Media Content Development via Gatekeeping (An Empirical Case Study of Face-ism as a Media Stereotype)

Abstract

Face-ism is a unique media phenomenon that has recently been recognized and defined in research. Face- ism, which is the amount of facial prominence in a given photograph, may convey certain messages about the depicted person. Research has found that higher facial prominence conveys perceptions of higher intelligence, ambition and dominance. Is there a gender bias in such depictions? The purpose of this study was to content analyze the face-ism phenomenon in the depiction of the genders in print media. The study investigated the following hypotheses: (a) Depictions of people in media images will give more prominence to the face in male depictions than in female depictions, and (b) These differences should be found to increase over the last 20 years Results of this study found that males were receiving significantly higher facial prominence in news media content. This supported the first hypothesis and showed that mass media are stereotyping between the genders. These findings support our hypothesis that the depictions of people in the media will give more prominence to the face in male depictions than in female depictions. Thus, news media may be portraying males as more intelligent, ambitious, dominant, and females as less intelligent, ambitious, and dominant thus fueling a media stereotype. Keywords : Development, Media, Gatekeeping

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