Medias makt och jämställdhet : En kvalitativ innehållsanalys av hur svensk nyhetsmedia gestaltar genus inyhetsrapporteringen rörande kändisar

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to contribute with a sociological understanding of how Swedish news media contribute to “doing” and maintaining gender in society as a result of their choices in the media around high profile people (“celebrities”). Previous research has studied gender and the media from other angles, but mostly focused on the fact that women are subordinate to men, rather than questioning how that is maintained by the media. These inturn strengthen the argument about existing differences between women and men in the Swedish media supply. However, unlike previous studies, this study will focus on how the media’s choice of news and ways to contribute to “doing” gender can be affected by celebrity. This type of issue can generate knowledge about the mutual relationship that exists between society’s view on gender and the reproduction of gender roles as a result of media representations.To answer this, the study will analyze two Swedish cases, around two famous people, CissiWallin and Paolo Roberto. The study was conducted through a qualitative content analysisbased on material from the databases Mediearkivet and Pressreader. In total, the materialconsists of eight articles on each case, spread over the past five years. The analysis showed that news media play a central role in society's views on gender as a result of mediareporting. The journalists behind the media often took a male perspective where Paolo Roberto and other men in the articles appeared positive, while Cissi Wallin and other female actors who appeared were attributed a disparaged role. Judging from the analysis, there are differences in the journalists' presentation between women and men in the Swedish newsmedia that contribute to strengthening gender normative roles and maintaining gender insociety. This study argues that this can be explained by theories about power and gender. One of the most central results is that the journalists behind the media add to the normalization of female subordination by their choices of media reports. For example by exploiting the readers' interest in celebrities, which thus results in the media reaching a larger audience that absorbs the content and reproduces the current gender power structure.