Invisible witnesses? How scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians are represented on UK television

Abstract

It is widely believed that sex-role stereotypes of scientists, engineers, technologists and mathematicians (STEM) have the potential to influence viewers’ perceptions of these subjects, and therefore their future course and career choices. Less, however, is known about current portrayals of STEM on UK television, and their influence on children and young people. This paper reports the initial findings from the Invisible Witnesses? Project. Commissioned by the UK Resources Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology this project is investigating gendered representations of STEM on UK television, and the impact of these portrayals on young people's perceptions of STEM. In this paper we provide an outline of our data collection methods, and the quantitative and qualitative methods we have employed to analyse television output for two one-week samples. In presenting some early findings from our analyses we provide a quantitative overview of the first one-week sample of STEM output. We also introduce illustrative quantitative and qualitative findings from one of the genre - news and current affairs – in terms of the gender distribution, roles of the speakers, and emerging themes. The implications of these early findings are briefly discussed alongside suggestions for further work. The authors of this paper gratefully acknowledge funding for this project from UK Resources Centre for Women in SET and the European Social Fund under the EQUAL Community Initiative programme