Gendered political socialization through the Dutch children’s news broadcast NOS Jeugdjournaal

Media play a crucial role in the gendered way in which children are socialized into the political world, a process that is surprisingly under-studied. This article examines messages communicated to Dutch children about gender and politics through NOS Jeugdjournaal, a popular Dutch news broadcast that is tailored to children aged nine to 12. We conducted a content analysis on episodes broadcast over a period of almost 30 years (N = 252). The results show an overwhelming share of men politicians (a staggering 85 percent of featured politicians) in political coverage, which reflects the descriptive underrepresentation of women in Dutch politics rather than journalistic bias. Moreover, we find few differences in the way that men and women politicians are portrayed. Thereby, the children’s news outlet shows less bias than the political news for adults. However, children who watch NOS Jeugdjournaal mainly observe men politicians and are, thus, strongly socialized into thinking that politics is a masculine domain.