Discourse Society 2009 Wang 747 74

Wang: Gender stereotypes in Taiwanese tabloids 747
ARTICLE
Language and ideology: gender

stereotypes of female and male artists
in Taiwanese tabloids
HUNG-CHUN WANG
Discourse & Society

Copyright 2009
SAGE Publications
(Los Angeles, London, New Delhi,
Singapore and Washington DC)
www.sagepublications.com
Vol 20(6): 747774
10.1177/0957926509342379
H S I N S H E N G C O L L E G E O F M E D I C A L C A R E A N D M A N A G E M E N T , TA I W A N
This study adopts the Critical Discourse Analysis approach in

order to examine gender stereotypes in Taiwanese tabloid culture. Focusing
on a gossip-filled entertainment column in a tabloid, this study collected 111
news reports released in May 2008. All news entries were probed to discern
pervading gender stereotypes held regarding female and male artists. A
subsequent online survey investigated any stereotypical depictions that had
been identified. Administered to 120 respondents, this survey attempted to
evaluate how representative views held throughout society were pervading
gender stereotypes in media discourse. Results showed that female artists,
as portrayed in the tabloids, were commonly associated with belligerence,
money worship, and social pressures with respect to marriage and sexuality.
By contrast, portrayals of male artists focused on personal defects in physical
appearance and love affairs, and invariably involved manipulation of how
the private lives of these artists were viewed. Most stereotypical depictions
were further shown to be highly defined beliefs shared among the survey
respondents. This article concludes with a discussion on the close-knit nature
of tabloid culture and social ideology.
ABSTRACT
KEY WORDS:
critical discourse analysis, gender stereotype, ideology, tabloid culture
Introduction
Mass media outlets have long been considered social institutions or domains in
which media discourse conveys the ideologies of members in those institutions
(Leitner, 2001: 188). While media content is regarded as reflective of society,
a common belief is that the media conveys the dominant elite ideologies of a
social community (Kuo and Nakamura, 2005: 394). Such ideologies indicate
socio-culturally shared group knowledge (Van Dijk, 1997: 28), and refer to social
cognitions shared by members of social groups, organizations, or institutions
(Van Dijk, 1995: 1718). To conceptualize the ideological domination embedded
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748
Discourse & Society 20(6)
in mass media, critical discourse analysis (CDA) is one of the approaches often
adopted in order to analyze media discourse.
CDA outlines language as a social practice, which must be discussed along
with other social practices, like social ideology and power domination (Fairclough,
1992, 1995). One of its tenets is that the style of discourse in mass media can be analyzed to uncover power domination or social inequality. Analyzing discourse on
the basis of networks of social practices would allow researchers to investigate
how differently social constructs determine the variations of language, and what
language use conveys about various social structures. Similarly, Van Dijks (2001)
discoursecognitionsociety triangle lays a solid groundwork for CDA. From
his social-cultural perspective, he stresses the need for language to be discussed
alongside cognitive and social phenomena and asserts that this triangular
interface empowers language to reflect the cultural and socio-economic beliefs
of members in the same community (p. 97).
In Van Dijks model of critical discourse analysis, three components illustrate
how discourse may reflect social ideologies, namely: discourse, cognition, and
society. Discourse refers to discourse structures realized in diverse forms, such
as written text, speech, gestures, facial expressions, etc. Cognition here includes
personal/social beliefs, understanding, and evaluation engaged in discourse, while
society concerns local interlocutor relationships or global societal structures such
as political systems and group/subgroup relations (Van Dijk, 2001). Concerned
with all three aspects at once, Van Dijk states that it is only the integration of
these accounts that may reach descriptive, explanatory and especially critical
adequacy in the study of social problems (p. 98). In other words, social ideology
may be reflected by identifying the crucial link between macrolevel analyses of
groups, social formations and social structure, and microlevel studies of situated,
individual interaction and discourse (Van Dijk, 1995: 18).
In general, CDA studies can be broadly categorized into two research trends
one concerned with representations of news events across different news media
platforms, and the other centering on social prejudice and trends of power
domination in the social world (see also Kuo and Nakamura, 2005). The second
trend, with its focus on analysis of prejudiced thinking, is closely related to
the concept of stereotype. The notion of stereotype was first recognized as an
important concept in the social sciences by Lippmann (1922), who described
stereotypes as pictures in our heads. Stereotypes come into being primarily
through shared knowledge and experiences received in a given society (Murachver
and Janssen, 2007). In White and White (2006), the issue of the individual and
cultural origins of stereotypes is discussed thus:
Persons acquire stereotypes, in part, through personal experience. But because
stereotypes are part of the beliefs and shared assumptions that societies have about
different types of people and groups, they are also part of the societys collective
knowledge. (p. 259)
They here enunciate that stereotypes form in an individuals perception of the

world around them through both continuing contact with that world and the
influence of social values. This claim has been widely supported in studies on
stereotypes (e.g. Murachver and Janssen, 2007; Perkins, 1979).
Perkins (1979: 80) identified several essential traits of stereotype, referring to

it as a group concept that demonstrates an inferior judgmental process . . . [that]
give[s] rise to simple structure . . . [and that is a] predominantly evaluative . . . selective,
cognitive organizing system. Stereotypes are linked to given ideologies and in
that sense they not only represent ideological concepts but also perform diverse
ideological functions (Perkins, 1979). As an ideological concept, stereotype can
transcend different social groups, including major structural groups (e.g. ethnic
or gender groups) and structurally significant and salient groups (e.g. mothersin-law or scientists); these are all interesting research issues for CDA researchers.
Within major structural groups, gender stereotypes have aroused great attention
in the study of media discourse. Stereotypes of the different genders are not
only descriptive enough to highlight how they act differently, but prescriptive
enough to specify what qualities women and men should have (Prentice and
Carranza, 2002).
Gender is generally treated as a social construct that signals the psychological,
social and cultural differences between males and females (Giddens, 1989: 158).
Because gender is marked in communication, stereotypes of genders are thus
formed (Murachver and Janssen, 2007). In gender research, a great number of
works have demonstrated how differently females and/or males are portrayed
in media texts, particularly in TV and magazine advertisements. For instance,
advertisements constantly convey overt and covert messages about the
importance of and expectations for each sex (Greve Spees and Zimmerman,
2002: 79). Neto and Pinto (1998) studied depictions of gender in Portuguese
TV advertisements, and found the pervading stereotypes similar to those found
in other Western countries. Stereotypical images thus emerge across different
cultures (see also Chi and Baldwin, 2004). One typical media message is that
women are put under pressure to sell their beauty by using make-up, high heels
and bras (e.g. Greer, 1999). Cortese (1999: 21) explained that this aesthetic
conception is socially constructed and biologically shaped, and that our thinking not only determines the representation of women in media but is influenced
by it constantly.
Despite the popularity of the issue of gender stereotypes (e.g. Greve Spees
and Zimmerman, 2002; LaTour et al., 1998; Thomas and Treiber, 2000), little
research has focused on the conventional perception of artists working in show
business. Show business is at once heavily scrutinized and enigmatic. It regularly
features in news reports and daily conversations, with daily updates keeping
readers informed about developments in the personal and professional lives of
celebrities. Yet the world of show business remains out of bounds for most, and
is therefore shrouded in a mystery of exclusivity which engenders more interest
in it. Media sources are the only point of access for most people, thus media
discourse heavily impacts on peoples perceptions of the entertainment world,
creating stereotyped perceptions.
Studying the stereotypes of female and male celebrities may reflect the publics
preconceptions of gender. To explore how female and male artists are stereotyped
in the Taiwanese press, it is worth focusing first on tabloid journalism, which
highlights celebrity-related gossip from a human interest perspective.
750 Discourse & Society 20(6)
Tabloid culture, audience design and critical

