Islands of divergence in a stream of convergence: Comparing the news practices of male and female journalists in Israel

This study focuses on the performance of female and male reporters in various news processes for which little systematic research has been accomplished. It is based primarily on a series of reconstruction interviews with 60 Israeli reporters in parallel beats and on the ways in which they obtained material for a sample of their recently published items (N=494). Findings challenge the accepted theoretical wisdom which suggests that male and female reporters obtain news differently. Regrettably, female reporters do not diversify the overwhelmingly restricted and male-hegemonic source pool. Female journalists show some greater journalistic initiative and greater time pressures. Gender discrimination migrated to less observable arenas: female reporters experience more editorial involvement in their news work and a greater news beat overload. Together with reduced emphasis on exclusivity and newsroom presence, these factors endanger the status that female journalists achieved in a long and exhausting struggle.