Visibility of women and men : a quantitative study of images in the newspaper Barometer in 2010 and in 2020

The goal of this study has been to investigate what gender representation looks like in the pictures in Kalmar's largest newspaper, Barometern, and how men and women are portrayed in the pictures. The material used is all editorial images during week 9 in 2010 and during week 9 in 2020. I have conducted a quantitative content analysis of the images and analyzed them based on gender theory, stereotype theory and semiotics.The study shows that gender representation is uneven in Barometern's images and that women occur to a lesser extent than men. The study also shows that men and women are portrayed in different ways in the pictures and that women are portrayed as less important, more passive and less professional than men. Men also appear to a much greater extent on sports pages and in professional contexts.When the images from the two periods are compared, the results show that the total number of images and people has decreased by a third during the current ten years. But the total representation of men and women is much more even during week 9 in 2020 than in week 9 in 2010. On the other hand, men and women are still presented very differently and can be seen in different parts of the newspaper. Men are divided in much the same way in the newspaper and dominate the sports pages, while women are more common on the family pages as well as the culture and entertainment pages. Women have made some movements and are portrayed to a greater extent in the same way as men, but the changes are small.The study shows that Barometern has come a long way towards equal gender representation in its images, but that the development is slow and that Barometern still contributes to consolidating the prevailing gender power order