Social Inclusion in Swedish Public Service Television: The Representation of Gender, Ethnicity and People with Disabilities as Program Leaders for Children’s Programs

• Main Authors: Juha M. Alatalo, Anna Ostapenko Alatalo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2014-09-01
• Series: Social Sciences
• Subjects: disabled people; ethnicity; gender; public service television; social inclusion
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/3/4/645

We studied the inclusion of traditionally underrepresented groups in society, females, persons of non-European ethnic background and people with apparent disabilities. Specifically we addressed their participation as program leaders in children’s programs in the Swedish Public Service Television to see if they corresponded to their relative share of the population. Using the official web site of the Swedish Public Service Television, listing all their programs, we found that of 65 program leaders in 41 television programs, 42% were female, 12% of the program leaders were of non-European ethnic background and 20% had apparent disabilities. There was a non-significant trend for women to be underrepresented as program leaders, people of ethnic non-European background had significantly higher representation than their share of the population, and people with apparent disabilities had significantly much higher percentage than their share of the Swedish population as program leaders for children programs. This case study indicates that traditionally underrepresented groups such as people of non-ethnic European background and people with disabilities do well in the competition for positions as program leaders for television programs that target children. This can be seen as an encouraging step from the present norm in Swedish society of mainly hiring people that you know.