30/70 : A study of women and men who speak in SVT´s Debatt

In this study we have investigated who is debating on Sveriges Television. For this study we have chosen the program Debatt which is the biggest debate program in the Swedish television based on the audience. Debatt is broadcasted on Sveriges Television which is a public service broadcaster. In a quantitative content analysis, we examined the proportion of women and men participating in the program and what role they play in the debate. We chose to examine all programs of Debatt over an entire season which deals with one subject. We have examined 17 programs, all 30 minutes long, which was broadcasted in spring 2010. In our research we have chosen to exclude the TV host and only examine the participating women and men who speak in the programs. Our results show that both the proportion of participants and the speaking time is made up to 30 % of women and 70 % of men, a result that differs from the goal held by Sveriges Television about a 50/50 allocation. To examine the roles of the participants, we made a classification with nine categories and divided the participants according to their function in the program. Eight of the nine categories were dominated by men, only the category invited audience consisted of more women than men