En granskning av Utbildningsradions program ur ett mångfaldsperspektiv : En kvantitativ innehållsanalys av 50 program för årskurser 0-3

Sammanfattning: Utbildningsradion (Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company) is a public service broadcaster with a mandate to produce and distribute educational programmes. 80% of Swedish teachers use its products either during lessons or for professional development. Utbildningsradion’s guidelines, set by the Swedish parliament and government, state that the company’s programmes should meet the interests of the country’s whole population, regardless of their background. The purpose of this study is to examine how Utbildningsradion’s products that are intended to be used in a classroom setting for ages 6 to 9 represent the variety of children that live in Sweden and thus reflect the aforementioned guidelines. The main focus of this research project was further defined to only include the company’s television programmes produced in Sweden between 2006 and 2011 that do not have social issues as the main subject. 50 programmes were analyzed using quantitative content analysis and the following results were further interpreted using mainly Kydd’s and Snead’s models for discussing representation. The findings indicated that girls are overrepresented in the material studied as the cast of 116 children consists of 74% young actresses and 26% young actors. 46 of the programs have a child as the main character, but it is a boy in only three cases . Children with disabilities are almost non-existent in the programmes. Also, children from ethnic minorities have few roles. Most of the programmes studied take place in an urban setting, while four of the 50 feature countryside. When it comes to the child characters’ families, fathers are the ones who are seen the most frequently. They are shown 21 times in the programme material, while siblings are shown eight times and mothers six times.