A Blind Spot? News Sources, Gender and Minority in Danish TV News

Media can be considered a vital political arena in the shaping of politics, civic engagement and democracy. An investigation of the relationship between gender and minory/majority population and the selection of news sources is therefore highly relevant. One systematic feature of TV news programs is that they are characterized by a bias. We know from international research (Hooghe & de Swert 2009; De Swert & Hooghe 2010) that (different categories of) women (and men) are used less frequently as news sources. This raises a range of questions on the reasons for this bias. The paper presents the findings of an empirical study of news sources of two Danish (political) news programs. The empirical data describes the news sources in terms of gender and majority Dane / minority ethnicity in relation to different types of news sources (journalists, politicians, bureaucrats, spokespersons from NGO etc.). Theoretically, the paper is framed by theories on intersectionality and on media and democracy. The project is part of the research project AU Ideas: The Democratic Public Sphere at Aarhus University, Denmark. See www.offentlighed.au.dk