discourse analysis
Tabloid refers to a type of news, which focuses on sensational or gossip-filled
reports of crime stories or the personal lives of celebrities. Because of its content,
the word tabloid is often used in a derogatory sense, and tabloid journalism
is generally assumed to be bad journalism (rnebring and Jnsson, 2004).
Although associated with negative connotations, tabloid newspapers have
attracted a large amount of readership worldwide and the popularity of tabloid
journalism has caused a trend of tabloidization. Tabloidization refers to the
process whereby media outlets shift their focus from political and international
issues to sensational stories, with celebrity, crime, and scandal featuring heavily.
According to analysis by McLachlan and Golding (2000), tabloidization features
an increase in human interest stories (e.g. crime and entertainment) and
full-color pictures, but a reduction in text length and hard news stories (e.g.
international and political news).
The emergence and development of tabloids can be explained by means of
Allan Bells (1984, 1997) concept of audience design. In an early sociolinguistics
study on language style, Bell explored how newsreaders spoke differently on two
different radio stations in New Zealand. He discovered that the same newsreaders
produced more prestige-marking variables on the more prestigious station, and far
fewer on the local community station. Bell explained that the speakers language
style was shaped to accommodate the target audiences tastes. Furthermore,
extending his Audience Design framework to mass communications, Bell (1997)
argued that mass communications are also under the same pressure of audience
design because they have to win the approval of their audience in order to
maintain their audience size or market share (p. 243). With Bells framework of
audience design kept in mind, we argue that reader interests play a crucial role
in the language style of tabloid journalism. That is, reader interests determine
writers choice of news coverage.
As stated above, CDA may help to reflect the interdiscursive relationships
of discourse and social ideology. Also, according to Esser (1999), tabloidization
highlights social phenomena on the macro level by analyzing micro-level media
messages. It is thus worth discussing how tabloid culture can be mapped onto
Van Dijks (2001) discoursecognitionsociety framework (see Figure 1). CDA
is primarily structured in a top-down manner and underscores the effects of
socio-cultural or socio-political contexts on discourse (Van Dijk, 1993). We
thus look at tabloid culture from the societal perspective first. At the society
level, journalism is always resolved in a social context. In most countries where
tabloids are popular, people are endowed with freedom of speech, and so can
choose from a wide variety of news topics to read. To attract readers for market
share, writers have to understand the tastes of particular readerships and provide
them with what they need or want to know. At the cognition level, to provide
readers with what they expect, tabloid writers also have to know what may
be interesting to the public: sensationalism. To manipulate sensational topics,
writers need to understand the general attitudes and beliefs shared in different
F I G U R E 1 . Current research status: interdiscursive relationships between the tabloid culture

and Van Dijks discoursecognitionsociety triangle
social groups. Based on their understanding of a given readership, writers

structure the discourse style of news stories to meet the needs of that readership,
highlighting controversial or colorful elements. Based on this, we can hypothesize
a study of tabloidization by means of applying critical discourse analysis to
reproduce social stereotypes.
Gender stereotypes in mass media

Mass media is considered a primary channel through which the study of gender
representations in society may be conducted as it implicitly involves messages
about and images of women and men. A number of works in gender research
have demonstrated that women and men are portrayed differently in mass media.
Women are more likely to be portrayed as alluring sex objects, a group of nonworking or decorative characters who are subservient to men, while men are
depicted as power-dominant characters with strong working role portrayals
(e.g. Chi and Baldwin, 2004, McKnight, 1974; Signorielli and Leavs, 1992;
Soley and Kurzbard, 1986; Whelehan, 2000). To begin with, womens and
mens magazines are found to convey different stereotypical ideas of womanhood
and/or manhood to their readerships. McKnight (1974) analyzed the content
of engineering and trade magazines, and he discovered that over one third
of these magazines presented at least one advertisement that conveyed sexist
ideas. This high percentage of sexist advertisements ensures that, more so
than men, women are firmly associated with sexual images (Easton and Toner,
1983). On the whole, women are illustrated as alluring sex objects (Soley and
Kurzbard, 1986; Whelehan, 2000). In addition, a cross-gender comparison of
mobile phone advertisements demonstrated the various portrayals of genders in
media. Dring and Pschl (2006) analyzed 288 advertisements in a selection of
German magazines to discern the different settings in which men and women
were depicted. Their results showed that women were often associated with a
relaxing setting or decorative functions, whereas men were often depicted as
being involved in work, sports and so on.
One cross-cultural comparison study by Chi and Baldwin (2004) investigated
gender and class stereotypes in US and Taiwanese magazine advertisements in
two different years, 1988 and 1998, and yielded findings consistent with the
above studies. They analyzed the working roles, non-working activities, and
outfits of the models in the advertisements. They discovered that men were
often depicted as working characters while women were mainly associated with
non-working portrayals for both years. On the other hand, in terms of class
stereotypes in both years, working men were often cast in high-level business,
professional, and blue-collar labor/civil service roles, whilst working women were
placed in entertainment/sports, and mid-level business/non-professional whitecollar roles. With respect to non-working images, men were cast in roles where
they engaged in recreational activities (such as jogging, swimming, and fishing)
and women were represented in decorative roles (e.g. as an adornment to a key
role, like a passer-by looking at a handbag in a models hands). On the whole,
their study reflected the image of women in advertisements as inferior to that of
men in US and Taiwanese magazines.
Furthermore, stereotypical depictions of genders can often persist in a social
community for an extended period of time. One study by Davis (1990) reviewed
the gender roles of women in TV programs from the 1950s to the 1970s, and
discussed how the roles of women changed from the 1970s to the 1980s.
According to her review, women in the 1950s to the 1970s not only had much
lower media exposure on TV than men, but were often stereotyped as more
emotional, more dependent, less intelligent, less power-dominant characters or
less capable planners (e.g. Busby, 1975; Gerbner and Gross, 1974; Head, 1954;
Lemon, 1977; Sternglanz and Serbin, 1974). The analysis of TV programs in
the 1980s showed that female characters existed mainly to grab the attention
of viewers through means of youth and beauty, in ironic contrast to the male
characters that possessed wisdom and unique qualities. Davis therefore concluded that there were few changes concerning the gender roles of women from
the 1970s to the 1980s; in other words, female stereotypes usually remained
consistent for a very long period of time.
The rationale behind this study

The topic of gender stereotypes has come under heavy scrutiny in sociological/
discourse research, but has been limited by the fact that the stereotyping of gender
in the entertainment world has been practically ignored by previous research.

However, that the public is bombarded by news stories about celebrities cannot
be denied. Tabloid journalism has been viewed as a kind of market-driven
journalism (McManus, 1994), and its effect is dual in that it has an impact on
public perceptions, while also reflecting the commonly held beliefs of a given community. Gauntlett (2002: 1) highlights the fact that issues of gender and sexuality
are at the core of how we think about our identities and that our interpretation
of identity is influenced by mass media. Most peoples knowledge about celebrities
today is gained primarily through mass media, particularly newspapers and
TV programs. How these media represent different female and male celebrities
will thus directly influence our perceptions of them, and possibly create the
perpetuation of sex stereotypes (Greve Spees and Zimmerman, 2002: 79).
As Bell (1997: 249) highlights, language constitutes social reality as well as
reflecting it. Also, Perkins (1979) states that thoughts selected as stereotypes
usually have particular ideological significance (p. 83). We can thus argue
that analyzing gender stereotypes may reproduce social ideologies. Following
Van Dijks (2001) discoursecognitionsociety perspective, the present study
addresses two research issues: (1) What are the prevailing gender stereotypes
in entertainment-centric tabloids? and (2) Do the stereotypes identified in the
tabloids represent highly defined social beliefs? Taken together, these two lines
of research allow us to examine interrelations between tabloid culture, gender
stereotype, and social ideology as a whole.
The database and analytic method

