“Media’s war on women in politics?”
A quantitative content analysis of Swedish print media’s portrayal of Anna Kinberg Batra and Ulf Kristersson
Political Science C
Department of Government Uppsala University
Submitted: March 2019 Author: Siri Fuglstad Supervisor: Helen Lindberg Word Count:10472
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Abstract
The aim of this thesis is to achieve a deeper understanding of how media portrays politicians and examine whether media is gender-biased. This is done by carrying out a case study within the Swedish context, which compares print media’s portrayal of the Moderate party’s former leader Anna Kinberg Batra with their current leader Ulf Kristersson. A quantitative content analysis is applied on 330 articles from four Swedish newspapers. By examining previous literature, a theoretical framework is constructed using theories on framing, the gender system as well as media’s treatment of female and male politicians which is later operationalized. In brief, the results of the study show there are differences in certain parts of media’s portrayal of Kinberg Batra and Kristersson, however they were not always as substantial and obvious as previous literature had indicated.
Key words: Anna Kinberg Batra, Ulf Kristersson, Gender Equality, Gender-biased media, Quantitative Content Analysis,
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Table of contents
1. Introduction 4
1.1 Background and problem 4
1.2 Aim, research question and previous research 4
1.3 Structure of the thesis 5
2. Theoretical framework 6
2.1 The gender system 6
2.2 Framing theory 7
2.3 Previous research on gendered media treatment 7
3. Research design 11
3.1 The choice of Sweden 11
3.2 The choice of Kinberg Batra and Kristersson 12
3.3 Methodology 14
3.4 Material 15
3.5 Analytical framework 16
4. Results and analysis 19
4.1 Size and tone of media coverage 20
4.2 Competencies and traits 23
4.3 Private life 28
4.4 Physical descriptions 29
5. Conclusions and further research 30
6. References 31
Appendix 1. Coding manual 34
Appendix 2. Articles 43
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1. Introduction
1.1 Background and problem
Media plays a decisive role in today’s democratic societies. Instead of experiencing politics directly, people are increasingly gaining their knowledge and information about the political world through the lense of the media. However, rather than being a mirror of reality, media select certain aspects of reality and make them more salient. By doing this media can make people believe that particular descriptions of the political world are more credible and important than others. Ultimately, media is not only telling us who are politicians are but are also instrumental in shaping our views of them (Entman 1993, 52; Strömbäck 2009, 119-121
& 239).
If an equal political environment were to exist, female and male politicians would be evaluated and portrayed by the same standards. Yet, previous research is indicating that media are portraying female and male politicians differently and that the discrepancies are rarely in favor of the female politicians. Since politics have become increasingly medialized, how media frame the political world is of great importance. If media rely on specific stereotypes when portraying male and female politicians, and if this reliance leads to differences in coverage, then media's coverage can have significant consequences for candidate preference and female political representation. Ultimately it might hinder female politicians from being successful in the political arena or discourage women from seeking political office in the first place (Frank, 2015).
However, given the increased focus on gender equality across the world and more and more egalitarian attitudes towards female political leaders in industrial societies (Inglehart & Norris 2003, 127), is media still as gender-biased as we have traditionally perceived it to be? More precisely is it evident in Sweden, a country which often pride itself as being in the forefront in regard to gender equality?
1.2 Aim, research question and previous research
The aim of this thesis is to achieve a deeper understanding of how media portrays politicians and examine whether media is gender-biased and if it is, the ways it is being manifested. The thesis will do so by carrying out a case study within the Swedish context, which seeks to compare print media’s portrayal of the Moderate party (Moderaterna) former leader Anna
5 Kinberg Batra with their current leader Ulf Kristersson. More precisely, this thesis aims to answer the following research question:
Based on their gender, were Anna Kinberg Batra and Ulf Kristersson portrayed differently in Swedish print media during their respective six first months as party leaders for the Moderate party, and if so, in what way?
The research question will be answered using a quantitative content analysis on articles from four Swedish newspapers. The quantitative content analysis will be applied using theories on framing, the gender system as well as media’s treatment of female and male politicians. The thesis is of descriptive nature, meaning that it is a study which aims to answer how something is, rather than why (Teorell & Svensson 2007, 22). Which in this thesis is whether media is gender-biased in their portrayal of a female and male politician. However, this study does not aim to explain what the consequences of a potential gender-bias might be, for example how it could affect voter preference or female political representation.
Previous research conducted on the topic has focused on either candidates in electoral campaigns or on elected politicians in office when trying to map out if media is gender-biased and the ways it can be manifested. A substantial part of the research has been carried out within either an American or British setting. Yet, some important research contributions can be observed in Sweden as well, with one of the more prominent ones being Mia-Marie Hammarlin and Gunilla Jarlbro’s book “Kvinnor och män i offentlighetens ljus” (“women and men in the public light”)from 2014, in which they study media’s portrayal of ten Swedish party leaders.
However, since Ulf Kristersson assumed the role as leader of the Moderate party quite recently, no previous study has compared the media coverage he received and the one Anna Kinberg Batra received. By comparing a new set of politicians this thesis can thus make a small contribution to previous research on the topic.
1.3 Structure of the thesis
The thesis beings with a presentation of the theoretical framework and previous research, followed by an introduction of the research design, in which the case selections, methodology, material and operationalizations are discussed. After this the thesis present and analyze the results before ending with a conclusion, upon which the findings and future research are discussed.
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2. Theoretical framework
This section will focus on the theoretical framework which is a central component of this thesis.
The theories which are presented will not only help the reader gain a better understanding of gendered media treatment, but they will also serve as the foundation upon which the analytical framework is constructed. The theoretical framework draws for previous research conducted within the fields of political science, gender studies as well as media- and communication studies. The section beings with introducing gender theories, before moving on to presenting framing theory. The third and last part of the section introduce theories on media’s portrayal of female and male politicians, by presenting previous research carried out both in Sweden and internationally.
