She often presents herself as a diva : A qualitative study about which roles women and men are assigned to in the talk show Skavlan

The aim of this study was to examine how women and men are presented in the public service entertainment journalism, and more exact how they are presented in the Swedish-Norwegian television talk show Skavlan and what roles they are assigned to in Skavlan. The main question for this study was “What roles are assigned to women and men in Skavlan?” With roles, I mean roles that are connected to the aspect of power between women and men that can be found in gender-theory. To answer the main question and the purpose of the study I analyzed four interviews from the latest season of Skavlan where both men and women are being interviewed, using critical discourse analysis according to Fairclough. The result of the study shows that women and men are assigned to different kind of roles in Skavlan and the roles are gender stereotyped. Men are assigned to roles such as authoritarian and knowing and women are assigned to roles such as responsible and high-performance. Men are also presented as superior to the woman and in the majority of the interviews men are using verbal suppression techniques against each other and against women. Sometimes it can also be perceived as if women are using verbal suppression techniques, even if it’s more obvious that men are using it