Media-driven Men and Media-critical Women? An Empirical Study of Gender and MPs’ Relationships with the Media in Norway and Sweden
| Author | Jesper Strömbäck,Toril Aalberg |
| Published date | 01 March 2011 |
| Date | 01 March 2011 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0192512110378902 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Corresponding author:
Toril Aalberg, Department of Sociology and Political Science, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
[email: toril.aalberg@svt.ntnu.no]
Media-driven Men and
Media-critical Women?
An Empirical Study of
Gender and MPs’
Relationships with the
Media in Norway and Sweden
Toril Aalberg and Jesper Strömbäck
Abstract
This study is an investigation of how members of the Norwegian and the Swedish parliaments relate to and
perceive their relationships with the media. Based on surveys conducted among members of the Norwegian
Storting and the Swedish Riksdag, we find that male MPs have more frequent and somewhat less formal
relationships with media and journalists compared with female MPs. The results also suggest that male MPs
have adapted to the media and their logic more than female MPs. Female MPs also appear to be more critical
towards the requirements imposed on politicians who want to get media exposure, compared with male
MPs. Analysis reveals that gender differences are smaller among Swedish than Norwegian MPs.
Keywords
gender, media logic, mediated politics, members of parliament, political communication culture
Introduction
Modern politics is mediated politics (Bennett and Entman, 2001) in which the media constitute the
most important source of information and interpretation. It is therefore crucial for politicians to be
visible in the media. British MPs have even observed that voters do not believe they work for the
constituency’s interest unless they have a prominent media profile (Ross and Sreberny, 2000). This
suggests that what matters most is not reality per se, but the social constructions of reality shaped
by media coverage (Nimmo and Combs, 1983).
International Political Science Review
32(2) 167–187
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168 International Political Science Review 32(2)
Politicians’ relationships with and attitudes towards the media thus influence their public visi-
bility and hence their chances to make an impact on politics. From this perspective, the issue of
gender representation is also important, not least because scholars have documented that the
sources on which journalists rely are typically middle-aged men with power (Allern, 2001a; Olsen,
1980) while women are under-represented as news sources. This holds true both for general media
coverage and for the coverage of politics (Eide, E, 1991, 2000; 2001; Høidahl, 2004).
While a number of studies have examined how the media treat male and female politicians,
there has been little examination of politicians’ attitudes towards the media and how these attitudes
vary by gender. Hence, we do not know if female politicians are more reserved and skeptical
towards journalists than male politicians. Neither do we know if publicity-seeking is more wide-
spread among male politicians compared with their female colleagues. As politicians’ attitudes and
relationships towards the media might be an important antecedent of the under-representation of
female political sources in the media coverage, this relationship is worthy of more scholarly atten-
tion than it has received to date.
Given this background, the purpose of this study is to investigate how male and female MPs in
Norway and Sweden relate to and perceive their relationships with journalists and the media. A key
focus is on possible gender differences on this issue, as well as possible differences between
Norway and Sweden. The countries were chosen based on the most similar systems-design
(Przeworski and Teune, 1970). The similarities and differences between them with respect to gen-
der equality are detailed below. Further, it may be noted that they constitute highly similar cases
with respect to political and media systems (Strömbäck and Aalberg, 2008). The study is based
upon a survey conducted among Norwegian and Swedish MPs in the period 2007–2008.
Gender and Politics – the Scandinavian Case
In many democracies, gender equality has become an ideal in mainstream political discourse.
Nevertheless, there are substantial differences among countries, and political spheres within coun-
tries, as to the extent of gender equality. Norway and Sweden are two countries in which gender
equality has long been high on the political agenda. Hernes (1987) even coined the phrase ‘state
feminism’ to describe the Scandinavian ambition to foster gender equality by means of state
intervention.
In the political sphere, this commitment has led to a remarkable increase in the participation and
representation of women in politics. Scandinavian coverage of politics is also more gender-equal
compared with many other areas, for example, business news. It is also probable that there is
greater gender political equality compared with the situation in the Anglo-Saxon countries, where
most research on treatment by female candidates in the media has been conducted. In Norway, the
share of female politicians as sources in the most important television evening news has been about
33 percent over the last few years (Høidahl, 2006). In Sweden during the period 1990–2004, about
25 percent of sources in the three most important television evening news programs were female
(Jönsson and Strömbäck, 2007).
In 2007, the Norwegian cabinet was the second most gender-equal cabinet among advanced
industrialized democracies with 52.6 percent female ministers. Only Finland ranked higher. Sweden
ranked third with 45.5 percent. In comparison, 18.2 and 21.7 percent of cabinet members were
women in the USA and the UK, respectively (Bale and van Biezen, 2008: 881). Sweden and
Norway also have a very large share of female MPs. According to a world ranking by the Inter-
Parliamentary Union (2009), Sweden is number 2 on the list with 47 percent female MPs, while
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