This study is based on data gleaned from a specific column in the entertainment
section of the Apple Daily (AD), which first appeared in Taiwan on 2 May 2003.
Pioneering in that it used color printing on all pages, AD aimed to uncover
political scandals and throw light on other hidden, illegitimate events. Because
of its provocative and pugnacious style of reportage, AD has been perceived
as a tabloid newspaper (Peng, 2006). Since its first release, it has attracted a
large readership, and been reputed as one of the best-selling newspapers in
Taiwan. According to a circulation survey administered by The Audit Bureau
of Circulation,1 R.O.C. (2004), as shown in Peng (2006), daily circulation of
the AD stood at around 450,000 copies in June 2004, and a more recent survey
(August 2008) shows that average daily circulation reached 529,391 copies
in August 2008. By generating such a following, the AD has motivated other
print media outlets to keep up, resulting in a trend of tabloidization in local journalism (Peng, 2006).
The Apple Daily contains six primary sections, including local news, international news, entertainment news, and business news. For the purpose of
this study, we focus on the Entertainment Section. The Entertainment Section
has three geographically classified themes: news concerning Taiwanese/Hong
Kong/Chinese celebrities, Western celebrities, and Korean/Japanese celebrities,
with reports on local artists taking up the most space. With a strong tabloid bent,
the Entertainment Section features shocking news stories, such as extramarital

affairs, which often cause a stir in society. The writing style in this section is
generally objective, with the exception of Muguaxia tucao (Papaya Xias Satire),
which is the primary source of data collection in this study.
Muguaxia tucao is a gossip-oriented column, expressing subjective opinions,
often sneering at Taiwanese celebrities. An overt air of the tabloid pervades the
whole column, the style of language and choice of content are extravagant,
sensationalistic, over-dramatized and focused almost entirely on a human
interest angle and the personality (Bird, 1992; Sparks and Tulloch, 2000, as
shown in Langer, 2003: 135). This column addresses several narrative stories
daily, in each of which the reporter relates more-or-less unverified stories to
readers. The reporter also attempts to construct in-group relationships with
readers. Instead of expressing her opinions in the first-person voice I (e.g. I
think or I feel), the reporter consistently presents her viewpoints by clearly reidentifying the reporter name (e.g. Ah-Xia thinks or Ah-Xia feels).
It must be assumed that constant reiteration of the reporters name serves
at least two functions. On one hand, it creates a sense that it is a privilege to be
privy to the gossip on offer, building the in-group-specific common ground
between readers and the writer (Ng and Bradac, 1993: 168). Common ground is
important contextual information that helps to coordinate information exchange
and increase its efficiency (p. 168). In this gossip column, the reporter attempts to
establish shared common ground with the readers in the peer role of more-or-less
a friend reporting what she knows. Taking this common ground as a platform,
the column can explicitly establish the engagement of readers by creating more
intense in-group relationships with them. On the other hand, re-identifying
writers names also enables the writer to mitigate the subjectivity of her gossipfilled reports in the first person voice I, to the level that the gossip sounds more
objective and acceptable to the readers in the third-person voice.
On a daily basis, this column criticizes celebrities that are in the spotlight in
order to humanize them, making readers feel that celebrities are not perfect. As
a stylistic writing convention, the writer always presents a piece of more-or-less
unworthy news about newsworthy celebrities, which she claims to have seen in
person or heard from others. The report of the event is usually followed by some
sarcastic remarks about the character in question. In addition to Muguaxia, this
column also features a fictitious male character, Ah-Piao, who is said by her to be
Muguaxias boyfriend. However, Ah-Piao never appears in any news events, and
he is mentioned by Muguaxia only once in a while, usually as her lover.
Tabloid is considered one form of market-driven journalism which prioritizes
stability or expansion in readership (McManus, 1994). To attract its target
readers, the style of language employed in this gossip column overtly emphasizes
human interest news stories, which reflects Bells (1984) idea of audience design.
We can thus hypothesize at the outset of this study that studying the subjective
opinions in this gossip column would reflect reader interests, and may further
reproduce social stereotypes with respect to female and male artists. Our data
were collected from Muguaxia tucao columns that appeared during May 2008.
The daily news reportage was about three to four events, and the database
amounted to 111 news entries. The collected data were analyzed principally
using the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach. Meyer (2001) states that
the analysis of CDA largely draws upon various linguistic categories such as
actors, time, argumentation, and symbolism. To investigate how language is
organized and presented, social constructs have to be taken into consideration.
Van Dijk (2001) also points out that the choice of discourse properties such as
lexical style and topic choice may provide the basis for analysis. For studies on
the relations of discourse and sexism, Van Dijk adds that they should not limit
themselves to the analysis of specific linguistic structures only, but also take
into account the textcontext relations (p. 99). The content of discourse can
be discussed in terms of how topic choices, propositions, and word choices relate
to the beliefs or ideologies of the group members.
In this study, we focus on the extent to which the writer Muguaxia/Ah-Xia
portrays female and male artists differently by considering the headline of each
text, propositions, lexical choices, and syntax. According to Fairclough (1992),
text can be analyzed in terms of interactional control, ethos, metaphors, wording,
and grammar (as in Jorgenson and Phillips, 2002: 83). We paid particular
attention to the metaphors and wording associated with female and male artists.
The writers comments that usually begin Ah-Xia renwei (Muguaxia thinks) or
Ah-Xia juede (Muguaxia feels) are identified for primary inclusion in the data
analysis. The identified token was analyzed based on a grounded theory process
(Strauss and Corbin, 1994), in order to reproduce stereotypes that underlie the
writers language style.
Because this column features stories on non-artist celebrities such as a politician once in a while, news reports that focused on non-artist celebrities were
excluded from our discussion. Finally, only 109 news texts, amounting to 29,103
words, underwent investigation. Furthermore, according to Van Dijk (2001),
headlines embed global semantic macrostructures that play a fundamental
role in communication and interaction, and main texts represent what these
are about in detail (pp. 1012), so these two textual structures were taken
into consideration in our analysis. Also, because pictures and accompanying
annotations generally did not contain Ah-Xia comments, they were excluded
from the data analysis.
Bell (1991) claims that the language style and content of news are often
shaped and determined by audience design. As a reflection of what the audience
wants, media can reflect reality . . . co-orchestrate dominant beliefs . . . [and]
create reality (Leitner, 2001: 188). To explore to what extent the stereotypes
embedded in Muguaxia tucao reflect generally held beliefs about female and male
artists in society, the ideological concepts identified in this column were included
in a subsequent online questionnaire given to 120 adults and adolescents (see
Appendix 1). Each questionnaire item was measured on a five-point Likert scale:
(1) Strongly Disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Unclear, (4) Agree, and (5) Strongly Agree.
The results of the questionnaire permit us to look into the interaction of media
discourse and social ideology in greater detail.
Results
The results of this study will be discussed in relation to stereotypes held in regard
to female and male artists. Through a grounded theory process, each news report
was analyzed and tallied in as many gender stereotypes as deemed applicable
by two doctoral students in Applied Linguistics. In the following analysis, we
discussed eight stereotypes separately. The eight stereotypes identified in the
corpus were further developed into an online questionnaire of 12 items, with
eight statements concerning female artists and four statements relating to
male artists. Finally, the statistical results of the questionnaire were presented in
order to investigate the link between stereotypes embedded in media discourse
and typical social beliefs.
THE TEXTUAL PATTERN OF TEXT HEADLINES
Story headlines serve to define the topic of a text, and what appears in the
headline is usually considered the most pertinent and important information
in the text (Bowles and Borden, 1997). Headlines play dual roles in every news
story: to encapsulate the story in a few words and to attract the readers desire to
read the text (Bell, 1991; Bowles and Borden, 1997; Reah, 2002). As a premier
information carrier, a good headline should present essential factual details to
readers so that they can effectively obtain a big picture of what is discussed in
the main text. A good headline should also appear as an attention-grabbing
billboard, drawing readers attention and motivating them to continue reading.
To make headlines as eye-catching as possible, writers often draw upon a wide
variety of language devices, such as words with identical, related or multiple
meanings and sounds (e.g. homophone, polyseme, and homonym), familiar
phrases with intertextual connections, and emotionally loaded words (Reah,
2002: 1718). In addition, headlines also have both cognitive and ideological
influences on readers, because the writer may implicitly or explicitly present a
self-opinion that influences readers understanding and interpretation of an
event (Van Dijk, 1991). With its persuasive function, headlines can function as
opinion manipulators impacting on readers opinions toward an issue (Reah,
2002: 28). They help a writer to communicate to the reader their own attitudes
toward the entire event.
As is typical of tabloid newspapers, headlines of the news stories in our
database were mostly formulated with the writers own attitudes highlighted.
The 109 headlines were highly patterned in the sense that each contained a
coordinate structure comprising two conjuncts: a descriptive statement followed
by a comment by the writer. In this ritualized pattern, an initial statement
is given to describe the role played by the central character. The follow-up
comment then serves one of several functions, such as criticizing or mocking
the celebrity in question. For instance, the headline in the following is typical of
the internal pattern of headlines in this gossip column. The headline consists of
two sentences, with the first sentence stating the international star Zhangs grief
over the Si-chuan earthquake. In the second sentence, Ah-Xia gives a sarcastic
comment by advising Zhang to stop partying and donate her own money to the
cause. Furthermore, in general, headlines are outlined in more literary than

oral styles (Kuo, 2007); however, headlines in this tabloid column feature strong
orality instead of typical literacy. The strong orality of its language primarily lies
in the use of lexical words that often occur in colloquial language, for instance,
paopa partying in the headline below. Liu (2007) indicates that the readers of
Apple Daily (AD) are mostly adults between the ages of 20 and 39. The audiencedesign effect of newspaper writing may thus play a role in determining the
orality of language in this tabloid column, in order to cater to the language of its
target readers. Having these textual features kept in mind, we analyzed Ah-Xias
comments embedded in both the headline and the main text.