2.1 The gender system
In order for this thesis to examine whether media is gender-biased in their coverage of politicians, it is important to first acknowledge the theoretical assumptions which this thesis makes regarding gender. To begin with, this thesis will view gender and sex as two separate categories. Gender will in this study refer to the socially and culturally constructed sex, while sex will refer to the biological sex. It is however important to recognize that such a distinction has been increasingly criticized by gender scholars, who argues that the assignment of biological sex is also a result of social and cultural factors (Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research, n.d.).
Another point of departure this thesis has regarding gender is that there is a gender system in society in which women as a group are subordinated men. Many scholars have discussed the idea of a gender system in their research, with one of the more prominent in Sweden being historian Yvonne Hirdman. Hirdman argues that the gender system is built upon two fundamental principle. The first principle is dichotomy, meaning male and female are seen as two distinctly separated categories. The second principle is hierarchy, meaning that the man is considered to be the norm and masculine things are ascribed higher value. According to Hirdman the gender system is uphold and governed by an invisible gender contract which can be inherited from one generation to the next. This contract consists of ideas of how men and women should act towards each other both in the public and private sphere, for example how they should talk and dress (Bromander 2012, 210-211; Hirdman 1988, 51-54). If people have different ideas and expectations about women and men, this could affect the way media portrays female and male politicians and is something that will be examined in this thesis.
7 2.2 Framing theory
Another central theory in this thesis is framing theory, which is key in understanding how media can affect people’s perceptions of reality. While media is often said to be a mirror of reality, Strömbäck (2009, 119-121) argues that no previous research supports this commonly held assumption. Since a large number of events are taking place on a daily basis and media’s format is limited, journalists are forced to be selective and focus on certain aspects of reality.
So, contrary to viewing media as mirrors of reality, they provide frames of reality.
Framing means that media select certain aspects of reality and make them more salient. By doing this media can make people believe certain questions and descriptions of reality are more credible and important than others, for example by promoting a specific problem definition or treatment recommendations. When framing, media can imitate and spread certain power actors as well as ideologies way of looking at reality. These frames can be both conscious and unconscious, meaning they can be the result of active efforts by media to affect the public opinion but also the result of deeply rooted values, norms and myths. (Entman 1993, 52;
Strömbäck 2009, 51, 120). One-way media can frame the political world is by reconstructing and reproducing a stereotypical male political world, to which women are foreign. Upholding a hierarchy in the gender system in which women are subordinated men.
Politics has as mentioned in the introduction become increasingly medialized. Meaning that rather than gaining our knowledge and information about the political world through our own experiences or interpersonal communication, people primarily experience politics indirectly through the lense of the media. (Strömbäck 2009, 239; Ross 2000, 1). Media’s frames can thus have a large impact on how people view the political world and indirectly how they choose to act (Strömbäck 2009, 51). If media is in fact reproducing a stereotypical male political world, this can have important consequences for female politicians.
2.3 Previous research on gendered media treatment
Once theories on gender and media framing have been presented, it is now time to present theories of how these two can interact with each other. More precisely, theories on how media portrays female and male politicians differently. Previous research conducted in the field has by focusing on either candidates in electoral campaigns or on elected politicians in office tried to map out if there exists a gender-biased media treatment and if it exists, examine the ways in which it is being manifested. After reviewing this previous research, I have identified some key
8 areas in which media are presumed to portray female and male differently, which are presented below.
2.3.1 Competencies and traits
Two of the major findings identified in previous research is that media ascribe female politicians’ different competencies and traits than their male counterparts. Whereas women are associated with communal characteristics such as being sensitive, caring and warm, men are more likely to linked to agentic characteristics such as being dominant, assertive and independent (Bromander 2012, 52-53; Eagly & Karau 2002, 574).
Following the belief that female and male politicians carry certain traits, media also ascribe politicians’ different competencies corresponding to their traits. Female politicians are seen as better equipped to the deal with public policy issues which could be considered as communal, such as dealing with health care, education and gender equality, whilst male politicians are associated with issues regarded as agentic such as the economy, military and foreign policy (Bromander 2012, 53; Eagly & Karau 2002, 575).
This phenomenon of media ascribing women with different traits and competencies than men, is grounded in the notion that women and men belong to “separate spheres”, with men being associated to the public sphere and women to the private sphere. Because of women’s ability to bear children, it has been considered natural for her stay home and carry out the domestic needs. The notion that women belongs to the private sphere, has not only affected which traits are associated with female politicians but it has also served as an argument to hinder women from entering office (Falk 2010, 32-34).
2.1.2 Size and tone of media coverage
Another finding identified in previous research is that female politicians are receiving less and more negative media coverage than their male counterparts. The fact that female politicians receive less coverage has been acknowledged by previous research conducted both in the American context (Fridkin Kahn 1994, 154; Falk 2010, 155) as well as within the Swedish setting.
For example, a study conducted in 2013, which analyzed media’s representation of the Swedish government's ministers showed that while there were more female than male ministers in the
9 government, the male ministers continued to dominate the media. Out of the 623 339 articles analyzed, the female ministers were mentioned in only 30% of the articles. In addition, the five ministers that received the least coverage were all female (Hennel & Olsson, 2013). Mia-Marie Hammarlin and Gunilla Jarlbro (2014, 42-43) have by comparing the amount of coverage ten Swedish party leaders receive been able to confirm these differences in coverage. In their results they found that while they studied the same amount of female party leaders as male party leaders, the male party leaders were as a category mentioned more frequently and the articles in which they were mentioned were also larger in size.
Female politicians are not simply more likely to receive less coverage, the coverage they receive is also more inclined to be negative. While multiple explanations can help in understanding this media-bias, one explanation is that when women enter politics, they violate traditional norms of the appropriate behavior of women (Frank, 2015). Leadership roles have traditionally been associated with agentic traits, which as touched upon in previous section, has been considered as male traits. The more agentictically the leadership role has been designed or the more a woman achieve the agentic prerequisites of a role, the more likely she is to be evaluated negatively by media because she fails to manifest those stereotypically communal traits traditionally associated with women (Eagly & Karau 2002, 575-576). Female politicians can thus be said to having to deal with paradoxical challenge since they must rely on agentic traits in order to be efficient leaders but are discredited for that same reason by media (Bligh et al. 2002, 564).
