Reaction Paper

Julie Ast
Sanja Trpkovic
Understanding Media Studies
October 19, 2009
Regis and Kelly sit together on stage for their popular morning show, “Live With Regis and Kelly”. Regis looks incongruous in a formal suit next to Kelly who is wearing a more relaxed dress. As his younger counterpart, she typically imbues the show with her fun personality and quirky jokes. Regis, the older more established broadcaster, has a more grounded and authoritative presence. While women and men have different functions in broadcast journalism, which is exemplified by their clothing and style choices, women are becoming more prominent television anchors and are adopting men’s conservative garb. Clothing sends a message on television and typically more masculine wear such as suits makes the wearer seem more serious. Men have built-in credibility because they have historically presented the news.
Women have always dressed differently than men on television. While men stick to suits in dark colors, women have more options. Business attire for women can mean skirts, blouses, v-necks or dresses where men typically wear a suit and tie. Sabine Tan, in the article titled, “The Semiotic Function of Clothing and Gender Roles on Broadcast Business News,” takes a social semiotic view of the clothing that newscasters wear. She says that,“ Female presenters’ clothing choices tend to afford them more individuality and personality,” while male clothing gives off “ a sense of professionalism and authenticity.”(Tan 2) Each gender’s attire is supposed to evoke a different meaning related to their function in news broadcasting. Women are meant to, “ attract viewers attention.” Their clothing contains an interpersonal meaning where their primary job is to connect with the audience. Men in news,
“ grant viewers assurance of quality and authentic news reporting without drawing attention away from the news itself.” Their main goal is to suggest experiential meaning, presenting the newsworthy event itself.
The dichotomy in men and women’s appearances on screen has been utilized by pairing them together for television broadcasts. Recently though, women have held prominent reporting positions on their own. Katie Couric currently anchors
“CBS Evening News” and Diane Sawyer will be the future solo anchor for ABC’s “World News.” A couple of months ago Couric chopped off her shoulder-length locks to a shorter pixie. While it is hard to speculate how Sawyers style will change, Couric moved toward a less feminine hair cut, perhaps to increase her credibility as a serious reporter. Since men’s clothing and attire promotes “assurance of quality” as was stated in the above article, she used her new haircut to convey an increased sense of authority and trustworthiness.
Women broadcast reporters’ clothing choice has always been a major focus of the public who view them on television. When being interviewed for Harper’s Bazaar, Ann Curry, an anchor on NBC’s “Today Show” has said, "Sometimes, viewers criticize things I would never have expected, like whether I'm wearing enough teal."(Levin 205) Other anchors do not agree that women should be judged for the type of clothing they wear. Soledad Obrien, an American Morning co- anchor said in the same article that, “"You don't have to sacrifice looking intelligent because you are wearing a nice outfit. You can wear fabulous high heels, and it doesn't mean you aren't well read, you haven't done your homework and you aren't going to grill somebody." (Levin 206)
The most important function of newscasters’ might not be their clothing, but their face. According to a study that tracked the difference between gaze patterns of different genders, both male and females look at the faces before any other body part. The study used a remote eye tracker to determine where both sexes eyes went on thirty pictures, half men and half women. People are attracted to faces because, “faces convey important information not only about the identity, gender, and racial affiliation of others, but also about their emotions and behavioral intentions. ” (Hewig 68-71) If audiences first look at faces, one can assume that the relative trustworthiness of a newscaster’s face, not their clothing, is the most important aspect of their performance. The person watching television first scans the face to determine if she trusts the reporter, then looks at their clothing and further assesses their purpose.
The conclusion can be made then that men are viewed as authoritative, while women project a different message due to their faces. Their clothing, which is considered secondary to their perception, reinforces this conclusion. Perhaps men are considered more trustworthy due to the history of television as historically being a male dominated field. Until recently the major players in news broadcasting on television networks were men. Brian Williams is currently the anchor for “NBC Nightly News.” “CBS Evening News” anchors were all men until 2006 when Couric took over the position and Charles Gibson has just announced his resignation from “ World News” on ABC. The audience recognizes the male as the gender who historically delivers the news. As their eyes drift down to his body and recognize his clothing, this perception would be qualified with his more conservative clothing.
As women become more involved in the field and gain more prominent positions in broadcasting, they sometimes wear men’s clothing to gain the audience’s respect. But, viewers focus mainly on the face of the reporter and the male face has been the conduit of news for the past couple decades. It will take some time to get rid discard this entrenched belief so that audiences can trust women as much as they trust men. For now women and men serve different purposes on the news. As the broadcast climate changes men and women’s role will start to mesh and their clothing won’t need to be focused on, because their faces will do all the talking.














Work Cited
Hewig, Johannes, Ralph Trippe, Holger Hecht, Thomas Straube, and Miltner Wolfang. "Gender Differences for Specific Body Regions When Looking at Men and Women ." Springer Science+Business Media. (2008): 67-78. Print.

Tan, Sabine, and Monica See. "THE SEMIOTIC FUNCTION OF CLOTHING AND GENDER ROLES ON BROADCAST BUSINESS NEWS." Business Communication Quarterly. 72.3 (2009): 368-372. Print.
Levin, Jenny. " Title: Making fashion news: top anchors Ann Curry, Soledad O'Brien and Elizabeth Vargas command the airwaves with their poise, intelligence and classic style. As Bazaar spotlights their glamorous side, they reveal their secrets of dressing for success and why hair really matters.:." Harper's Bazaar February, 2005: 204-210. Print.