Zhang Zi-yi buluoge beitong Si-chuan zhenzai: bie paopa kuai juanqian (15 May 2008)
Zhang Zi-yi agonizes over the terrible Si-chuan earthquake on her blog: Stop partying and
start donating some money!
GENDER STEREOTYPES IN NEWS TEXTS
Female artists commercialization of physical attractiveness

Female celebrities appear more frequently than their male counterparts in this
gossip column. The 109 episodes were classied into three categories: femalefocused, male-focused, and no-exclusive-gender-focused events. Of the 109 news
entries studied, 58 discussed female artists (53.2%), 45 focused on male artists
(41.3%), and six did not have an exclusive gendered focus (5.5%).
Our analysis demonstrated that at least seven entries conveyed a stereotypical preconception of female celebrities using physical attractiveness to
put themselves in the spotlight. One entry reporting on a female singer whose
beautiful singing never gained her any real popularity is indicative of this attitude. Ah-Xia suggests the singer ask advice from a dancer, who gained notoriety
when her breast was accidentally exposed during a performance, about how
to buxiaoxin (accidentally) bare her breast to help her on the road to fame. In
(1a), in the phrase how to accidentally bare your breasts, the use of how and
accidentally hint that exploiting ones physical attractiveness is one tactic for
upping media hype.
Masking and boosting are two types of linguistic device frequently utilized in
Ah-Xias comments, each serving different rhetorical functions. On one hand,
Ah-Xia often masks her sarcastic viewpoints in the form of a suggestion, literally
followed by verbs like jianyi (advise), fengquan (advise), quan (advise), and tixing
(remind). The formation of this literal mask effectively presents her criticism
of female artists act of commercializing their physical attractiveness under
the guise of sound advice. According to Ng and Bradac (1993: 147), masking
can help a writer or speaker to objectify propositions and to represent reality
mentally to himself or herself and to others as well as for maintaining a sense of
reality over time. The masking effect thus functionally represents to readers the
stereotype that exploiting ones physical attractiveness enables a female artist to
win media hype in a more objective manner. Also, speaking of persuasiveness, Ng
and Bradac (1993: 46) quoted Bradac, Bowers, and Courtrights (1979) study
and maintained that high-intensity language can enhance the persuasiveness

of male utterances but inhibit that of female utterances. By contrast, lowintensity language will more likely help females increase their persuasiveness.
This finding may serve as an apt explanation to account for the writers masking of her criticism under the cover of lower-intensity advice, rather than a
direct argument.
On the other hand, unlike the objectifying effect of literal masking, boosting
devices are used to intensify the force of an assertion (Holmes, 2001). At the end
of Ah-Xias suggestion, baozheng (guarantee) boosts its force, indicating serious
feasibility. Baozheng further reinforces the truth value of her overall message that
female artists can earn media hype by exploiting their physical attractiveness.
(1a) D
Jiang Mei-qi chang bansi mei dahong: gai liang D nai le

Ah-Xia juede Xiao-mei changgong liaode que yizhi wufa dahong jianyi ta qu gen
guobiaowu nuwang Liu Zhen taojiao ruhe buxiaoxin chuanbang lounai shihou zai
kuge lihuadaiyu hanwei qingbai xue hui zhe yizhaobanshi Ah-Xia baozheng Xiao-mei
zouhong zhirikedai. (5/05/2008)
Despite singing her best, Jiang just cannot get famous: Time for her to bare her D-Cup
breasts
Ah-Xia thinks that Xiao-Mei is a fantastic singer but no matter how hard she tries,
she just cannot become famous. Ah-Xia advises her to learn from Liu Zhen, Taiwans
ballroom dancing queen, how to bare her breasts accidentally. Then cry her eyes out
declaring her innocence. The moment Xiao-mei learns this skill, Ah-Xia guarantees
that fame will be just around the corner!
Note also how tears are associated with female artists in this episode. Tears are
portrayed as a tactic to help female artists court compassion from others. In
(1a), Ah-Xia claims that, if the singer can defend her innocence in tears after the
planned accident, she will win fame and popularity. This shows the perception
that although female artists attempt to gain media hype by exposure of their
physical attractiveness, they would then often portray themselves as victims.
Taken together, the intentional act of exposing their bodies, along with crying
in front of the media to win compassion, hint at the idea that female artists are
skillful at manipulating their physical attractiveness for media hype.
Hidden rivalries between female artists
One aspect of female celebrity lives frequently focused on was the rivalry between
female stars. Show business is often ironically portrayed as a competitive community where everyone fights in order to gain fame and wealth (as shown on
26 May 2008). Clashes between female artists, in particular, were highlighted
in our data. Four separate reports on female artists indicated females proclivity
for scheming against each other. Example (2a) centers on two leading actresses
in a local drama who reportedly schemed against each other either in dramas, in
private, or both. Sarcasm is discernible in Ah-Xias choice of words like zhuangheqi
(pretend to be buddies) and haoyanji (acting skills) in the headline and
yanjing xiang penhuo yiyang (their eyes seem to be spewing fire). In one respect,
zhuangheqi and haoyanji represent an insistence that the apparent harmony in
the lives of the actresses is in fact hypocritical pretence. In another way, yanjing
xiang penhuo yiyang is a metaphor in the form of a simile, and according to Ng
and Bradac (1993: 138), a metaphoric expression like this can induce in a
reader new thoughts of a particular kind. Eyes can never spew fire in any case;
in this text, the purpose of saying that eyes are spewing fire is to intensify the
tension between the two actresses. The attributes of fire-spewing eyes impose
an emotional loading on the rivalry on both sides, therein reflecting that their
competition is extremely fierce and sharp.
Furthermore, the use of mingyanren dou kandechu (observant people around
them all realize) conveys the notion that Ah-Xias report does not depend on
subjective observations, but a fact that is clear to see. This is a technique to
not only reduce the subjectivity of Ah-Xias report but also to invoke the high
engagement of readers. Moreover, the boosting device guozhen (truly) again
helps to intensify the force of Ah-Xias argument, persuading readers to take the
two female artists rivalry seriously.
(2a) 1
1
!......
Yeh Chuan-zhen Zhang Feng-shu xiwai zhuangheqi: 1 jie haoyanji
Tamen zai xiuxishi hui kaixin shuoxiao bu xiang renjia jiang de buhe liangwei 1 jie de
yanji guozhen jiao Ah-Xia peifu ah! . . . mingyanren dou kandechu tamen xili xiwai
dou pinming yanjing xiang penhuo yiyang. (21/05/2008)
Yeh Chuan-zhen and Chang Feng-shu pretend to be buddies in real life: Their
Miss Congeniality acting skills are top-notch
Both of them seem to be getting along very well in the rest area, laughing and enjoying each
others company. This is not in keeping with the gossip we heard, which says that they dont
get along. Well, their acting skills truly amaze Ah-Xia . . . But observant people around them all
realize that though they are always at their best, acting or not, their eyes seem to be spewing fire.
Social opinions on the marital status of female celebrities

