The aim of this thesis is to provide new insights and add to existing knowledge regarding how news media represents female politicians. Previous studies across the world have shown that throughout decades and still today, women tend to be underrepresented in political news or be heard only in regard to ‘feminine’ issues like education or family. Additionally, when it comes to female politicians, the focus is more often on their physical appearance, than it is with their male colleagues. In this thesis the focus is turned to Finland and the election of the country’s current Prime Minister, 34-year-old Sanna Marin. By conducting a thematic analysis, informed by the perspective of framing and representation theory, of news articles published around Marin’s election, this thesis explores the re-occurring themes regarding her representation in these articles and places these themes in a wider context of the media representation of female politicians. Framing theory helps to highlight the role media has in constructing reality whereas representation theory adds to the understanding of how people interpret the world, in this case the news, and helps to further argue why these presented representations matter. The analysis shows that the performance of a young female politician might seem accepted at first glance and doubtfulness is only found after one takes a look under the surface. Even though Finland can be considered a fairly gender equal country, gender stereotypes are still subtly reinforced by the media. Ultimately, it is not about how someone is represented, but rather what is left out. All this indicates that gender representations continue to be a salient issue and that female politicians like Sanna Marin still need to constantly prove their ability and competence as political subjects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-22444 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Kytölahti, Anna-Reetta |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| 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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