“It’s like we’ve always been walking behind men” : A qualitative study on how machismo and the Me Too- and feminist movements in Chile affect female broadcast journalists and their professional roles

Abstract: Chile is one of the many countries in Latin America affected by machismo (Torres et al 2002, p. 163-164). In the year of 2017 the Me Too-movement sparked a fire in Chilean media and the feminist movement grew bigger and stronger. These movements affected many institutions, organizations and industries. The journalism industry being one of them. The purpose of this study is to investigate how female journalists in Chile perceive themselves, these movements and their journalistic roles in the context of a country affected by machismo and movements trying to fight it. To investigate these themes a qualitative approach has been used by conducting semi-structured interviews with eight female Chilean journalists that are currently working or have worked in broadcasting. The theoretical background of this study is based on the Hierarchy of Influences model by Pamela J. Shoemaker and Stephen D. Reese (2016), which has been combined with the concept of journalistic role perceptions by Thomas Hanitzsch and Tim P. Vos (2018). The results indicated that the majority of the women interviewed had positive opinions towards the Me Too- and feminist movements in Chile, and that these movements have also had a positive impact on Chilean society and the journalism industry. And so the effects have also been visible in the women's private and professional lives. Even though machismo and harmful patriarchal norms have been and is a part of their lives, the social structures have not gotten in the way of them feeling strong, fighting for their rights, and other women's rights in the industry. Machismo and the movements have all played important parts in how these women have taken on their journalistic roles.