Stereotypical depictions of women also demonstrate that social expectations have
a profound impact on the expectations put on female artists regarding marital
issues. Tabloids not only make strong associations between female artists and
marriage in their content, but hint that the social image of female artists relies
on that of their spouse. As shown in the texts, it is not surprising to know that
female artists are under great pressure from social opinion concerning the way
they should behave and what qualities they should look for in their future spouse.
First, Example (3a) shows the intense relationships between female artists social
image and that of their spouse. The use of negative female-associated labels
such as aiqian (love money), waimaoxiehui (only care about appearances),
and laogupo (spinster) reveals that social images of female celebrities are often
influenced by perceptions of their spouse and marital status, and more often, they
are attached with different derogatory labels concerning the traits they look for
in their future spouse. Furthermore, an aspect worth noting is the style in which
renjia (people) are portrayed. In the text, the term renjia does not indicate any
explicit referential index; instead, more relevant to our current concern, it is used
to refer externally to a considerable number of people throughout the whole of
society. The writer skillfully ascribes the stereotype of negative female-associated
labels to other people, which helps to objectify her report.
(3a)
!
Lin Chi-ling Yen Cheng-hsu che fuhe: xiaoxiao jiusuan le
Fengquan Chi-ling jiejie buyao luanjia jia xiaokai renjia shuoni aiqian jia shuaige
renjia pi ni waimaoxiehui bujia you bei xian dang laogupo hunyindashi haishi yao
xiang qingchu o. (7/05/2008)
Lin Chi-ling and Yen Cheng-hsu back together: Just laugh it off
We advise sister Chi-ling not to marry the wrong man. If you marry a rich mans son,
people will say that you love money, if you marry a handsome man, they will say you only
care about appearances. If you choose not to marry, they will say you want to be a spinster.
Marriage is an important matter, and you have to think it over properly!
Example (3b) also depicts social preconceptions about how unmarried female
artists should behave in order to maintain their good reputations as ladies. In
this example, Ah-Xia advises that the actress should maintain her yunuyanmian
(Jade Girl image) and should not look too ugly in the drama, because her
appearance would probably scare her boyfriend away and put an end to their
relationship. This shows that female artists are expected to be physically attractive
at all times, because their appearance will influence future marital fortune. Note
also that the final comment jia bu chuque jui can lou (it will be disastrous if nobody
wants to marry you) reveals the importance of marriage to female artists.
Failing to get married will put female artists in a miserable position, namely
spinsterhood. Taking these two examples together, we may thus conclude that
female artists are often associated with marriage and marriage is considered
vital to them. Failing to get married will be a disaster. Whats more, female
artists social image depends on that of their spouse, which often attracts more
derogative labels to them.
(3b)
Wang Yu-jie zhuang nuchou: yunu buyaolian

Dan ta bugu yunuyanmian weimian chouquotou le nuhaizi yao liuyidian geiren
tanting ruoshi xiadao nanyou jia bu chuqu jiu can lou. (19/05/2008)
Wang Yu-jie acts ugly: This Jade Girl is shameless
Even though she does not care all that much about her Jade Girl image, she sure looks
terrible. Girls should also be a little mysterious. What if you scare away your boyfriend? It
will be disastrous if nobody wants to marry you!
Dollar-motivated marriages of female celebrities

One inference that Ah-Xia frequently draws is to portray female artists as money
worshippers. According to her, female artists compete against each other to
marry into wealthy and influential families. The image of female artists is thus
often associated with that of wealthy men. For instance, Example (4a) discusses
a 19-year-old Hong Kong actress who has recently had a close relationship with
a 41-year-old billionaire. As a sarcastic comment, Ah-Xia first mentions the
phenomenon of nuxing zhengru haomen (female artists fighting to marry into
rich families), stating how common it is for female artists to pursue financially
motivated marriages. This is a conspicuous example of what is defined as
generalization in Ng and Bradac (1993). As they have suggested, writers and
speakers may generalize a definite number of referential indices to formulate
non-focused reality, as a means to many ends such as avoiding naming the exact
referential indices involved, building an in-group relation with the addressee,
and enhancing the influence of utterances (p. 159). In this excerpt, it is
interesting to note that Ah-Xia first indicates a generalized negative stereotype
of female artists pursuing financially motivated marriages, and later specifically
highlights Liangs case. The generalizing effect of this rhetorical style can result
in stereotypes being firmly formed: when a negative generalization is formed, it
is likely that the negative stereotype becomes much harder to eliminate (p. 160).
The expression nuxing zhengru haomen thus represents a generalized stereotype
made about most female celebrities.
(4a)
19
41
Liang Ruo-shi nianzhu Li Tse-kai: chuai diao qingdi zhuai ge pi
Ah-Xia zui aikan nuxing zhengru haomen de gushi zuijin yi 19 sui gangxing
Liang Ruo- shi de lizi zui jingcai ta nian shang xianggang 41 sui baiyi fushang
Li Tse-kai. (17/05/2008)
Liang Ruo-shi follows Li Tse-kai wherever he goes: She unscrupulously eliminates all
competition
Ah-Xia loves to watch famous female artists fight to marry into rich families. Recently,
19-year-old Hong Kong actress, Liang Ruo-xuan, has been the most exciting example.
She has been after Richard Li, 41-year-old billionaire in Hong Kong.
Female artists are also associated with a snobbish image in that they constantly
look for a wealthy Mr Right. In the following example, Ah-Xia claims to see
the top model Chen and a chubby man chit-chatting in a caf. She identifies
the model as a qiansao (money worshipper), and this word leaves the model
with a stigmatic image as a snobbish money worshipper, but the writer links
the female artist with a derogatory image and absolves the man from this. This
underscores the notion that money-worshipping is a specifically female trait. In
addition, as this report shows, it is worth highlighting that celebrities love affairs
are frequently a focus of tabloid journalism. While love affairs can help attract
readers, other non-scandalous issues are not considered newsworthy.
(4b) 2
Ah-Xia riqian zai jietou liugou turan kandao Chen Ssu-hsuan yu pangnan
zai kafeiting liaotian. . .Ah-Xia buyong 2 miaozhong jiu zhi meigaotou yinwei
Chen Ssu-hsuan shi qiansao zhewei pangnan shenshang wen budao qian de
weidao. (31/05/2008)

When Ah-Xia was walking her dog on the street, I suddenly saw Chen chatting with a fat guy
in a caf . . . Within two seconds, Ah-Xia realized that this is not newsworthy at all, because
while Chen is a money worshipper, this fat guy just does not have the smell of money.
Hypocrisy and insincerity among female artists

Criticism of female artists also pinpoints their hypocrisy and insincerity before
the media. Whereas actresses often like to express their love and sympathy for
the needy in society, Ah-Xia ironically refers to their heart-warming declarations
as a camera show. Example (5a) focuses on a world-famous Chinese actress
who expresses her sympathy for the deceased in the devastating 2008 Si-chuan
earthquake on her personal weblog. In the headline, the comment bie paopa
kuai juanqian (stop partying and start donating some money) is extremely
sarcastic. Formulated in the imperative mood, Ah-Xias sarcasm shows a parallel
construction: bie paopa (stop partying) and kuai juanqian (start donating some
money). The former, consisting as it does of a negation word bie (stop; dont),
works to give advice with the prohibitive mood, while the latter comprises an
indicative word kuai (start; hurry) which functions as sarcastic encouragement
to the female artists. Further, as the main news text reveals, the use of phrases like
buzhi shi zhen shi jia (not sure if she really meant what she wrote) shows Ah-Xias
skepticism about the female artists true feelings.
(5a)
Zhang Zi-yi buluoge beitong Si-chuan zhenzai: bie paopa kuai juanqian
Wenqing bingmao buzhi shi zhen shi jia huoxu Ah-Xia cuo guai ta le . . . Ah-Xia ye
yao tixing Zhang Zi-yi shuodao zuodao . . . buyao zhizhi ba ziji daban di shuidangdang
yuan zai meiguo paopa hun shangliu shehui. (15/05/2008)
Zhang Zi-yi agonizes over the terrible Sze-Chuan earthquake on her blog: Stop
partying and start donating some money!
Not sure if she really meant what she wrote. Perhaps Ah-Xia was wrong about her . . .
But Ah-Xia wants to remind Zhang Zi-yi to fulfill the promises she made . . . Hopefully she
will not forget what she said, and then dress up so she can party and mingle with the upper
classes in the USA.
Defects associated with male artists unappealing looks

