An analysis of national media coverage of a parental leave reform investigating sentiment, semantics and contributors
Abstract While paid leave for fathers after the birth of a child has become increasingly available, mothers still take most of the parental leave. A recent European Union (EU) reform addresses the unequal sharing of leave between parents via earmarking of paid, non-shareable leave to each parent. Gi...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-49356-y |
| _version_ | 1797349986324709376 |
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| author | Arnault-Quentin Vermillet Sara Engsig Krejberg Julie Svinth Nielsen Christine E. Parsons |
| author_facet | Arnault-Quentin Vermillet Sara Engsig Krejberg Julie Svinth Nielsen Christine E. Parsons |
| author_sort | Arnault-Quentin Vermillet |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract While paid leave for fathers after the birth of a child has become increasingly available, mothers still take most of the parental leave. A recent European Union (EU) reform addresses the unequal sharing of leave between parents via earmarking of paid, non-shareable leave to each parent. Given that the reform’s success will depend on uptake by families, we analysed Danish national media coverage to understand how journalists were writing about the reform. We assessed the sentiment and semantics of leave reform coverage compared to general news from the same period, also considering the inferred journalist gender and newspaper political orientation. Parental leave reform articles were slightly more emotional than general news, independent of who authored the article, or the newspaper where it was published. We found a robust difference in the semantics of how female journalists wrote about the reform, relative to male journalists, and that female journalists contributed to media coverage at a higher-than-expected rate. The tendency for media coverage to be written with a non-neutral sentiment can be understood in terms of the enduring political tensions over gender equality, the role of the EU and families’ rights to self-organization. That female journalists over-contributed to media coverage is interesting in understanding topic assignments or interest in parental leave. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T12:38:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3fadd4587d0549ce88bafb40304997da |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T12:38:15Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-3fadd4587d0549ce88bafb40304997da2024-01-21T12:17:20ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222024-01-011411910.1038/s41598-023-49356-yAn analysis of national media coverage of a parental leave reform investigating sentiment, semantics and contributorsArnault-Quentin Vermillet0Sara Engsig Krejberg1Julie Svinth Nielsen2Christine E. Parsons3Department of Clinical Medicine, Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus UniversityDepartment of Clinical Medicine, Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus UniversityDepartment of Clinical Medicine, Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus UniversityDepartment of Clinical Medicine, Interacting Minds Center, Aarhus UniversityAbstract While paid leave for fathers after the birth of a child has become increasingly available, mothers still take most of the parental leave. A recent European Union (EU) reform addresses the unequal sharing of leave between parents via earmarking of paid, non-shareable leave to each parent. Given that the reform’s success will depend on uptake by families, we analysed Danish national media coverage to understand how journalists were writing about the reform. We assessed the sentiment and semantics of leave reform coverage compared to general news from the same period, also considering the inferred journalist gender and newspaper political orientation. Parental leave reform articles were slightly more emotional than general news, independent of who authored the article, or the newspaper where it was published. We found a robust difference in the semantics of how female journalists wrote about the reform, relative to male journalists, and that female journalists contributed to media coverage at a higher-than-expected rate. The tendency for media coverage to be written with a non-neutral sentiment can be understood in terms of the enduring political tensions over gender equality, the role of the EU and families’ rights to self-organization. That female journalists over-contributed to media coverage is interesting in understanding topic assignments or interest in parental leave.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-49356-y |
| spellingShingle | Arnault-Quentin Vermillet Sara Engsig Krejberg Julie Svinth Nielsen Christine E. Parsons An analysis of national media coverage of a parental leave reform investigating sentiment, semantics and contributors Scientific Reports |
| title | An analysis of national media coverage of a parental leave reform investigating sentiment, semantics and contributors |
| title_full | An analysis of national media coverage of a parental leave reform investigating sentiment, semantics and contributors |
| title_fullStr | An analysis of national media coverage of a parental leave reform investigating sentiment, semantics and contributors |
| title_full_unstemmed | An analysis of national media coverage of a parental leave reform investigating sentiment, semantics and contributors |
| title_short | An analysis of national media coverage of a parental leave reform investigating sentiment, semantics and contributors |
| title_sort | analysis of national media coverage of a parental leave reform investigating sentiment semantics and contributors |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-49356-y |
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