolonged
economic recession has made it even more difficult for local ethnic media to resist the
temptation of taking an easy way out. For transnational media branches such as The
Korea Times and The Korea Daily, even easier access to the headquarters content
makes it even more difficult to resist as such content enables the average daily produc-
tion of 180 pages. Second, the new 2009 election law, which grants voting rights to
overseas Korean citizens, justifies a higher emphasis on news about Korea. As men-
tioned earlier, at least three out of the six local TV news programs in Los Angeles were
launched in 2009, suggesting an active response on the part of the local Korean media
to the policy changes in Korea and subsequently heightened competition among local
news providers. Additionally, imported news from Korea caters to the needs of transna-
tional migrants who are socioeconomically and politically mobile between Korea and
the country of settlement. Although media technologies have multiplied the number of
media for Koreans to obtain news about Canada/U.S. and Korea, it is ethnic media that
provides news that is relevant to them.

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18 Journalism

Local effect: Female leadership in the community and media sector

influences gender representation
In contrast, the significantly higher representation of women in locally produced news
compared to imported news from Korea is attributed to the dedication to local/national
news about Canada or the United States and significantly more female news sources and
actors presented in those stories. Nearly 90percent of locally produced news focus on
local/national news (61% national and 26% Korean community) compared to the almost
equal portion of news about Korea (87%) in news imported from Korea. In the local
construction of gender, the Korean community leaders contribute positively to female
representation. As evidence, while government officials/spokesperson is the most rep-
resented news source regardless of gender (both nearly 40%), community leaders,
which is the second most represented category for women as news sources (16%), is in
fact the category that represents women significantly more than their male counterparts
(7%). Among these leaders, over 50% of the total is represented by haninhui leaders and
the rest by representatives of other community organizations such as NAKASEC and the
Korean Welfare Center. As well, this is also the category in which women are repre-
sented significantly more as news actors (8%) than their male counterparts (4%), and
again, haninhui and other community organization leaders are the main actors.
Indeed, female leadership within the Korean community is strong overall, although as
mentioned, haninhui has been historically male dominant. During the time of study,
Koreans working as Korean representatives/volunteers at Canadas leading immigrant
settlement services such as S.U.C.C.E.S.S., MOSAIC, and OPTIONS were predomi-
nantly women. According to the directory of the Korean Community Workers Network
in Greater Vancouver (provided by KCWN), over 90percent of 76 members in 2009
were women. Similarly in Los Angeles, among approximately 30 community organiza-
tions that were most active in operation, 7 organizations were headed by female leaders:
for example, Korean Churches for Community Development (Hyepin Im); LA Senior
Citizens Society (Hyesook Park); Korean American Womens Association (Esther Kim);
Korean American Family Service Center (Christin Kim); Korean Health, Education,
Information and Referral Center (Erin Park); and Korean Community Lawyers
Association (Hyunsook Lee). Given the nature of the ethnic communication infrastruc-
ture that is, residents, community media, and organizations (Ball-Rokeach etal., 2001)
which tends to be geographically bound and ethnically or culturally relevant (Lin
and Song, 2006: 367368), the impact of female leadership in the community can be
more significant compared to the broader community.
The findings of the news analysis of coverage of the 2008 Canadian federal election
in mainstream and ethnic media support this claim (Yu and Ahadi, 2010). Over 20per-
cent of all election-related news in Korean newspapers in Vancouver compared to
less than 5percent in English newspapers was visible minorities, and most of those
articles were about a female Korean Canadian candidate, Yonah Martin, who was run-
ning in the Korean-concentrated New WestminsterCoquitlamPort Moody riding as a
Conservative candidate. As the only Korean Canadian (and female) candidate from the
local Korean community, she received unprecedented attention and support from
the community. Indeed, coverage of Martin contributed significantly to improving the

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Yu 19

overall representation of women in local Korean media during that time, not only in
quantity but also in quality. Martin was often depicted in the media as a heroine-to-be
in the community. Some of the headlines during that time included Martin, send a
strong message to Ottawa, Lets elect the first Korean MP, and Lets write a new
Korean history (Yu and Ahadi, 2010: 6162).
In the media sector, there is no count of women in Korean ethnic media as producers
and/or owners; however, female leadership was visible during the time of study. The
publishers of two of Vancouvers three Korean daily newspapers (The Korea Daily and
The Korea Times) were women. In Los Angeles, although only one transnational televi-
sion branch (KBS America) had a female president, female producers and reporters were
present at managerial and staff levels. Given that women are more likely to cover women
as news sources and actors, as supported by the GMMP and this study, a female presence
in the newsroom and at managerial levels may not be unrelated to higher representation
of women in locally produced news.

Conclusion
The under-/misrepresentation of women in media in general and news media in particu-
lar is nothing new. Studies such as the GMMP have been monitoring this since 1995 and
have seen only incremental changes over the years. The case of minority women con-
cerns us even more: they are constantly made invisible or depicted in a stereotypical way
at the intersection of gender and ethnicity. Would this also be the case in ethnic media?
Would women be also under-/misrepresented in ethnic media? This was a blind spot in
media studies. Gender representation of women in mainstream media is well studied,
while less attention has been given to ethnic media. Similarly, ethnic media studies moni-
tor ethnic news, but with less attention to gender representation. This question was par-
ticularly important given the unique news sourcing strategy of ethnic media identified in
earlier studies. News presented in ethnic media constitutes a unique mix of news origin
news locally produced by local staff writers, news outsourced from local mainstream
media, and news internationally imported from the country of origin. Among these news
items, over 30percent of news output is news imported from Korea. Thus, the question
to explore was whether or not the representation of women in mainstream media would
be carried over to Korean ethnic media in North America. The analysis by news origin
helped understand the level of contribution of each news origin source to the overall
representation of women in ethnic media.
The findings of this study confirm that ethnic media are no exception to the larger
trends. Women are far less visible not only as news subjects (news sources and actors)
but also as news producers (reporters and anchors). What this study has further identified
is the pervasive influence of mainstream media, specifically the mainstream media of the
country of origin, or what is called in this study the transnational effect. This is a spillo-
ver effect, in that already low representation of women in imported news from Korea is
carried over to and reproduced in local Korean media. Given that these news account for
over 30percent of the daily news output and are inserted into daily production with no
or only minor modification, the degree of influence on the overall representation of
women in ethnic media is significant.

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20 Journalism

In contrast, the local effect, that is, local construction of gender in locally produced
news by staff writers, contributes positively to female representation. The stories focus
predominantly on national and the local Korean community news and tend to represent
significantly more women in news stories than the stories imported from Korea. While
female sources and actors in those news stories are ethnically mixed and geographically
diverse, female leaders in the local Korean community particularly contributed posi-
tively to female representation in Korean media. Strong female leadership in the media
sector is also not unrelated to female representation as women are more likely to report
on women than their male counterparts. Overall, a systematic analysis of ethnic news
content provides a deeper understanding of ethnic media in general and gender represen-
tation in particular. The dynamic between transnational effect and local effect is inter-
esting to observe and calls for continued monitoring of the pervasive influence of
mainstream media.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/
or publication of this article: The data used for this article are part of the authors doctoral research,
which was funded by SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) of Canada.

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Author biography
Sherry S Yu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism and a member of the School
of Media and Communications doctoral program at Temple University. Her research explores
cultural diversity and media in relation to cultural literacy, civic engagement, and intercultural
dialogue in a multicultural society, with a specific focus on ethnic media, multiculturalism, and
transnational migration.

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