Ah-Xias comments perpetuate certain derogatory stereotypes regarding female
artists, such as their willingness to exploit their physical attractiveness for media
hype. In contrast, discussion of male artists mainly concerns their appearance,
love affairs, and tactics to manipulate media hype. First, when criticism towards
male appearance occurs, the comment often draws associations between the
mans unappealing looks and some defect or failure that may come along.
For example, Ah-Xias comments reveal that looks are often prioritized as a
benchmark to judge whether male artists are likely to succeed professionally or
win the heart of a good-looking female artist. Example (6a) dates from the time
when the 2008 presidential inauguration ceremony was being organized by
the commander of a famous Taiwanese opera troupe, Chen, who is regarded as
less good looking than other male artists in the entertainment world. Because
Chen had not finalized arrangements regarding the host, hostess, and MCs two
weeks before the induction of the new president, Ah-Xia then sneers at the
delayed announcement, commenting that if the inauguration ceremony was
hosted by Chen, viewing figures would be the lowest ever. A final comment by
Ah-Xia, to think there are so many handsome men and beautiful women in the
entertainment industry, strengthens the assertion that Chens failure would lie
in his unappealing looks.
(6a)
Wanyi Chen Sheng-fu xiangbukai ziji shangchang jiuzhi dianli keneng chuan xia liren
zuidi shoushilu . . . fang yang yanyiquan shuaige meinu nameduo. (8/05/2008)
What if Chen Sheng-fu did not think it over properly and decided to appear on the show
himself? The inauguration ceremony would receive its worst ratings ever . . . to think there
are so many handsome men and beautiful women in the entertainment industry.
Likewise, Example (6b) associates a male artists less appealing looks with a
possible defect in personality and a possible failure to pursue a good-looking
female artist. In this extract, Ah-Xia taunts an ordinary-looking male singer
who reportedly has a crush on the Taiwanese supermodel, Lin. However, Lins
previous love affairs were with a rich businessman and a handsome actor, and
Ah-Xia then urges the male singer to face the reality that Lin would never even
consider going out with him. In the headline, Ah-Xia states that the male singer
revealed his lusty nature when meeting the top model, in which the male singer is
likened to zhuge (lecher). Whats more, Ah-Xia further compares the singer
with an actor, labeled as a dingji shuaige (top-class handsome man) in the text,
and predicts his failure on account of his average looks. Based on the above, we
assume that if male artists have less appealing looks, they are more likely to
be associated with defects in this tabloid. Links between looks and failure in career
or love relationships and personality defects are underscored in the reports.
Note also the question that appears at the end of the excerpt. According to
Freed (1994: 631), a question in conversation can be used to orient the hearer
to the speakers point of view, particularly for different rhetorical functions such
as sarcasm and irony. In this episode, it can be seen that interrogative structures
are exploited by Ah-Xia for persuasive purposes. Ah-Xias arguments are made
into interrogative forms, and can enable Ah-Xia not only to laugh at the singers
ineligibility to pursue the model on one hand, but to seek agreement from the
reader in a persuasive manner.
(6b)
?
Ah-du jian diyi mingmo dahui zhuge yuanxing
Ah-Xia quan ta bieyou feifenzhixiang bijing tingshuo ta gen Chiu Shih-kai yi lunji
hunjia lian Yen Cheng-hsu zheyang de dingji shuaige dou baizai Chiu Shih-kai
shouxia hekuang shi ta ne? (8/05/2008)

Ah-du shows his lusty true self when meeting Taiwans number one model
Ah-Xia advises him to stop having perverse thoughts; she is already discussing marriage
plans with Chiu Shih-kai. Even Yen Cheng-hsu, one top-class handsome man in Taiwan, did
not dare to make his move, so who does Ah-du think he is?
The bewildering love life of male artists

Through studying our data, we found that the portrayals of male artists often
bear relation to bewildering love affairs. In Example (7a), Ah-Xia focuses on
the relations between an actor and an actress who once played lovers in a TV
drama. As stated above, questions can be used for rhetoric functions, such as
persuasion, sarcasm, and irony. The final question in (7a) also serves the same
function. Although the actor tried hard to absolve himself from their scandal,
Ah-Xias final comment, hui bu hui ye tai yugaimizhang (is his cover-up just too
plainly obvious?), strengthens her belief in their intimate relations on the one
hand, and seeks agreement from the reader on the other hand. In Example
(7b), another scandal, concerning a singer and his assistant, is portrayed in a
gossip-filled report, creating an image of a bewildering relationship. This entry
discusses that the singer first denies that his assistant has become his girlfriend,
and later admits that she is his Miss Right. The use of again in the headline
and Ah-Xias comment on the male singer, shuoqihua fanfanfufu (not consistent
with what he says), both demonstrate that the singer often presents a confusing
mess of amorous connections to the public.
(7a) Ella
Ella!
?
Wu Chun ji pie Ella dixiaqing: zhengyan shuo xiahua
Ah-Xia ningyuan xiangxin ta he Ella ceng zaiyiqi chufei ta bu shi zhengchang
nanren! Erqie a Wu Chun lian Ah-Xia de wenti hai mei jiangwan jiu ji zhe fouren hui
bu hui ye tai yugaimizhang? (7/05/2008)
Wu Chun was quick to put aside rumors about his relationship with Ella: He lied
without blinking his eyes
Ah-Xia rather believes that he and Ella were together once before, unless he is not a real
man! Also, before Ah-Xia can finish her sentence, Wu Chun quickly refuted the rumor; is his
cover-up just too plainly obvious?
(7b)
...
Chi Chin you ren le dalu mazi: jiao fandian laolang ba

Youji ta jianren dalu zhuli Ya-ya bushi nuyou. . .ta zai buluoge shang shuo
Ya-ya zhi shi zhuli. . .buliao ta xianzai you moren dalu xiaonuyou. . .Chi Chin
shuoqihua fanfanfufu (28/05/2008)
Chi Chin admits he has a girlfriend from China again: Call him an insane old flirt
Dont we remember him denying adamantly that his Chinese personal assistant, Ya Ya, was
his girlfriend? . . . And didnt he say on his blog that Ya Ya is just his personal assistant?
. . . But now he silently admits that his assistant in China is his girlfriend. Chi Chin is not
consistent with what he says!
Manipulating bewildering love affairs for media exposure

Portrayals of male artists in the gossip column also emphasize how they manipulate their bewildering love affairs in order to get media exposure. Examples
(8a) and (8b) concern a male actor, Ho, who allegedly likes to cause confusion
amongst the public regarding which female artist he is truly in love with. Female
artists that are often associated with him include a Korean actress, Chang, and
one local actress, Chen. Supposedly perplexed by this male artists bewildering
love affairs, Ah-Xia recognizes the mans possible intention to obtain higher
media exposure with the help of this illusion. First, in (8a), the writer comments
in the headline, laogeng kan dao tu (what a disgusting old trick), criticizing Hos
act of creating the illusion over and over again. In the news text, the use of the
word again hints that Ho is keen on manipulating this kind of love illusion.
So, as shown in (8b), a few days later, when Ho is taking wedding pictures with
another make-believe girlfriend, Ah-Xia says bluntly that he is again jia jiehun
zhen laoqian (earning money from his fake wedding). Ah-Xia ironically urges
him not to dazuipao (say the wrong things).
Colloquial expressions are frequently used in this gossip column, and dazuipao
is one significant example. In Taiwan, dazuipao is a popular expression used
among teenagers and young adults, and is primarily used to describe people
who like to think or speak off the point. That is, when a person always likes to
talk about something unobtainable, he or she would be said to dazuipao. The use
of this kind of colloquial expression is very significant in tabloid journalism. As
pointed out in Liu (2007), most of the readers of Apple Daily (AD) are adults
between the ages of 20 and 39, who may use popular colloquial expressions more
frequently. The use of colloquial expressions like daquipao in AD are thus apt to
the target readers, and may help attract a larger readership.
(8a)
Chang Na-ra xiuqian Ho Jun-tung: laogeng kan dao tu

Ah-Xia zuo luguo Chang Na-ra taibei shouchang qianchanghui faxian
Ho Jun-tung you lai chongdang feiwen nanyou . . . keyi ba changmian gaode
henaimei (4/05/2008)
Chang Na-ra held Ho Jun-tungs hands bashfully: What a disgusting old trick
Ah-Xia walked by Chang Na-ras first singing and autographing session in Taipei, and found
that Ho Jun-tung was the make-believe boyfriend again . . . creating an ambiguous situation
on purpose.
(8b)
He Jun-tung Chen I-jung jia jiehun zhen laoqian

