Symposium on the 19th Century Press,
the Civil War, and Free Expression

Kate Roberts

K8Terin@aol.com or robe0255@tc.umn.edu

Media Coverage of First Ladies: A Quantitative Analysis of Indexed New York Times Coverage of Wives of U.S. Presidents, 1853 - 1997

ABSTRACT

As a portion of a larger study about media coverage of U.S. First Ladies, the purpose of this paper is to discuss how the amount of press coverage of First Ladies has changed across history. The focus of the research was to compare the 19th Century and 20th Century coverage amounts to locate any commonalties between and amongst these time periods. While the research indicated there was more newspaper coverage of each of the First Ladies in the 20th Century, a few in the 19th Century received substantial amounts for the times as well.

Counts were taken from the New York Times Index to obtain the coverage amounts each president‚s wife had received from 1853 (Jane Pierce) through 1997 (Hillary Rodham Clinton).

The primary research question posed for this study was: How much newspaper coverage did each president‚s wife receive? From there 19th-century coverage amounts were compared to those of the 20th Century to discern coverage amount norms for each of these time periods and identify which First Ladies deviated from these norms.

The main hypotheses investigated in this paper are --

• a) The amount of coverage that First Ladies receive will increase across the history of the position.
• b) Of the coverage given a First Lady, most will occur during the years that she is in the White House functioning as the wife of the president while he is president.
• c) There is a correlation between the number of years that a woman holds the position of First Lady and the amount of press coverage she receives.

In general, the amount of coverage of First Ladies increased across history, and most of the women received the most coverage when they were in the White House. Most cases show a correlation between the number of years a woman held the position of First Lady and the amount of press coverage she received, but there were exceptions.

Dr. Kittrell Rushing or Dr. David Sachsman
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Communication Department
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Chattanooga, Tennessee 37403-2598
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Last updated: November 20, 1999

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