Research has for example shown that when female politicians are described as competent, they are often perceived as cold. In contrast, when female politicians are perceived as warm, they are often described as incompetent when it comes to leadership abilities (Bligh et al. 2002, 587). In addition, Hammarlin and Jarlbro (2014, 75) found in their study of Swedish party leaders, that female party leaders are less likely to receive media coverage that assign them with traits considered ideal for leadership roles, such as being competent, well-informed and trust-worthy.
While gender stereotypes can be one of the reasons behind women receiving less coverage, it is important to keep in mind that there can be additional explanations, which is perhaps better explained using theories in the field of media- and communication studies such as for example
10 news values and news selection. However, since this thesis is of descriptive nature, it is not of great importance to develop multiple explanatory variables.
2.2.3 Private life
Another key finding identified in previous research is that media portrays female and male politicians’ private life differently. While men’s marital status and their role as fathers are not considered important, women’s private roles become public. Women are more frequently asked questions regarding their private life and their ability to combine family life with their role as politicians in comparison to their male counterparts (Bromander 2012, 50; Falk 2010, 59).
Media’s focus on female politicians’ private life have not only been acknowledge by researchers, but by female politicians themselves. One example of this is Swedish politician Gudrun Schyman, who recalls that during her time as party leader for the Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) reporters frequently asked her whether she had bad conscience, since she in addition to being a politician was a single mingle mom to two young children as well (Skoglund, 2018).
Researching is also suggesting that these differences in media’s portrayal of female and male politicians’ private life are not diminishing. In her book “Women For President” Erika Falk (2010, 60) studies the history of women in American politics during the last 130 years and finds no evidence of a declining trend of female politicians having their family mentioned in their media coverage. Instead she argues that it is as common in the twenty-first century for a female politician to have her family mentioned as it was in the nineteenth century. Ultimately, these findings suggest female politicians are still associated to the private sphere.
2.2.4 Physical descriptions
Media is not only being more likely to focus on female politicians’ private life than male politicians, but previous research is also suggesting that media is more prone to provide physical descriptions of female politicians in comparison to their male colleagues. Research has shown that these descriptions have been characterized by a focus on for example the female politician’s appearance, age, attire and gender (Falk 2010, 88; Ross & Sreberny-Mohammadi 1997, 103).
Researchers are arguing that when media explicitly mention the gender of the female politician, she is automatically put in a certain category. A category which states that she is not simply a
11 politician, but a female politician. But while the female politician’s primary descriptor becomes her sex, this does not become the case for the male politician. This is due to the fact that men are considered to be the norm in politics and mentioning their gender thus becomes irrelevant.
Questions such as “what is it like to be a man in office?” are not asked (Falk 2010, 86; Ross &
Sreberny-Mohammadi 1997, 104)
In order to explain why media is more likely to describe female politicians’ physical features and private life than their male colleagues, Hammarlin and Jarlbro (2014, 58) refers to the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theories about symbolic violence. Theories which argue that every society consists of a system of dominance and subordination. The male dominance in society can be considered as an example of this and is upheld through the use of symbolic violence, which can be manifested in communication. Hammarlin och Jarlbro argues that when media focus on female politicians’ private life and physical features it can be seen as a form of symbolic violence, since it expresses a misrecognition of female politicians’ activities and ultimately risk trivializing women and their achievement. However, newer research conducted in a Sweden is suggesting that media’s focus on female politicians’ appearance might be diminishing. In a study examining media’s portrayal of Swedish party leaders, the researchers found no major differences in how media described the physical features of the politicians (Hammarlin & Jarlbro 2014, 137-138). These findings suggest that Swedish media might have moved towards a more gender-neutral reporting.
3. Research design
This thesis is of descriptive nature, meaning that it is a study which aims to answer how something is, rather than why (Teorell & Svensson 2007, 22). This section of thesis seeks to explain more precisely how the study will be performed and provide the motivations behind the decisions made in the research process. This will be done by a presentation of case selections, the choice of method and the choice of material. The section will also introduce the analytical framework, through which the method will be applied. Limitations and strengths with the methodological decisions will also be discussed in this section.
3.1 The choice of Sweden
At first glance, Sweden might seem like an odd choice for a thesis aiming to study whether media is gender-biased. Sweden is a country which often prides itself as being in forefront in when it comes to gender equality. With “daddy months” and high economic participation
12 amongst women, the country scores high in gender equality indexes (Hammarlin & Jarlbro 2014, 8; World Economic Forum 2017, 14).
But while Sweden has come a long way in terms of gender equality, there is still room for improvement. For example, Sweden has in comparison to its Nordic neighbors never had a female prime minister and in addition only three of the nine party leaders represented in the Parliament are women. Which suggest that there still might be a prejudice towards women in high leadership positions in Sweden. However, while Sweden still has some steps to take before fully achieving gender equality in the political sphere, Sweden can still be considered a least- likely case. Least-likely meaning that it is a case with the lowest probability to achieve a certain result (Teorell & Svensson 2007, 154), which in thesis is that media is gender-biased. If this study is able to find evidence of media being gender-biased in Sweden, one of the most gender equal countries in the world, the gender-bias is likely to exist in other countries as well.
3.2 The choice of Kinberg Batra and Kristersson
The ideal way to study if Swedish print media is gender-biased in their coverage of politicians would be to examine their coverage of every politician in Sweden. This kind of study is however not an option due to the limited scope of this thesis. Since previous research indicates that the media bias increases as women reaches higher up the political ladder, the decision has been made to focus on those politicians seeking the highest political office, which in Sweden are the leaders of the political parties represented in the parliament. While Swedish political system revolves around party politics rather than particular politicians, research suggest the party leader’s role is becoming increasingly important for Swedish voters as well. (Hammarlin
& Jarlbro 2014, 128).
In order to create more depth to the thesis, the decision was made to limit the study and focus on media’s coverage of two party leaders, one female and one male. Teorell & Svensson (2007, 151) argues that one way to think when selecting cases is to focus on relevant or specific cases.
Hence the decision was made to focus on the media coverage of the former and current party leader of the Moderate party, Anna Kinberg Batra and Ulf Kristersson. Which can be argued to be relevant due to two different reasons.