He Jun-tung yixia yu Chang Na-la gao yiguolian yixia you yu Chen I-jung pai
hunshazhao kan de Ah-Xia yanhualiaoluan Ah-Xia fengquan ta buyao dazuipao
jia jiehun zhen laoqian youzhong jiehun jiu xianzai jie (13/05/2008)
Ho Jun-tung and Chen I-jung actually earned money from their fake wedding
Ho Jun-tung was in a relationship with South Korean actress, Chang Na-ra, and now he is

taking wedding photographs with Chen I-jung. He sure confuses Ah-Xia. Ah-Xia advises him
not to say the wrong things anymore, earning money from his fake wedding; if he really
has the guts, he should just get married now.
This section investigates how female artists and male artists are portrayed
differently by the writer Ah-Xia in the gossip column. As stated above, female
artists appear more frequently in this gossip column than males. More gender
stereotypes are thus associated with female artists. Findings about the stereotypes
of both genders can be summarized as follows:
Female artists
They like to manipulate their physical attractiveness to increase media

exposure (1a)
They scheme against each other to achieve success in show business (2a)
They are under great pressure from public opinion concerning marriage
(3a, 3b)
They long for dollar marriages and are eager to marry into a wealthy family
(4a, 4b)
They are often hypocritical and insincere before the eyes of the media (5a)
Male artists
Their appearance directly influences their success in work and love

relationships (6a, 6b)
They seldom explain their love lives clearly to the general public (7a, 7b)
They manipulate their private affairs to get more media exposure (8a, 8b)
MEDIA DISCOURSE AS A REFLECTION OF SOCIAL STEREOTYPES
In order to explore the likelihood that the gender stereotypes identified in the
database are highly defined social stereotypes, the eight stereotypes were worked
into an online questionnaire of 12 items, which was created on the free online
survey-hosting website, my3q.com. Upon completion, this questionnaire was
publicized in two main ways. First, a request for survey respondent recruitment
was posted on a questionnaire board of a popular bulletin board system (BBS)
named PTT (telnet://ptt.cc), where academic researchers and graduate students can invite internet users to participate in their online surveys. The second
method came through the use of mass friend-network emailing. The same request
was mailed by the researcher to his friends and he solicited their assistance to
complete the survey as well as further forwarding the message to their friends in
the same way. It was believed that these two approaches for survey respondent
recruitment could invite a wide variety of participants to this study, resulting
in a higher generalizability of findings than focusing on one specific social
group alone.
The survey was accessible online from 23 June to 16 August 2008. By the
time of the survey conclusion, a total of 129 respondents had logged onto the
website and successfully completed the questionnaire. However, because this
study focused on ideologies in Taiwanese society, the researcher excluded data
collected from nine respondents, seven of whom indicated that they were
citizens of other countries (USA: two; China: four; others: one) and two of whom
did not identify their nationality. Thus, the responses of 120 respondents
were analyzed to discern whether the gender stereotypes discussed above are
highly defined social ideologies. These respondents were made up of 75 females
(62.5 percent) and 45 males (37.5 percent), aged from 16 to 39. The average
age of the respondents was 24.7 years, with males being 25.4 years (aged from
17 to 38 years) and females being 24.3 years (aged from 17 to 39 years).
They were from a wide range of professional backgrounds, such as academia/
education, marketing, service industries, engineering, and administration.
The 120 respondents responses provided a foundation with which to
identify socially dominant beliefs about Taiwanese celebrities shared by the
public. However, it is difficult to define how prevalent a stereotype needs to be
in order to be called a dominant one. In this study, our operational definition of
dominance would use 50 percent agreement as the cut-off point to judge whether
a stereotype is highly defined, as introduced by Perkins (1979). In other words,
if more than half of the survey respondents, i.e. 60 people, show agreement
with any one of the statements, we then consider it a dominant gender stereotype
(see Appendix 1 for a detailed report on the statistical results).
Our investigations into the questionnaire data show that 11 out of the 12
statements are reflective of highly defined social beliefs (see list below). The
statements that are considered dominant stereotypes are sequenced based on
their respective agreement rate. Contrastingly, one statement does not receive
an agreement rate higher than 50 percent, so it is not considered to be highly
defined. Although below the half way point, its agreement rate is quite close to
the standard, and this may indicate that a large number of respondents agree
with it. Taking all this together, we can thus argue that most of the identified
gender stereotypes are reflective of generally held social beliefs.
Highly defined stereotypes:
When female artists are pursuing love, they are often under pressure from
public opinion. (93.3%)2
Society imposes many expectations and limitations on female artists
behaviour. (88.3%)
Male artists love relations are complicated and confusing, and they are
seldom frank with the public. (82.5%)
Male artists looks will influence their show business and fame. (82.5%)
Female artists like to scheme against each other in order to obtain more media
exposure. (76.6%)
Female artists like to obtain more media exposure and media hype. (74.2%)
Female artists often say one thing but act differently. Who they are before the
media and in private are not consistent. (72.5%)
Female artists like to expose their bodies (e.g. breasts and legs) to boost their
careers in show business. (62.5%)
Male artists looks will influence whether or not they can succeed in pursuing
other female artists. (53.3%)
Female artists displays of emotion before the media are not genuine. (50.8%)
Male artists like to obtain more media exposure by manipulating their private
affairs. (50.0%)
Weaker stereotypes:
Female artists pursue dollar marriages and long to marry into a rich
family. (42.5%)
Furthermore, to explore whether the gender of the respondents influenced

their perceptions in the 11 dominant beliefs, an independent sample t-test
was performed with respondents gender set as the independent variable. Any
statistical difference would have demonstrated how differently female and male
respondents perceived each stereotypical depiction of celebrities, while statistical
insignificance may allow us to claim that those identified stereotypes are highly
defined in the social world, regardless of respondents gender. The statistical
results demonstrated that all of the statistical comparisons were insignificant
between respondents gender, except in Statements 2 and 3. The statistical
insignificances allow us to claim that the nine stereotypes of female and male
artists we discovered in the gossip column are widely shared by our respondents.
The results of Statement 2 Female artists often say one thing but act differently.
Who they are before the media and in private are not consistent. (t = 2.07, p < .05)
and Statement 3 Female artists displays of emotion before the media are not
genuine. (t = 2.09, p < .05) are significantly different in that male respondents
showed higher agreement rates than female respondents. However, both genders
responses differed only in the agreement rates, rather than the general attitudes
of each party. Although significantly different, both parties held positive attitudes
and agreed that female artistes may act differently in the media and in private, and
that their expressions of feeling in the media are not genuine. In this way, based
on our analyzed data, we may argue that the 11 dominant beliefs are the common
stereotypes held by the 120 respondents, regardless of respondents gender.
Discussion and conclusions

