“Living in a Post-Racial Matrix” : A case study of how female journalists negotiate a working identity at Sveriges Radio

Sammanfattning: While research on the different expressions of racism in media has been closely linked to the understanding of stereotypes in a plethora of research, little is known about the journalists' perspectives and experiences of racism. However, in 2020, an anti-racist manifesto called “Whose SR?” (Vems SR?” 2021) was published online where the Swedish public radio Sveriges Radio (SR) was criticized by current and former employees for its lack of diverse representation and for having a work-environment where non-white journalists are marginalized.  Drawing upon the framework of grounded theory (Charmaz 2006), this thesis is an attempt to respond to the lacuna in media research and add new insights to the limited understanding of how women in news practices are affected by racism. Based on data generated from interviews with eight women who signed the anti-racist manifesto, this research aims to conceptualize how female journalists with minority backgrounds experience racism at SR and how such experiences affect their working identity. Utilizing the anti-racist manifesto as a case study situates the results in a specific environment which was understood as post-racial throughout the research.  Considering the findings of this study, participants developed a journalistic working identity to counter negative stereotypes associated with their minority identity and based on their perceived position of power at SR. This case study demonstrates how the anti-racist manifesto heightened the interviewees’ post-racial understanding and that SR’s response to the manifesto can be interpreted as an expression of how post-racial societies manifest. The main takeaway from the findings is how the inability to admit the different ways racism continues to shape contemporary media will negatively affect both journalists and the media's ability to represent diverse perspectives objectively.