Gendering in Political Journalism To my family Örebro Studies in Media and Communication 18 Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 97 LIUDMILA VORONOVA Gendering in Political Journalism A Comparative Study of Russia and Sweden © Liudmila Voronova, 2014 Title: Gendering in Political Journalism. A Comparative Study of Russia and Sweden Publisher: Örebro University 2014 www.oru.se/publikationer-avhandlingar Print: INEKO, Kållered 09/2014 ISSN 1651-4785 ISSN 1652-7399 ISBN 978-91-7529-033-1 Abstract Liudmila Voronova (2014): Gendering in Political Journalism. A Comparative Study of Russia and Sweden. Örebro Studies in Media and Communication 18, Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 97, 277 pp. The news media are expected to provide equal space to female and male po- litical actors, promoting the idea of equal access to political power, since they are recognized as a holder of power with a social responsibility to respect gender equality. However, as previous research shows, political news cover- age is characterized by so-called “gendered mediation” (Gidengil and Everitt 1999), i.e., gender imbalance, stereotypes, and a lack of discussions about gender inequality. Scholars point to media logic, organization, and individual characteristics of journalists as the main reasons for this pattern, but still very little is known about how and why gendered mediation is practiced and pro- cessed in political news. This dissertation focuses on gendering understood as the perceived im- print of gender on the media portrayal of politics and politicians, as well as the processes by which gendered representations materialize. By applying a perspective of comparative journalism culture studies (Hanitzsch 2007; Hanitzsch and Donsbach 2012), it examines the processes and modes of origin of gendering as they are perceived and experienced by journalists. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with 40 journalists work- ing for the quality press in Russia and Sweden. The results show that the national culture of political journalism, and the context it is located within, are of crucial importance for understanding gen- dering and its modes of origin. Gendering may cause problems to the demo- cratic development of society and the position of the quality press in it; how- ever, it also offers a potential for promoting gender equality. The choice of the form of gendering does not fully depend on journalists. It depends on the contextual possibilities for journalists to fulfill the gender-ethical ideal of the quality outlet as long as they need to meet the demands of society and mar- ket, and to face the challenges of political communication. Keywords: gender, gendering, journalists, journalism culture, political jour- nalism, Russia, Sweden. Liudmila Voronova, Media and Communication Studies Södertörn University, SE-141 89, Huddinge, [email protected] Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 13 Dissertation structure .............................................................................. 19 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................................... 21 2.1 Previous research ............................................................................... 21 Previous research on gendered mediation in Russia and Sweden ......... 28 2.2 Main concepts ................................................................................... 31 Mediatization of politics ..................................................................... 31 Gendering ........................................................................................... 34 Culture of political journalism ............................................................ 37 2.3 Analytical model ............................................................................... 41 Gendering in the framework of the journalism culture components .... 43 3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................. 47 3.1 Primary material: interviews with journalists .................................... 47 Explaining the choices ......................................................................... 47 Collecting material .............................................................................. 55 Analyzing and using the material ........................................................ 57 3.2 Self-reflexivity in the research: co-producing knowledge ................... 59 Conducting interviews in the two contexts ......................................... 60 Professional distance ........................................................................... 63 Geographical double distance ............................................................. 64 Exercising power ................................................................................. 65 Interview roles ..................................................................................... 66 Gender dimension ............................................................................... 66 3.3 Additional materials .......................................................................... 67 4. GENDERING: CONTEXTUALIZED CONCEPTUALIZATIONS ... 69 4.1 Contextual information..................................................................... 69 4.2 Russia: essentialist gendering comes from politics ............................. 74 “Women are invisible”: from the context to the content ..................... 74 Women as “agents of change”: spotlighting and personalizing ........... 77 “Would be too European”: rejecting discussions of gender equality ... 81 Russia: discussion ................................................................................ 83 4.3 Sweden: reflexive gendering as a part of social debate ...................... 84 “Women politicians stand alone”: the political dramaturgy ............... 86 Reflexive gendering and “maturity” of the society .............................. 88 “Outdated way of describing things”: locating the culture in time ...... 90 Sweden: discussion .............................................................................. 92 4.4 Comparative discussion and conclusions ........................................... 94 5. ETHICAL IDEOLOGIES AND GENDERING ................................... 97 5.1 Normative background ..................................................................... 99 5.2 Self-regulatory background ............................................................. 101 5.3 Russia: gender-neutral journalism ideal ........................................... 106 Gender-neutral “by definition”: a nihilist approach to gendering ..... 107 Gender-neutral as a demand of quality press: an objectivist approach ........................................................................................... 108 Russia: discussion .............................................................................. 111 5.4 Sweden: gender-balanced journalism ideal ...................................... 114 Gender-balanced through counting: a quantitative approach ............ 115 Gender-balanced through critical thinking: a self-reflexive approach 117 Sweden: discussion ............................................................................ 121 5.5 Comparative discussion and conclusions ......................................... 124 6. INSTITUTIONAL ROLES AND GENDERING .............................. 129 6.1 Gendering and interventionism ....................................................... 129 Russia: gendering as a pure reflection................................................ 130 Reflecting the quantitative inequality in the political sphere ......... 130 Reflecting the politicians’ “real characteristics” ............................ 131 Reflecting the public ignorance of gender issues ............................ 133 Russia: discussion .......................................................................... 135 Sweden: reflexive re-construction ...................................................... 136 Gendering in politics and journalism: “the same mechanism” ...... 136 Gendering and responsibility of the media .................................... 138 Sweden: discussion ........................................................................ 140 Comparative discussion ..................................................................... 141 6.2 Gendering and power distance ........................................................ 143 Russia: essentialist gendering as a tool of critique and manipulation 144 Essentialist gendering: journalists’ tool of critique ........................ 145 Essentialist gendering: politicians’ manipulative strategy .............. 148 Russia: discussion .......................................................................... 149 Sweden: reflexive gendering as a mutual critique .............................. 150 Gender-aware stories as critique of power .................................... 151 Politicians revealing the journalists’ gender-blindness ................... 154 Sweden: discussion ........................................................................ 155 Comparative discussion ..................................................................... 156 6.3 Gendering and market orientation .................................................. 158 Russia: between readers, market and sponsors .................................. 159 “Advantageous” women politicians .............................................. 160 “Gender-aware stories