The Survey

A journalist can be described as a newspaper writer, a newscaster, a radio, TV broadcaster or an author. When we walked the streets of Boston we asked people about their favorite journalists. Many of the people we questioned did not understand what we meant by the word journalist. We asked fifteen people, of a variety of ages, questions about the media. Among the people interviewed, were three college students, two girls and a guy, two women tourists, three male politicians, three women who looked to be in their early thirties, and two men involved in police work. The questions were:

1. Who is your favorite journalist?

2. Who would you consider more of a hardcore woman journalist, Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey or Rosie O'Donnell?

The answers we received were somewhat similar to each other and then again different.

Linda, an accounting manager, said her favorite journalist is Jane Pauley and she felt that Barbara Walters was a more hardcore journalist. The student that she was sitting with, Monique, did not have a favorite journalist and she agreed with Linda about Barbara Walters being the most hardcore journalist.

One male police officer on break from being on duty told us that Joe Wambat, who writes about famous police cases, is his favorite journalist. The detective with him said that John Grisham, a novelist, is his favorite and they both agreed with the other women, as Barbara Walters is more of a hardcore woman journalist.

Two of the college students, a guy and a girl, did not know who was more of a hardcore journalist. The guy liked Jenny Jones because she is "trashy," and the girl said that she did not watch TV but she likes to watch Oprah once in a while.

We approached three women having a conversation near one of the open stands at Quincy Market. One of the women did not know any journalists because she was from Australia and she did not pay attention to the "American people of the news". Out of the other two women, one of them, who ran the stand, said that her favorite journalist is Barbara Walters. Joan Rivers was the other's favorite, although they both felt that Oprah Winfrey was a more hardcore journalist than Barbara Walters or Rosie O'Donnell.

 "Don't ask women questions. They talk too much." ~vender

One elderly couple relaxing on a park bench did not feel that it was necessary to answer our questions. They were interested in hearing about what we were doing in Boston but when we asked them about women in journalism the woman was too tired to answer questions and the man said,"I'm anti-woman anything."

On the streets of Boston a campaign was going on. We decided to ask three older male politicians the questions. We were somewhat surprised by what their answers came out to be. All three said that their favorite journalist is Tom Brokaw and they thought that Rosie O'Donnell and Jenny Jones were more hardcore than Barbara Walters or Oprah Winfrey.

One Scottish tourist we interviewed told us that where she is from, women are very dominate and that there are more women than men in the journalism field. Mostly among the media is where we would find more women. She said about women that they,"Hold their own with the blokes."