Hillary Clinton in the Media, and the Changing Discourse: From Expected Roles to the Critique of Feminism

This paper analysed Hillary Clinton’s historical problems with the media starting from her first appointment at a US First Lady to her being the Democratic nominee for the US presidential elections in 2016. The paper analysed academic literature demonstrating Clinton’s problems with the media bias, and then added own discourse analysis of articles on Clinton and feminism in two main national newspapers that have consistently demonstrated the power of setting the agenda and forming public opinion in the U.S., The Washington Post and The New York Times. Discourse analysis has been used to analyse 20 selected articles that discussed Clinton’s feminist views in a period from September 2015 until September 2016, which was also a campaign period for 2016 U.S. elections. The findings add to the current research on the topic and show that the media undermined liberal feminism and its goals to undermine Hillary Clinton, whereas in the past Hillary was a subject of media criticism because of her refusal to fit into expected roles and be a supportive wife only. In other words, the discourse of criticism of Hillary Clinton has changed over time but every time with the same results, i.e. undermining the image and career advancement.

https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol22/iss10/1/