Gender, new science, and old stories: Persistent discourses of brain sex in news media

This thesis investigates popular news media reporting of scientific findings on behavioural sex differences. Four key themes have emerged from this investigation: the legitimisation of popular knowledge as science; the persistent belief in a scientific basis for gender stereotypes over time; the ubiquity of metaphors to explain and simplify science in mass media, and the uncritical reporting of scientific claims relating to gender.