Women are more visible than they are heard – Vestmanlands County Newspaper

The fact that women are underrepresented in the media has been shown in study after study. But to get an even clearer picture of how women and men look, took researchers using so-called artificial intelligence and had special software to analyze over two million articles in English-language media published on the web.

showed that men appeared more often than women, both in terms of image and text, although the proportions varied depending on the subjects the articles concerned. Women were, for example, more articles about fashion and that at least when it came to sports and politics.

Not surprised

There were also more likely that women were portrayed the picture than they were mentioned in the text, such as reporter or source, in virtually all disciplines, according to the study published in the journal PLoS One.

Maria Edström, Senior lecturer at the University of Gothenburg research on gender and media, is not surprised by the results.

– I think it sounds just like it usually looks, she says.

the fact that women are more visible in the picture may be because the editorial staff tries to compensate for the lack of women as sources, think Edström.

– the editorial is aware of the shortage and try to highlight those women who actually are with, in order to balance this.

Men experts

Last autumn, Maria Edstrom a study could show that a third of those who participated in the Swedish news during a specific day in 2015 were women. Four of the five experts were men.

– Every time you do a new study thinks that there should be different, and so do it is not. While we know that society develops and becomes more equal, the media is rather slow, says Edström.