Ask a man instead : A quantitative study of the gender distribution in SVT 1 Rapport and TV4-Nyheterna

The purpose of this study was to investigate if female and male reporters and interviewees get the same amount of time in the news feature in the Swedish news programs TV4-Nyheterna and SVT 1 Rapport. The aim of this study was also to investigate if there is a breakdown of the reporting lines between male and female reporters, that is, if they are reporting on various topics. In our study we also determined if the two television channels in any way are different when it comes to gender. Our main theory was that men are overrepresented both among reporters and interviewees and that they are dominant in both hard and soft news. We thought that SVT 1Rapport would have a better gender balance than TV4-Nyheterna because SVT 1 has been working on gender issues for a long time. We were using a quantitative content analysis to examine the 19:30 news on SVT 1 Rapport and 22:00 news on TV4-Nyheterna for two weeks in November 2010. We examined domestic and foreign news and determined how much time each sex got. Then we calculated the number of seconds and converted it into percent. The reason for this was because we wanted to compare the two television channels. Our study showed that men are overrepresented in both channels when it comes to reporters and interviewees in the news. Men are also the dominant sex in the provision of hard and soft news. TV4-Nyheterna, however, had a better gender balance than SVT 1 Rapport.