Introduction

I decided to look at the position of Angela Merkel the Chancellor of Germany in the media, as I am keen to enter politics.  She is one of only two women in the G20 group, is one of few female political role models and recently gained a second term as Chancellor (equivalent of our Prime Minister Gordon Brown) in the German election.  This led me to think there would be quite a bit of media coverage of the Chancellor. 

 

Media Coverage

For my first search I entered just her name ‘Angela Merkel’ into a yahoo search engine (appendix 1).  The results included 2 Wikipedia entries, the remaining were profiles or ‘in-depth’ articles on the Chancellor.  My eye was immediately drawn to the Guardian profile (appendix 2) due to the link title: Barbie Doll or Iron Lady.  Interestingly the article however, was called: Angela Merkel: The world’s most powerful woman? (as named by Forbes magazine).  Perhaps the Guardian was using a potentially controversial title in order to draw readers to their website. 

The profile commented on her looks and personality in comparison to other ‘leading ladies’ though not in the literal sense of leading a country, as unfortunately she has few female colleagues in this respect.  The article serves to reinforce the perception I already had about the medias portrayal of women (not confined to female politician) – the lipstick female or battleaxe.  Both of these representations have their own negative connotations: stupid and concerned only with looks and clothes or stern and angry to the point of mean behaviour.  As a young female looking for a positive role model, these representations could cause me to think I have to position myself or behave a certain way to meet these stereotypes.

These stereotypes do not only exist in the media.  An online article from a business advice site reinforces these stereotypes existence, in the business world (appendix 3):

            “Too many women act like bimbos, ball busters or battle-axes” 

This leads to the question, does the media’s stereotyping influence women’s behaviour, or does women’s behaviour influence media representation?

Stuart Allan would argue for the former and I would tend to agree:

            “Consequently a journalist’s deployment of these stereotypes, far from being harmless…can be seen to be contributing to the ideological reproduction of patriarchal social relations. (News Culture, 1999, Pg 144)

The Guardian article (appendix 2), when describing Merkel’s past career, also states that she was given:

“the most patronising job in … cabinet: minister for women and youth”. 

This reminds me of my time spent with Baroness Amos at a women only meeting.  The questions and concerns raised, although very important, were concerned with traditional female issues, e.g. child care, with a lack of conversation regarding issues traditionally seen as male, for example, the economy or business.

Unfortunately the photo in the Guardian article (appendix 2) is rather unflattering, perhaps presenting the leader of Germany as the ‘Iron Lady’ rather than the Barbie Doll stereotype.  However, I do not believe unflattering photos are limited to females’ politicians as there are many of Gordon Brown accompanying negative stories about his leadership.  Perhaps this highlights the media (and British publics) fascination with looks generally over skills and intelligence. 

I then searched more specifically for ‘angela merkel 2009 election’ and looked at the following sites:

Media Channel	Typical Content	Female References	Appendix
The Guardian	Statistics, results detail	Nation’s Mother	Appendix 4
ITN	Basic details
Sky	Statistics, results detail	First Female Leader in Germany	Appendix 5
Huffington Post	Statistics, results detail
Al Jazeera	As above, may have been same newswire source.
EuroNews	Facts

Although only a small survey, generally the coverage of Merkel related to the election remained very much about the detail of the election results.  Reporting that Merkel is the first female leader is factual (appendix 5), however I was intrigued by the possible connotations of ‘Nation’s Mother’ (appendix 4).  I researched the meaning using Wikipedia:

Father of the Nation

Father of the Nation is an honorific title given to a man considered the driving force behind the establishment of their country, state or nation. The term founding fathers may be used if more than one person is considered key.

The Wikipedia definition focuses on the patriarch but the fact that it is considered an ‘honour’ suggests this is a compliment.  When considered in the context of Germany’s economic recovery in comparison to other EU countries, it could be suggested that she is the matriarch looking after the country, easing them through the recession like a nurturing mother.  Although not necessarily a negative connotation, it still ties Merkel and therefore all women to a stereotype of how women politicians should behave, instead of being judged purely on their merits as a politician. 

 

Conclusion

In conclusion the coverage of Merkel is quite gender neutral which I believe to be a positive media representation of women in politics.  The profile was unfortunately stereotyping but this was only one example and perhaps is more acceptable in a ‘profile’ as stereotypes can be used to make sense of the world around us:

“It is more useful to think of stereotyping as a process of categorisation necessary to make sense of the world, and the flood of information and impressions we receive minute by minute.” (Branston & Stafford, 1999, Pg137)

However this still raises the question of why the stereotype has to be negative, and why Merkel can not be stereotyped according to her career. 

It would be interesting to do some quantitative research into the coverage of female and male politicians to assess the levels of stereotyping that exist for the genders, what these stereotypes typically are, and whether these stereotypes are negative or positive.  Further to this, it would also be interesting to research the effect these stereotypes have on young people. 

I will admit to being a little disappointed as I expected greater negative stereotypical coverage of Merkel.  I would like to take this as a sign that media portrayal of women has improved in recent years but am more inclined to see a connection with her ‘celebrity’ status in the UK to warrant coverage by our news channels.  Perhaps I should have looked at the coverage of Harriet Harman in my want for controversy: whilst doing a quick search in Google, the first option available via auto typing is ‘harriet harman cleavage’!