Gender equality and diversity discourses intertwined with the implementation of the EU audiovisual media services directive in Lithuania, Spain, and Sweden

Abstract

In the face of recent challenges to gender equality and diversity, most European countries feature such policies in their support schemes for film production and in regulation of public service television. Moreover, global streaming platforms such as Netflix have made inclusion policies part of their brand. In an effort to unpack how EU-policies are intertwined with inclusion efforts, this article investigates gender equality and diversity discourses in the implementation of the 2018 EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive in Lithuania, Spain, and Sweden. The article uses a discourse policy analysis to compare problem representations and to understand how the articulation of the implementation of the Directive have continued, challenged or been intertwined with different discourses. The article finds that in Spain the Directive continued a discourse on gender equality and diversity, while in Lithuania and Sweden, the implementation of the Directive was intertwined with discourses seeking to limit or roll back gender equality and diversity.