”Were you able to wear undergarments?” - En kvalitativ studie av intervjuer med kvinnliga och manliga skådespelare inom Marvel Cinematic Universe

Abstract

Aim of thesis: The purpose of this study is to explore whether female and male actors get treated differently by entertainment journalists during press junket interviews and to see when and how gender is defined and created during an interview. To do this, we looked at different indicators such as eyeline, body language, subject of the questions, the length and substance of answers, the number of questions directed at each person, interruptions and turn taking. We also examined the role of the journalist, especially in relation to the answers given by the interviewees. The material included twelve video taped interviews with actors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from four different movies and with publications of different nationalities.

Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework of this study mainly focuses on gender theory, agenda-setting and framing theory. We have applied these theories to understand, analyse and possibly explain the results of the study.

Methods(s): The method used was a conversation analysis, a form of qualitative content analysis.

Results: Our findings show that there is a difference in the way women and men are treated in the twelve interviews we have analysed. The main differences are shown in the eyeline of the journalist and the number of questions, in both factors the men are favoured by the journalist. We found indications that there is a difference regarding the subject of questions directed towards women and men, in that women tend to get more personal questions than men. We do want to make it clear that, because our material was very specific and rather small, our results are not necessarily applicable to all entertainment interviews in general. However, this was never the intention of the study, as we aimed to lay down a foundation that future studies might build upon.