Firstly, when Anna Kinberg Batra took over as leader of the Moderate party in January 2015, after former prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldts decision to step down following the party’s loss
13 in 2014 parliamentary elections, she became the Moderates first female leader since its founding in 1904 (Nationalencyklopedin, n.d.). During this time the Moderates were the second biggest party in the Parliament, meaning that Kinberg Batra was not only the party’s first female leader, but she was also a potential prime minister candidate. Keeping in mind that previous research indicates that media’s coverage becomes increasingly gender-biased as women climb the political ladder, Kinberg Batra would empirically be expected to be in a vulnerable position.
After facing criticism from both within the party and from voters in terms of falling approval ratings, Kinberg Batra announced her resignation in August 2017. She was replaced by Ulf Kristersson in October 2017, who as soon as he assumed office was greeted with approval ratings going back up (Nationalencyklopedin, n.d.; Rosén, 2017). While many factors lead to Kinberg Batra’s resignation, her short time in office suggests she might have been in a vulnerable position due to her gender as research indicates. Which is something Kinberg Batra herself have suggested was the case.
Although, this thesis does not aim to examine whether it was the fact that Anna Kinberg Batra was a woman that lead her to resign, it is interesting to study the gender dimension in this case and whether Kristersson was portrayed differently by media. Since both politicians were elected under the same term, one can assume that the public debate regarding gender equality did not change to any large extent between their respective time as party leaders of the Moderates. Secondly, a comparative study of media’s coverage of these two politicians have not previously been carried out since it was only little over a year ago that Ulf Kristersson became party leader for the Moderates. This study will thus be able to make a contribution to previous research on gender-biased media by focusing on this new set of politicians.
The main problem with limiting the study to two party leaders is that the ability to generalize the results to all politicians in Sweden becomes somewhat limited, since the party leaders can be considered an anomaly in the political world. The thesis can however make a small contribution to the previous research concerning media’s coverage of party leaders in specific.
Nonetheless it is important to acknowledge that Anna Kinberg Batra was, with the exception of former leader of the Social Democratic party Mona Sahlin, unique in the sense that she was the party’s first female leader as well as a potential prime minister candidate. Thus, differentiating herself from other female party leaders by perhaps being extra vulnerable.
14 3.3 Methodology
In order to describe how media portrays Anna Kinberg Batra and Ulf Kristersson, this thesis will apply quantitative content analysis as its method. According to Esaiasson et al. (2017, 198- 199) quantitative content analysis consists of two elements. First, the content analysis which refers to the examination of the content of an either written, oral or visual representation.
Secondly, the quantitative aspect, which indicates that the thesis is based upon equivalent information from an adequate amount of analyzing unit, which are eventually presented in numerical measurements. Thus, borrowing elements from both other types of content analysis such as qualitative text analysis as well as from other types of quantitative methods.
Quantitative content analysis was chosen since it reunites the advantages of both quantitative and qualitative studies. The quantitative content analysis is advantageous because it provides an easy way to analyze a vast number of articles and categorize their content. Thus, it will not only be able to tell us if the media coverage is gender-biased, but also the frequency of a potential bias. Another reason why quantitative content analysis is a good fit is because a large portion of the previous research conducted on this topic have also applied this method in their studies. It is a frequently used method in political science but also within media- and communication studies, from which this thesis has derived theories.
The main objection towards using quantitative content analysis is its inability to capture the articles’ underlying meaning (Esaisson et al. 2017, 211). The bias might be hidden underneath the surface and to count for example how many times “female politician” and “incompetent”
are mentioned may be insufficient. A qualitative text analysis on the contrary, would have been able to provide a more in-depth and nuanced examination of each text. However, qualitative content analysis was not chosen as method due to two main reasons. To begin with, it would have limited the ability to generalize. While the quantitative content analysis has the capacity to study large amounts of data, the same cannot be said for the qualitative text analysis due to the time limit. Because the text analysis is restricted to studying a smaller number of articles, it might be able to find evidence of gender-biased media coverage, but it would have difficulties in saying whether this is a widespread bias or simply found in the few articles which were studied. Another limitation with the qualitative text analysis is its tendency to fall short in terms of reliability, meaning that we are less likely to find the same result if the study were to be repeated by another researcher (Teorell & Svensson 2007, 59). This is because the researchers’
15 own knowledge, experiences and values is likely to influence the way he or she interprets the text (Teorell & Svensson 2007, 228).
However, while the quantitative content analysis might be a better method for this study, it is in no sense perfect when it comes to achieving a good reliability or validity. Teorell and Svensson (2007, 268) argues that when using quantitative content analysis, there is a trade-off between good reliability and good validity. While standardized questions enable good reliability, they risk putting aside good validity. Meaning that the questions do not measure what they seek to measure (Teorell & Svensson 2007, 59), which in this study is whether there are differences in media’s portrayal of a female and male politician. More context-based questions on the contrary, enables better validity but due to the higher degree of interpretation risk setting aside good reliability.
This thesis aspires to find a good balance between reliability and validity by including both standardized questions as well as questions that are more based on the context. All questions, especially those requiring more interpretation are in the coding manual accompanied by clear guidelines in order to better interpret the various articles. My conclusion is that despite the quantitative content analysis weaknesses, it is still a suitable method for this type of study with plenty of advantages. How the method more precisely will be applied in this thesis will be presented in the sections that follows.
3.4 Material
Since it is not within the scope of this thesis to examine all coverage written about Anna Kinberg Batra and Ulf Kristersson, a selection had to be made to decide which articles to study.
With the ambition of creating a representative and relevant sample of articles, the decision was made to focus on Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, two daily newspapers as well as two evening newspapers, Expressen and Aftonbladet. These are the newspapers that most Swedish people are exposed to and have as their primary source of information, and thus was deemed as the most relevant material for this study. These newspapers have a large distribution of copies as well as a relatively large spread across the country (Hammarlin & Jarlbro 2014, 26). It can also be argued that selecting these newspapers creates an ideological diversification, since Dagens Nyheter define themselves as independent liberal (Dagens Nyheter, 2008), Aftonbladet as independent social-democrat (Aftonbladet, 2016) Expressen as liberal
16 (Expressen, 2015), and Svenska Dagbladet as independent moderate (Svenska Dagbladet, 2003).
