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

Juha Alatalo,Anna Alatalo

doi:10.3390/socsci3040645

Abstract

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.

Highlights

The Swedish population consisted of roughly 9.6 million persons on 1st November 2013, of which women had a slight majority (50.1%) of the population [1]
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
If the genders were represented according to their relative percentage of the Swedish population, we would have expected 33 program leaders to be female and 32 to be male

Summary

Introduction

The Swedish population consisted of roughly 9.6 million persons on 1st November 2013, of which women had a slight majority (50.1%) of the population [1]. Despite arguing for openness in immigration, in Sweden, people born outside the country have a much higher share of the long-term unemployed compared to their relative share of the population [7]. Other countries like Malta and Poland have the opposite trend, with people born inside the country having a higher share of long-term unemployment than people born outside the country [7]. This is likely caused by the fact that Sweden has a tradition of giving work to those that you know, or nepotism. Groups might influence hiring decisions in the longer-term by increasing the positive perception of these groups

Methods

Results and Discussion

Conclusions