Gender bias in the media coverage of political elections has long been theorized as a major obstacle to women’s success in elections and their institutional representation. However, this view of persistent media bias against women politicians is increasingly subject to pressure by inconsistent evidence of size and patterns of gender bias. This paper argues that some of these inconsistencies derive from a lack of attention to contextual influences of electoral coverage. This study analyzes gender bias in the amount and content of media coverage in the run-up to Swiss federal elections in 2015 by means of a quantitative content analysis. Drawing on an extensive sample of print, online and audiovisual election coverage from the most important tabloid and broadsheet media of three different language regions, the results reveal mixed evidence of gender bias: On the one hand, women candidates remain underrepresented in Swiss media. On the other hand, however, once they are covered by the media, candidates are overwhelmingly presented in a gender-neutral way. Several differences emerge between language regions and media type. Extending the traditional gender bias hypothesis to account for contextual influences, the study illustrates that the geo-cultural and media-specific contextual influences of election coverage impinge on the gendered mediation of candidates together with known drivers of political communication, such as incumbency, the electoral system, and party ideology.
No Billag – in der Schweiz ist die Debatte um die Notwendigkeit und Finanzierbarkeit des öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunks neu entbrannt. Eng damit verbunden sind die Fragen nach dem Public Value der SRG SSR und dem Aspekt, wie viel Schweiz tatsächlich im Schweizer Fernsehen steckt. Basierend auf einer inhaltsanalytischen Sekundäranalyse der Stichprobe aus dem Jahr 2017 der kontinuierlichen Fernsehprogrammforschung in der Schweiz, wird in diesem Beitrag die Darstellung der Schweiz und des Schweizer Volkes in Bezug auf einerseits die Repräsentation in den Fernsehprogrammen der SRG SSR und andererseits hinsichtlich der Verantwortung der Medienproduktion diskutiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Schweiz in informierenden Genres (z. B. Nachrichten) eine wichtige Rolle spielt, während in fiktionalen Inhalten (z. B. Serien, Filmen) nur selten auf die Schweiz Bezug genommen wird. Hinzu kommt, dass fiktionale Inhalte der SRG SSR häufig von internationalen Produktionsfirmen, insbesondere aus den grossen Nachbarländern der Schweiz, verantwortet werden.
No Billag – in Switzerland, the debate about the necessity and financial viability of public broadcasting has been sparked anew. Closely linked are questions about the public value of the SRG SSR and how much of Switzerland is actually portrayed on Swiss television. Based on a secondary analysis of the 2017 data set of the continuous Swiss content analysis study, this paper discusses the representation of Switzerland and the Swiss people in terms of representation in television programmes of the SRG SSR and in terms of media production. Results show that Switzerland plays an important role in informational genres (e. g., News), while in fictional content (e. g., series, movies) references to Switzerland are scarce. Additionally, fictional content broadcast by the SRG SSR is often produced by international production firms, with preferences for content from Switzerland’s next-door-giant neighbours.
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