Due to the large number of articles written by these four newspapers about Anna Kinberg Batra and Ulf Kristersson, a limited period of time was chosen to study. The time period selected was the six months from that Kinberg Batra and Kristersson respectively assumed the role as party leader, which for Kinberg Batra was 2015-01-10 to 2015-06-10, while it for Kristersson was 2017-10-01 to 2018-04-01. While Kinberg Batra was formally elected as party leader of the Moderates on January 10th, 2015, she had informally held the position since September 2014, after former party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt decision to step down. However, in order to ensure a more equal comparison between the two leaders, the date when Kinberg Batra was formally elected as party leader was the one chosen. While studying a longer time period would have enabled a better generalization of the results, this was not possible due to scope of the thesis and the time limit. Especially since Ulf Kristersson, received a substantial amount of media coverage during the Swedish general elections in September 2018.
The articles were found using the database “the media archive” (Mediearkivet) by searching on “Anna Kinberg Batra” and “Ulf Kristersson” respectively, in combination with the selected time frames and newspapers. For Anna Kinberg Batra this resulted in 463 articles and for Ulf Kristersson in 670 articles. In order to reduce the number of articles, a set of criteria were created which the articles had to meet in order to be analyzed. Firstly, only articles written by the newspapers own journalists were analyzed which meant that articles written by for example news agencies such as TT, letters to the editor and debate articles not written by journalists were excluded. Secondly the articles needed to be longer than ten lines and published in the newspapers main paper, thus not including for example “Aftonbladet - food and wine”
(“Aftonbladet - mat och vin”). Lastly, the articles had to mention either Ulf Kristersson or Anna Kinberg Batra in at least four sentences. The “four sentence criteria” was originally not included but was added as a result of the original criteria not filtering out a sufficient number of articles.
3.5 Analytical framework
After presenting the case selections, method and material, I will now present the analytical framework. The analytical framework will present more precisely how the study will be carried and how the theoretical framework is operationalized. In order to conduct a quantitative content
17 analysis, the study’s analyzing units and variables needs to be clearly defined. Since the previous section presented the thesis analyzing units, this section focuses on which variables of these units will be examined.
In order to facilitate the coding of the articles, a coding manual was created. The coding manual does not only describe the exact questions asked to the articles, but it also includes the interpretation rules to each question1 in order to ensure a good reliability. A coding manual used in a previous study comparing media’s portrayal of the Green Party’s Åsa Romson and Gustav Fridolin2 laid the groundwork for the coding manual in this study and the variables which were found useful were replicated. However, the coding manual was tailored in order for the variables to match the theoretical framework, which meant that certain questions were added, and some removed.
As can be observed in the coding manual, the study beings with registering variables regarding the articles form, meaning the title of the article, the date when it was published and in which newspaper. It then moves on to registering the variables core to this study, meaning the content variables. These variables are presented below and are operationalizations of the theoretical framework. The exact question, answers and interpretations rules are detailed in the coding manual appendix.
Table 3.5.1 Description of the analytical framework
Theoretical framework Operationalization Size and tone:
Female politicians receive less and more negative media coverage than their male counterparts.
● How many articles are written about the politician?
● What is the size of the article where the politician is mentioned?
● Is the politician quoted in the article?
● What is the tone towards the politician in the article?
1 See appendix 1 for interpretation rules.
2 For more information regarding that coding manual see Huisman & Södrén Sjögren 2014, 47–54.
18 Competencies and traits:
Media ascribe female and male politicians’
different competencies and traits. Female politicians are for example seen as more competent to deal with policy issues such as education, health and gender equality. While male politicians are seen as more competent to deal with issues such as the economy and the defense. Female politicians are additionally less likely to be describe with ideal leadership traits.
● Are either ideal leadership or non- ideal leadership traits mentioned to describe the politician?
○ If yes, which ideal leadership traits are used to describe the politician?
○ If yes, which non-ideal leadership traits are used to describe the politician?
● Are specific policy issues mentioned?
○ If yes, which type of issues are mentioned?
Private life:
Media is more prone to focus on female politicians’ private life than on male politicians’ private life.
● Is the main focus of the article politics?
● Is the main focus of the article the politician's private life?
● Is the politician’s private life mentioned in the article?
Physical descriptions:
Media is more likely to provide physical descriptions of female politician than of male politicians.
● Does the article provide physical descriptions of the politician?
The section regarding size and tone is fairly straightforward. The amount of coverage a politician receive is operationalized as how many articles are written about the politician, the size of each article and if the politician is quoted in the article. While tone is operationalized as which type of tone the article has towards the politician and can be either positive, negative or neutral. In order to make the interpretation less arbitrary, the question is already mentioned followed by specific interpretation rules in the coding manual.
The second section aims to examine which traits and competencies the politicians are ascribed.
Competencies is operationalized as what type of policy issue is mentioned in regard to the
19 politician. A more preferable way to measure competencies would have been to examine the type of policy issues the politician’s talk about in for example speeches, political debates or campaigns and compare it with the coverage they receive and which policy issues media highlight. However, due to the limited scope of this thesis, this was not a feasible option.
When it comes to traits, it is operationalized as does the article use either ideal or non-ideal leadership traits to describe the politician. If the article has used either ideal or non-ideal leadership traits to describe the politician a follow-up question is to be answered, which asks which ideal or non-ideal leadership traits have been used. Two lists of traits were created, one list with ideal leadership traits and one list with non-ideal leadership traits.3 The traits included in respective lists were partly taken from similar study conduct by Mia-Maria Hammarlin and Gunilla Jarlbro (2014, 64). However, after skimming through a smaller portion of the articles analyzed in this thesis, some traits were removed from the lists whilst some were added in order to achieve a better reflection of the traits most frequently mentioned in this particular material.
