The free press is an invaluable part of the democratic society and a pillar stone in the creation of ideas, opinions and norms. According to theories such as agenda-setting and framing the media have a significant influence on people’s perspectives and opinions. With this view of media along with the gender system provided by Yvonne Hirdman as a framework, this study intends to examine the gender representation in Swedish domestic news journalism. The study consists of a quantitative analysis of two major Swedish morning papers, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, where the gender representation regarding journalists, main news sources and pictures are being accounted for. The material being used consists of a total of 241 articles taken from the first domestic news article in each third paper 2012. Furthermore the study contains a supplementary qualitative part consisting of two interviews with female journalists working on the examined newspapers. The analysis of these interviews takes on a Bourdieuan approach, which focuses on the journalistic field, it’s doxa and the symbolic values within the field. The questions at issue in this study are whether it exists a male interpretive precedence within the Swedish domestic news, what type of norms within the journalistic culture that potentially can affect the representation regarding journalists and main sources and lastly we intend to assess the impact of the gender system on the media and subsequently the medias reproductive affect on the gender system as a whole. The core, quantitative, study indicates a substantial difference regarding gender related representation within the examined material concerning journalists, pictures and main sources. The results reveal a significant female underrepresentation both amongst journalists (36,5 percent) and main sources (34,9 percent). Our quantitative study as well as our interviews prove a pattern where an elite orientated praxis, when it comes to choosing sources, is dominant. Since the elite sources are predominantly male this has a negative impact on the female representation amongst the sources. The underrepresentation of women, both as sources and journalists, combined with theories such as agenda-setting and framing indicates the presence of a male interpretive precedence. The gender related structures of society are reflected in the media, and as a consequence of this occurrence the structures themselves are also reproduced, and consolidated, through medias impact on popular values and opinions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-93955 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Höjer, Joakim, Svensson, Ivar |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för mediestudier, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för mediestudier |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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