Fieldwork in practice

The fieldwork consisted of data collection through semi-structured interviews with female politicians and representatives of mainstream media organisations. Political participants were identified via the Government and Congress websites which contain succinct profiles of all members. I interviewed 11 politicians and four representatives of mainstream media organisations. All except one politician were members of New Caledonia’s Congress and Government. Some of the politicians were also members of provincial assemblies or other political institutions. However, one politician was a member of a provincial assembly only and had no responsibilities in either the Congress or the Government. I included her comments in my research because she was present during one of my interviews with a member of Congress and she contributed to the discussion.

In an effort to obtain a representative sample that reflected the diversity and complexity of female politicians’ profiles in New Caledonia, I selected participants based on a range of criteria, described below, that fall into three broad categories: ethnic identity, political affiliation and political experience. It is worth noting that when considered individually each

41

of these categories is distinct. Collectively, however, the categories are interrelated since each participant can be placed in each of the categories. The scope of my research did not allow for a detailed exploration of all the categories. I concentrate mainly on the first two presented below: perceptions based on Indigenous and non-Indigenous identity, and on political affiliation.

The politicians I interviewed were a mixed group of women from across New Caledonia’s multi-ethnic population with a particular focus on Indigenous Kanak women’s experiences. My decision to have a special focus on Kanak politicians’ perspectives was based on their status as Indigenous women. Berman (2005) observes that having experienced the subordination of colonialism, Kanak women are likely to hold a different perspective from non-Indigenous people (Berman, 2005 after note 198). Moreover, both as women and as Indigenous people Kanak women can identify with dual minority categories. Gershon (2012, p. 118) notes that because of gender and racial stereotypes, minority women experience higher levels of prejudice with regard to negative media coverage and lack of coverage in comparison to non-minority women and minority men. I therefore explored whether Kanak politicians face specific challenges related to their gender and race when dealing with the media in comparison to non-Indigenous female politicians. The local term used to refer to non-Indigenous, New Caledonian-born people is Caledonian. Caledonians include people of various cultural origins including those of French, Asian and Polynesian heritage. A total of seven participants identified as Indigenous Kanaks. Three of the remaining four identified as being of European origin with one also acknowledging Kanak origins and another acknowledging a strong Indonesian cultural heritage. The fourth non-Indigenous politician identified as Caledonian of Polynesian heritage.

Political affiliation was another important selection criterion. My research takes place towards the end of the Noumea Accord period which has been a defining political era for New Caledonia. A preliminary nation-building of sorts, it has been a time of growth and development politically, economically, socially and culturally. The Noumea Accord was an agreement between New Caledonia’s pro-independence and loyalist movements as well as the French state. I considered it important to incorporate politicians from both the local viewpoints as the two sides co-exist in New Caledonia’s political institutions (Photographs 4.2 and 4.3). Four of my research participants were pro-independence and seven were loyalist.

42

Photograph 4.2 Loyalist politicians attending a session of Congress

Source: Congrès de la Nouvelle-Calédonie

Photograph 4.3 Pro-independence politicians attending a session of Congress

Source: Congrès de la Nouvelle-Calédonie

A further consideration for selection was political experience. Research indicates that senior female politicians are more likely to experience media gender bias than junior politicians (Barnes & Larrivée, 2011; Bligh et al., 2012). It is therefore important to understand the perceptions both of politicians who have had long political careers and occupy or have occupied senior positions as well as those who are relatively new to the job, as their experience and relationships with the media are likely to differ. Participants had a varying amount of experience as elected officials in the Congress or Government from two

43

years to over 15 years. Four out of the 10 in Congress and Government were serving their first five-year term in office and three more were serving their second term. Although some had only recently become elected members of Congress, most had served at least one term in a provincial assembly and a number of them had been involved in politics for many years without necessarily holding public office. Participants ranged in age from early 30s to late 60s.

I also deemed it relevant to include a geographically diverse view by approaching politicians from all three of New Caledonia’s provinces. This criterion is related to the criterion on political affiliation since two of the provinces, the Northern Province and the Loyalty Islands Province, are pro-independence strongholds and the third, the Southern Province, is mainly a loyalist base. Four participants were from Noumea and seven from outside Noumea although most rural politicians are based between the capital, for professional reasons related to their political engagements in the Congress, Government or Southern Province, and their rural constituencies. However, due to the limited range of my research I do not draw any conclusions based on this criterion.

All but one interview took place face to face. The exception was a telephone interview. I noticed that I was not able to get as much depth of information from the telephone interview as I did from the face to face interviews which I put down to being unable to establish a relationship of trust through small talk prior to the interview, as well as to the inability of both the participant and myself to read each other’s body language. The telephone interview was the only interview in which a participant requested the recorder be turned off for one of her answers. Another interview began face to face but was concluded over the phone after we ran out of time. The participant and I had established a good rapport when we met face to face and it was, therefore not difficult to conduct the final part of the interview by phone.

In addition to the politicians, I interviewed representatives from two radio stations, a newspaper, and a television and radio broadcaster. I met all four media representatives face-to-face. They were all forthcoming about their practices with regards to gender and political reporting.

44