The section seeking to measure the extent to which print media focus on the politician’s private life is operationalized in two ways. Firstly, by asking whether politics is the main focus of the article or the politician as a private person. Since articles can mention the politician’s private life without it being the main focus of the article, another question was added. Which is simply whether the politician’s private life is mentioned. Private life is in this study defined as the article mentioning the politician’s family life, free time, love life or upbringing.4 The last section aiming to measure the amount of physical descriptions the politician receive is rather straightforward, with the operationalization being does the article provides physical description of the politician. While the coding manual defines exactly what a physical description is, it is essentially whether the politician’s appearance, age, gender or facial expressions is mentioned.5
3 For more information about the leadership traits and the lists, see appendix 1.
4 For more information regarding the coding, see appendix 1.
5 Ibid.
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4. Results and analysis
4.1 Size and tone of media coverage
After filtering out the articles which did not meet the criteria set up in the study, 125 articles remained for Anna Kinberg Batra while 205 articles remained for Ulf Kristersson as can be observed in the table below. Thus, confirming the assumptions made in the theoretical framework and by previous research. Meaning the number of articles written about respective politician varied quite a bit between the politician’s, with the female politician receiving less coverage.
Table 4.1.1 Illustration of the number of articles written about each politician Aftonbladet Expressen Dagens
Nyheter Svenska
Dagbladet Total amount of articles Anna Kinberg
Batra 35 45 26 22 125
Ulf
Kristersson 55 57 49 44 205
Figure 4.1.2 Illustration of the size of article in which respective politician is mentioned
When studying the amount of coverage, the politicians receive several aspects can be taken into account in addition to measuring how many articles mention respective politician. One of those factors is the size of the articles. When examining the results in the table above, one can
21 observe that the difference in coverage between the two politicians in terms of the size of the articles is small. In fact, the numbers are almost identical with the exception of the articles which are one third of a page and the articles which are two pages. 11,2% of Kinberg Batra articles is one third of the page, while the corresponding percentage for Kristersson is 16,6%.
Meanwhile, 14,4% of Kinberg Batra articles are two pages, while only 8,8% of the articles which mention Kristersson is two pages. Based on these numbers, one can argue that Kinberg Batra, contrary to the view held in the theoretical framework, receives more coverage in terms of the size of the articles. However, as can be observed the differences are not significant.
However, it is important to point that when the politician is mentioned in for example a full page it does not necessarily mean that the entire page is about the politician in question. If the politician is mentioned in at least four sentences of a two-page article it will appear as the politician receives a substantial amount of coverage, since the articles are coded after their total size and not solely the part of the text in which the politician is mentioned in. With the exception of the articles which are more than two pages.
Figure 4.1.3 Bar graph demonstrating the number of articles in which the politician is quoted or not quoted
An additional aspect which can be studied when analyzing the amount of coverage the politician’s receive is how frequently the two politicians are quoted. Similarly, to the variable which studied the size of each article, the difference in terms of quotation is small. In fact, the two party leader were quoted almost to the exact same extent, with Kinberg Batra being quoted in 46,8% of the articles and Kristersson in 45,6% of the articles.
22 Looking at results concerning the amount of coverage, it is partly confirming the assumptions made in the theoretical framework and by previous literature. There are differences in the amount of coverage received, with Kinberg Batra receiving substantially less coverage than Kristersson. By portraying Kinberg Batra less, it makes her more anonymous which can have consequences in terms of voter information. However, when examining the actual content of the articles written about Anna Kinberg Batra and Ulf Kristersson the differences in the size of coverage diminishes. These results are thus different from the one found in Hammarlin and Jarlbro (2014, 42-43) study. Which was that the articles in which the male party leaders were mentioned in were also larger in size.
Figure 4.1.4 Graph demonstrating which tone the articles have
Moving on to the tone of the articles, previous research suggest that female politicians are more likely to receive negative coverage than their male colleagues. The differences could be confirmed in this study as well. With Kristersson receiving more positive coverage than Kinberg Batra. 29% of the articles in which Kristersson was mentioned in were coded as positive while only 8% of Kinberg Batra articles had a positive tone. Kristersson also received less negative coverage, with 18% of the articles having a negative tone, while 28% of Kinberg Batra’s articles had a negative tone. When she is described more negatively her ability to lead her party is questioned which is not desirable for someone aiming to become Sweden’s next prime minister. What is interesting to acknowledge is that the negative coverage surrounding Kinberg Batra started as soon as she assumed the role of party leaders. This can be observed
23 looking just at some of the headlines of the articles written about Kinberg Batra during her first month as party leader:
(My translation) “Probably the wrong moderate now” 6 (Lindberg, 2015b), “The threat from within towards the moderate leader”7 (Jakobson & Lennander, 2015), “Kinberg Batra does not want to listen”8 (Franchell, 2015), “Kinberg Batra receives harsh criticism”9 (Granlund, 2015)
It is important to acknowledge that Kristersson also received negative coverage, however his coverage was more mixed and also included a substantial number of articles which were positive, in contrast to Kinberg Batra. Once again one can solely take a look at the some of the headlines from Kristerssons first month as party leader to get an understanding:
(My translation) “Kristerssons successful start”,10 (Eriksson, Jakobson and Skoglund, 2017)
“The Moderates are doing well with Kristersson at the relm”11(Mellin, 2017h),, “M once again the second largest - important trophy for Kristersson”12 (Eriksson, 2017f) “Kristersson is a tougher component for Löfven”13 (Mellin, 2017f)
That Kinberg Batra received more negative coverage questioning her ability to lead the Moderate was not only visible in this particular question but was also highlighted in the following section concerning leadership traits.
4.2 Competencies and traits
According to previous research female and male politicians are ascribed different competencies, with female politician’s seen as better equipped to deal with issues such education, health and family policy while male politicians are associated with issues such as defense and the economy. In order to operationalize this theoretical assumption, two questions were asked to each article. Is a specific policy issue mentioned and if yes, what type of policy issue is mentioned?