Based on its findings, this study has reflected different stereotypical depictions of
female and male artists in a gossip-filled tabloid column. In exploring the reasons
behind these differences, it is necessary to take into consideration the impact of
the socio-cultural context. First, as Easton and Toner (1983) stated, women were
often associated with a clearer sexual image in sexist advertisements than men.
Our study also showed that this clear sexual image is attached to women in the
Taiwanese tabloid culture, rather than men. Furthermore, empirical studies in
gender research have pointed out that women were often portrayed in relation
to their manipulation of youth and beauty for various decorative functions
in the media (e.g. Davis, 1990; Dring and Pschl, 2006; Greer, 1999). This
study also demonstrated that female artists physical attractiveness was largely
highlighted as one essential characteristic of their representation in the tabloid.
It shows that physical attractiveness even becomes the dominant focus of the
audience, while ability and talent are downplayed. In this way, female artists are
frequently associated with the likelihood that they manipulate their appearance for heightened media hype.
Adopting Van Dijks discoursecognitionsociety triangle, we may account for
the intense relationship between sensationalism and Taiwanese tabloid culture.
Owing to the success of the Apple Daily in Taiwan, local journalism demonstrates
a strong trend of tabloidization, adopting more sensational reports rather than
hard news reports in general. Print media in Taiwan show a high interest in
publishing sensational pictures, such as underskirt photos. Female artists
physical attractiveness has been a focus of the audience, and the perception is
that most of them can hardly succeed in show business with talent alone but need
physical attractiveness as well. Therefore, under the pressure of necessary media
exposure, female artists will naturally begin to commercialize their appearance,
hoping to win media exposure by showing off their physical attractiveness to
the public. This echoes Greers (1999) observation that women are often put
under pressure to sell their beauty. However, a deliberate act of exposure may
bring female artists an air of cheapness. Thus, they tend to sell their physical
attractiveness for media hype in an accidental way.
Second, female artists media images are strongly associated with notions
of marriage. Marriage has long been viewed as an important part of life that
completes a Chinese females womanhood. As women in the local culture, if
female artists fail to get married, they will most likely be labeled with an insulting
social stigma, such as laogupo (spinster; old maid). Also, in Chinese culture, the
ingrained womanly marital dogma, Jia ji sui ji jia gou sui gou (Marry a chicken,
you learn to fight; marry a dog, you bark at night) molds womens marital
concept, in the respect that they should follow their husband no matter what
his lot is. On the other hand, because, in this local culture, the social position
of married women often depends on that of their spouse, it is thus not surprising that female artists may consider marrying into a wealthy family
their best choice of marriage, in the hope of climbing up the social ladder. For
their own life profits and also for fear of the negative social stigma, female artists
may ostensibly expect dollar marriages. This is perhaps why they are often
associated with rich businessmen, resulting in the negative stereotype of being
money worshippers.
In contrast with female artists, male artists are linked with a sexual image less
frequently, and are stereotyped as wanting to show bewildering love relations
to the public for various purposes. In the entertainment world, ambiguous love
affairs can often create publicity for artists. For male artists, they are, on the one
hand, prone to creating illusions of intense relationships with different females.
However, on the other hand, to maintain their image as idols, male artists have
to deny the existence of any such love affairs. This intentional manipulation of
the media creates an ambiguity that will help the artist remain the focus of the
media. Whats more, the male artists appearance is often associated with their
eligibility as an artist. It seems that if a male artist has less appealing looks than
others, the media will most likely associate him with personal defects more often,
such as the failure to draw an audiences attention or a defect in personality.
Mass media constitutes a unique social institution that is largely influenced by the dominant social ideology. Following Leitner (2001) and Van Dijk
(1995, 1997), our analysis of the prevailing style of language employed in
tabloid journalism reflects the notion that stereotypes implicitly formulated
in the tabloid discourse are representative of a given social groups received
wisdom. In exploring the reasons behind those stereotypes, it is necessary
to take into consideration Bells Audience Design framework and Van Dijks
discoursecognitionsociety triangle (see Figure 1). The language style of
tabloids is oriented to the audiences taste in order to increase audience size
and market share (Bell, 1997). With this in mind, reporters have to understand
what readers enjoy reading the most, and present news stories in readers
preferred style. This reflects the intense relationship of discourse, cognition, and
society in Van Dijks framework.
Quoting Croteau and Hoyness (1997: 161) statement that media content
does reflect the inequality that exists in the social world and in the media
industry, we have found that genders are stereotyped differently in this specific
gossip column, Muguoxia tucao. Furthermore, most of the stereotypical depictions
we identified are highly defined social beliefs. Do social ideologies cause gender
stereotypes in the media or do gender stereotypes cause social ideologies?
This is the prototypical question asked about media discourse and social ideologies.
This study, however, made no attempt to tackle this chicken-or-egg question.
Instead, we intended to present the correlations between media discourse and
gender stereotypes in the social world, along with the interpretations that
accounted for the correlations from an ideological perspective. However, the
questionnaire on gender stereotypes of celebrities was given to only 120 people.
Due to the limited number of questionnaire respondents, we can only claim that
the social beliefs were the beliefs shared by those respondents, and they might not
be reflective of views held in society at large. In this way, future studies could be
conducted on a much bigger scale to investigate the general publics perceptions
of gender stereotypes in the entertainment world.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am grateful to the editor and the anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments on
this article. Sincere thanks also go to Dr Hsi-Yao Su and especially Ally Ming-Chia Lin
in the Department of English at National Taiwan Normal University for their perceptive
and helpful suggestions during the preparation of this article.
N OTE S
1. The Taiwan Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) is a non-profit organization that aims
to report and verify facts about the nationwide circulation of Taiwanese newspapers
and other publications.
2. The number in parentheses shows each agreement rate, which includes the ratings
of strongly agree and agree on the questionnaire.
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APPENDIX 1
Statistical results of the online questionnaire

Statement
1. Female artists like to scheme against each
other in order to obtain more media exposure.
2. Female artists often say one thing but act
differently. Who they are before the media and
in private are not consistent.
3. Female artists displays of emotion before the
media are not genuine.
4. Female artists pursue dollar marriages and
long to marry into a rich family.
5. Female artists like to expose their bodies
(e.g. breasts and legs) to boost their careers in
show business.
6. When female artists are pursuing love, they are
often under pressure from public opinion.
7. Society imposes many expectations and
limitations on female artists behavior.
8. Female artists like to obtain more media
exposure and media hype.
9. Male artists looks will influence their show
business and fame.
10. Male artists looks will influence whether
or not they can succeed in pursuing female
artists.
11. Male artists like to obtain more media exposure
by manipulating their private affairs.
12. Male artists love relations are complicated and
confusing, and they are seldom frank with the
public.
SA
SD
20.8
55.8
16.7
5.0
1.7
20.8
51.7
21.7
5.0
0.8
12.5
38.3
32.5 16.7
0.0
12.5
30.0
37.5 19.2
0.8
20.8
41.7
21.7 15.8
0.0
44.2
49.1
4.2
2.5
0.0
35.0
53.3
7.5
4.2
0.0
18.3
55.8
20.0
5.0
0.8
30.0
52.5
3.3 13.3
0.8
16.7
36.7
25.0 20.8
0.8
13.3
36.7
32.5 17.5
0.0
27.5
55.0
17.5
0.0
0.0
Note: Numbers show percentage. SA = strongly agree; A = agree; U = unclear;

D = disagree; SD = strongly disagree.
774
Discourse & Society 20(6)
H U N G - C H U N W A N G is a full-time lecturer at Hsin Sheng College of Medical Care

and Management in Taoyuan County, Taiwan. He received his Masters degree in
TESOL from National Kaohsiung Normal University. He is currently a doctoral student
in the Department of English at National Taiwan Normal University. His research
interests include discourse analysis, second language writing, and vocabulary
learning. A D D R E S S : No. 418, Gaoping Sec., Zhongfeng Rd, Longtan Township, Taoyuan
County 325, Taiwan (R.O.C.). [email: rogerhcwang@hotmail.com]

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Wang: Gender stereotypes in Taiwanese tabloids 747

Language and ideology: gender

Discourse & Society

This study adopts the Critical Discourse Analysis approach in

critical discourse analysis, gender stereotype, ideology, tabloid culture

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Discourse & Society 20(6)

They here enunciate that stereotypes form in an individuals perception of the

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Wang: Gender stereotypes in Taiwanese tabloids 749

Perkins (1979: 80) identified several essential traits of stereotype, referring to

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750 Discourse & Society 20(6)

Tabloid culture, audience design and critical

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Wang: Gender stereotypes in Taiwanese tabloids 751

F I G U R E 1 . Current research status: interdiscursive relationships between the tabloid culture

social groups. Based on their understanding of a given readership, writers

Gender stereotypes in mass media

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752 Discourse & Society 20(6)

The rationale behind this study

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Wang: Gender stereotypes in Taiwanese tabloids 753

in the entertainment world has been practically ignored by previous research.

The database and analytic method

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754 Discourse & Society 20(6)

the Entertainment Section features shocking news stories, such as extramarital

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Wang: Gender stereotypes in Taiwanese tabloids 755

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756 Discourse & Society 20(6)

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Wang: Gender stereotypes in Taiwanese tabloids 757

cause. Furthermore, in general, headlines are outlined in more literary than

Female artists commercialization of physical attractiveness

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758 Discourse & Society 20(6)

and maintained that high-intensity language can enhance the persuasiveness

Jiang Mei-qi chang bansi mei dahong: gai liang D nai le

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Wang: Gender stereotypes in Taiwanese tabloids 759

Social opinions on the marital status of female celebrities

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760 Discourse & Society 20(6)

Wang Yu-jie zhuang nuchou: yunu buyaolian

Dollar-motivated marriages of female celebrities

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Wang: Gender stereotypes in Taiwanese tabloids 761

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762 Discourse & Society 20(6)

Hypocrisy and insincerity among female artists

Defects associated with male artists unappealing looks

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Wang: Gender stereotypes in Taiwanese tabloids 763

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764 Discourse & Society 20(6)

The bewildering love life of male artists

Chi Chin you ren le dalu mazi: jiao fandian laolang ba

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Wang: Gender stereotypes in Taiwanese tabloids 765

Manipulating bewildering love affairs for media exposure