Preliminary communication
DISCRIMINATION OF WOMEN – REPRESENTATION OF FEMALE POLITICIANS IN THE ELECTION SECTIONS OF NEWS PROGRAMS OF NATIONAL TV HOUSES
Branimir Felger
orcid.org/0000-0003-2589-4971
; Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku
Gordana Lesinger
orcid.org/0000-0002-7892-0187
; Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku, Odjel za kulturologiju
Ivan Tanta
orcid.org/0000-0001-7942-5842
; Veleučilište „VERN“
Abstract
Some authors argue that media represent female politicians or report on them in a way different
from male politicians. As this is an extensive topic, we will try to elaborate on it and prove the thesis
on the example of media monitoring of the election campaign for the 2016 parliamentary elections
in Croatia, more specifically on the editorial and journalistic selection of political campaign
recordings. How many of TV excerpts are recordings in which women appear, and how many are
those with men’s statements? The paper presents the research of the election sections of the central
news programs of the three national televisions - HRT, NOVA TV and RTL, during the election
campaign for the 2016 parliamentary elections, i.e. from August 16, 2016 to September 9, 2016.
This paper is based on the quantitative method of counting the recordings, i.e. the statements of
male and female politicians, as well as other public figures, in the news programs of all three national
television houses presented in the election sections of the programs. Qualitative content analysis
will also be used to obtain data on the topics dominating in the statements of female politicians
as well as other women in the campaign. According to the secondary sources of data, we will try
to emphasize the political reasons for unequal representation of women in the election programs of
national houses during the campaign. They lie, among other things, not only in the discretionary
powers of journalists and editors to select a specific recording, but also in the low participation of
women on political party lists in the 2016 parliamentary elections. The paper will not deal with
the relationship between the media and the way women are represented in politics in relation to
their male counterparts, in the context of their misrepresentation, e.g. by mentioning only their first
names, no surnames, framing of women in the context of «emotional mothers» and «hard-working
housewives». Although media are full of such representations, this will be left for further research.
However, we will present the results of the 2016 parliamentary elections with an emphasis on
gender inequality as well as individual experiences of some Western democracies in media coverage
of their elections.
Keywords
female politicians; representation; political communication, national TV houses; parliamentary elections
Hrčak ID:
190205
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2017.
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