6 Title in Swedish: “Troligen fel moderat nu”.
7 Title in Swedish: “Hotet inifrån mot moderatledaren”.
8 Title in Swedish: “Kinberg Batra vill inte lyssna”.
9 Title in Swedish: “Kinberg Batra får hård kritik”.
10 Title in Swedish: “Kristerssons succéstart”.
11 Title in Swedish: “Moderaterna har fått ny vind i seglen - med Kristersson vid rodret”.
12 Title in Swedish: “M åter näst störst - viktig trofé för Kristersson”.
13 Title in Swedish: “Kristersson är tuffare motstånd för Löfven”
24 Before presenting the results from these questions, two things need to be clarified. Firstly, as already mentioned, the issues to choose from were based on a coding manual from a previous study. However, the categories included in that study proved to be insufficient. Thus, police and crime policy, housing policy and culture policy were added. Energy policy was also added to the already existing category environmental and climate policy while integration policy was added to asylum and migration policy.
Secondly, the question concerning which types of policy issues were mentioned was measured in a different way than the other questions included in the study. This question can have multiple responses, meaning every article can include several policy issues. So, each time a specific policy issue is mentioned it is viewed as a separate analyzing unit, instead of viewing each article as an analyzing unit, which is the case in the other questions. In more practical terms, the percentage presented below is calculated by dividing the amount of time a specific policy issue is mentioned with the total amount of times specific policy issues are mentioned.
Figure. 4.2.1. Bar graph demonstrating the number of articles in each policy area
Moving on the results, the first question was whether specific policy issues were mentioned in regard to the politician. For Kinberg Batra 64,8 % of the articles mentioned a specific policy issue, while for Kristersson 51,2 % of the articles mentioned a specific policy issue. So, Kinberg Batra is more frequently able to express her views about specific policy issues, which is contrary to what one would have expected. When it comes to which type of policies issues,
25 the most frequently mentioned policy issues in connection to Kinberg Batra was asylum, migration and integration policy, labor policy, education and school policy, economic and finance policy as well as military and defense policy. While the most frequently mentioned policy areas in connection to Kristersson was asylum, migration and integration policy, police and crime policy, finance and economic policy and labor policy.
So contrary of being connected foremost to policy issues considered to be communal, Kinberg Batra is mainly connected to issues regarded as agentically and belonging to the male sphere.
While the aim of this thesis is not to explain why Kinberg Batra received more negative coverage than Kristersson, it is interesting to recall the idea put forward by previous research that when female politician’s move into traditionally male spheres this can lead them to become more negatively evaluated by media. However, the assumption made in the theoretical framework about competencies is not completely rejected. Kinberg Batra is more frequently mentioned in relation to gender equality policy, family policy as well as education and school policy than Kristersson is. For example, when it comes to gender equality, she is expected by media to be a feminist and wanting to create policy strengthening women’s rights, which is not the case for Kristersson. One example can be observed in the sentence below:
(My translation): “You are M:s first female leader. How important is feminism for you?”14 (Mellin, 2015e)
Figure 4.2.2. Graph demonstrating the number of articles in which ideal and non-ideal leadership traits are used to describe the politician
14Original sentence in Swedish: “Du är M:s första kvinnliga ledare. Hur viktig är feminismen för dig?”
26 Moving on to traits, according to the theoretical framework are female political leaders less likely to be ascribed leadership traits since many of those traits have traditionally been considered to be agentically and linked to men. In order to test this assumption, two questions were asked. Firstly, whether ideal non non-ideal leadership traits where mentioned to describe the politician’s and if yes, which type of ideal or non-leadership trait was mentioned. As can be observed by the table above the majority of the articles did not use traits to describe the politicians. However, when they were used Kinberg Batra was more frequently described with non-ideal leadership traits and Ulf Kristersson was more often described with ideal leadership traits, thus confirming evidence found in previous research. These results are not very surprising since one could already observe in the previous section that the tone of Kinberg Batra’s coverage was more negative.
Table 4.2.3 Illustration of which ideal leadership traits each politician is ascribed Ideal leadership traits15 Anna Kinberg Batra Ulf Kristersson
Knowledgeable (kunnig) 2
Skilled (skicklig) 1 4
Intellectual (intellektuell) 1 2
Self-composed (pondus) 2
Credible (trovärdig) 1 1
Confident (självsäker) 1 2
Relaxed (avspänd) 1 3
Well-informed (påläst) 1 Competent (kompetent)
Strong (stark) 1
Assertive (bestämd) 1
Independent (oberoende)
Likeable (sympatisk) 2
Other (övrigt) 12 28
15 The Swedish translation used in the analysis is in brackets.
27 In order to achieve a more in-depth understanding of exactly which ideal and non-ideal traits were used, two set of lists were created. However, during the coding some problems occurred because the traits used in the articles did not always correspond to the traits in the list. Some modifications therefore had to be made to the original list. The table above demonstrates the ideal traits which were used to describe the two politicians. The ideal-leadership traits most frequently used to describe Kinberg Batra were knowledgeable and self-composed. However, other than those two traits no ideal-leadership traits occurred more than once in regard to Kinberg Batra. In contrast, Kristersson had several recurrent ideal-leadership traits such as intellectual, skilled, relaxed and confident.
Table 4.2.4. Illustration of which non-ideal leadership traits each politician is ascribed Non-ideal leadership traits16 Anna Kinberg Batra Ulf Kristersson
Invisible (osynlig) 5 1
Naive (naiv) 1
Cold (kall) 2
Stiff (stel) 4
Weak (svag)
Boring (tråkig) 1
Not serious (oseriös) 1
Incompetent (inkompetent) 1
Uncomfortable (obekväm) 1 Controlled (kontrollerad) 4
Cautious (försiktig) 4
Dependent (beroende)
Timorous (ängslig) 1
Other (övrigt) 12 9
While ideal-leadership traits were used to describe Kinberg Batra, a substantial part of the traits describing her were as noted in the previous question non-ideal. Traits such as invisible, stiff,
16 The Swedish translation used in the analysis is in brackets.
28 controlled, cautious and cold were used to describe her. Kinberg Batra was criticized for lacking emotions and being too cold and robotic. This draws some parallels to the study presented in the theoretical framework by Bligh et al. (2002, 587), which argued that when female politicians were described as competent, they were often perceived as cold. Kristersson also received some non-ideal traits, however they were few and no traits occurred more than once. Making it hard to draw any larger conclusions from the material.
