Quilted News: Mixing Hard & Soft News to Create a New Definition of Women’s NewsKimberly Voss, PhD. Associate ProfessorUniversity of Central FloridaLance Speere, M.S., Visiting Assistant ProfessorUniversity of Tampa

Florida Communication Association Conference, October 2013

Hard News vs Soft News

Kay Mills:

• “Hard news and soft news were by no means gender-free terms. Instead, they evoked rich gender implications.”

Women & Newspapers: 1950s & 1960s

Women’s Page Content

Hard News in Women’s Pages

Re-evaluating Soft News

Quilted News

Why It Matters

•Changing the historical narrative•Including women’s roles•Re-evaluating definitions of news