4.3 Private life
The theoretical framework suggested that female politician’s private life is more frequently mentioned and of bigger interest for media than male politician’s private life. So, in order to test this assumption, three questions were asked to each article. The first two questions revolved around whether the articles main focus was politics or if it was the politician’s private life.
After having studied each article, the results were that 93,6% of the articles mentioning Kinberg Batra had politics as its main focus, while for Kristersson 97% of the article had politics as its main focus. While there are some minor differences, the high percentages suggest that media focus mainly on politics when writing about respective politician. However, since articles can mention the politician’s private life without it being the main focus of the article, a question asking whether the politician’s private life was mentioned was also included.
4.3.1 Bar graph illustrating the number of articles mentioning respective politicians’ private life
Even after asking a second question, the percentages remained quite low, with Kinberg Batra having 9,6% of her articles mentioning her private life and Kristersson having 5,9 % of his articles mentioning his private life. While there are differences in the coverage, they are not as
29 prominent as previous research suggested. Which suggest media might not find Kinberg Batra’s private life of bigger interest than that of her male counterpart and that we might be moving towards a more gender-neutral reporting in this aspect. However, it is interesting to provide some examples of what media focused on when mentioning the politician’s private life. For Kinberg Batra, several articles focused on her infertility (Svensson, 2015a; Svensson 2015d; Skarin, 2015), how she tries to combine her role as party leader with her role as a mother (Stiernstedt, 2015; Svensson, 2015a; Jakobsson, 2015b) as well as her marriage to comedian David Batra (Engman 2015; Passanisi 2015).
While for Kristersson several articles focused on his relationship to his wife (Jakobson, 2017a;
Jakobson, 2017g; Skovdahl, 2018a) and his three daughters (Rogvall, 2017; Jakobson, 2017g;
Nilsson 2018; Holmqvist, 2018a) and that he likes to go running (Popova, 2017a ; Micu, 2018).
As can be observed both have their spouse mentioned, not just Kinberg Batra. Both also have articles mentioning their children, however only Kinberg Batra is asked questions related to her ability to combine her role as party leader with her role as a mother.
4.4 Physical descriptions
4.4.1 Illustration of the number of articles providing physical description of respective politician
The final results to be presented are the ones regarding physical descriptions and to what extent the articles provide physical descriptions of the two politicians. As the graph above shows, there are differences in the amount of physical descriptions the politicians receive. For Anna Kinberg Batra 14,4 % of the articles provided physical descriptions, while 5,9% of the articles
30 mentioning Ulf Kristersson included physical descriptions. Thus, confirming the idea brought forward by previous research, that female politicians are more frequently given physical descriptions that their male colleagues.
The main reason behind these differences between Anna Kinberg Batra and Ulf Kristersson in terms of physical descriptions, is that Kinberg Batra's gender is mentioned and which is not the case for Kristersson. The mentioning of Kinberg Batra’s gender is especially visible during her first month as party leader of the Moderate Party (Karlsson, 2015a; Mellin, 2015k; Mellin, 2015f ). Since Kinberg Batra was the Moderates first female leader, these were not very surprising results. Most of the times Kinberg Batra’s gender is mentioned it is simply to acknowledge she is the party’s first female leader. However, sometimes the articles do not simply acknowledge Kinberg Batra’s gender, but they also describe women as a foreign element in the highest political positions. The example below comes from an article discussing dissatisfaction within the Moderate party:
(My translation) “(...) In addition, the party is led by a woman. It can be a challenge in any tradition-bound party organization. Ask Mona Sahlin.”17
When it comes to the other physical description such as age, appearance and facial expressions, some articles very clearly mention for example Kinberg Batra’s appearance. However, they remained small in number. If Kinberg Batra wasn’t the Moderates party’s first female leader, the differences in terms of physical descriptions between the two party leaders would probably have been smaller.
5. Conclusions and further research
The purpose of this thesis was to examine whether media portrayed Anna Kinberg Batra and Ulf Kristersson differently based on their gender, by using a quantitative content analysis on articles from four different Swedish newspapers. After having done the analysis my answer to the research question is both yes and no. Kristersson had substantially more articles written about him. However, when it came to the size of the articles and how frequently the two politicians were quoted, no major differences between Kinberg Batra and Kristersson could be
17 Original sentence in Swedish: “Dessutom leds partiet av en kvinna. Det kan vara en utmaning i vilken traditionstyngd partiorganisation som helst. Fråga Mona Sahlin.”
31 observed. Kinberg Batra received more negative coverage and was also more likely to describe with non-ideal leadership traits.
When it came to which policy issues were most frequently mentioned in connection to respective politician, Kinberg Batra and Kristersson shared similar results in several aspects.
Labor policy and asylum, migration and integration policy were two of the most frequently mentioned policy areas for both politicians. There were no major differences in terms of mentioning of the politician’s private life, which suggest a more gender-neutral reporting in that aspect. More physical descriptions were provided of Kinberg Batra, mainly descriptions regarding her gender. In conclusion, while difference to exist, they do not seem to be as substantial and obvious as previous literature indicate, especially the research conducted outside of Sweden.
The purpose of this study was to examine whether media was gender-biased in Sweden, a country considered to be in the forefront in regard to gender equality. However, since the thesis only studied two politicians during a limited period of time, the ability to generalize to a larger population, which in this case would be all politician’s in Sweden, remain rather small. In order to enable a better generalization, one would have had to study a larger number of politicians during a longer period of time. Nonetheless, it can make a small contribution to previous research concerning media’s coverage of party leaders in specific. In addition, the study helps keeping the discussion on gender-biased media alive, which is crucial from a democracy viewpoint. Since as already mentioned in the introduction, differences in media’s coverage can have important consequences for voter information and candidate preference.
While the outcomes of a potential gender-bias was not examined in this thesis, it would be an interesting future research topic. More precisely how does a gender-bias impact voters and women considering running for office. Is gender-biased media automatically bad for women or does it make them more prepared for a life in office? Another interesting approach would be to analyze how a gender-biased media affect male politicians. The majority of the current literature on the topic focus on female politicians, but what happens when male politicians do not adhere to stereotypical male traits for example? That is something for future researcher to examine.
32
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