Title: ”Mina svala europeiska ögon” – En kritisk diskursanalys av reportage i magasinet RES Authors: Joel Larsson och Joel Sund Subject: Undergraduate research paper in journalism studies, Dept. of journalism, media and communication (JMG) Gothenburg University Term: Spring 2015 Supervisor: Orla Vigsö, JMG, Gothenburg University Pages/words: 58 pages/21 378 words (excluding appendix) Purpose: The main purpose was to examine what image the travel magazine RES presents of the world outside of the western world, whether it is based on exotifying stereotypes and how that correlates with the responsibilities and ethics of journalism. Method: Qualitative text analysis using critical discourse analysis with a postcolonial perspective. Results: The results show that the travel magazine RES describes a variety of subjects but a pattern is visible when how they describe them is analyzed. In nearly all of the selected articles both places and people were subjected to exotifying stereotypes to some extent. Through postcolonial theory and close reading, we discovered power structures embedded in the discourse. The four biggest patterns made visible were summed up in four different themes. Positivity, perspectives on reality, eurocentrism and “the Other”. Positivism was what dominated almost all of the analyzed articles. Nearly everything in the articles, places, experiences and people, were described in a positive light. This presented a one-sided picture of the world outside of the Western world. Perspectives on reality mean (in this case) who had the power and opportunity to create the “reality”. In the articles it was obvious that this power belonged to the journalist, as opposed to the inhabitants of the visited country. The results also showed a Eurocentric picture of the world presented in the articles. The eurocentrism was observed in many comparisons between the places visited in the articles and the Western world. The last of the four was how the journalists created “the Other” by exotifying people and places, making them seem different, weird, fantastic or just something that the Western world is not. All of this correlates poorly with the responsibilities and ideals of journalism. Traveling journalism cannot be judged by the same standards that news journalism can, however, this dissertation has shown that travel journalism indeed has the power to produce and reproduce exotifying stereotypes.

To investigate how men and women are represented in nationwide newspapers, we implemented a study focusing on gender typing in news content and in the newsroom. Gender typing is a theory that can be used for investigating how certain duties or news subjects are assiged to a journalist of a certain gender based on stereotypes. We also investigated gender typing in the news content, i.e. which roles are assigned to which gender. Several media companies worked actively for gender equality in their newsrooms but with the digitalisation of media that eventually led to staff cuts and reorganization, equality of men and women were no longer a priority. Previous research testifies to a widespread gender typing in both swedish and international media. There has been research of gender typing done for instance in tv-news or in specific areas such as sports or crime. With this study we will contribute to new results based on a specific type of news, nation news. The purpose of the study includes to investigate the extent of gender typing in nation news published in nationwide newspapers; Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet and Expressen. We also wanted to see what roles men and women were given in the articles and which subject those articles affected. We were curious to see if there were a difference in articles written by men or women regarding gender representation of the contributors. We also took the size of the articles and photos into consideration. We implemented our questions into variables and performed a quantitative content analysis on a total of 993 articles. First of all the results shows us that the national news material in the newspapers are dominated by male journalists even though research shows that there are 50 percent women amongst swedish journalists. Our results points to widespread gender typing both regarding journalists being assigned to write certain news based on their gender and regaring what roles men and women have as participants in the articles, within specific subjects. The conclusion of our results concentrates on comprehensive organisational problems where stereotypes are reproduced and outdated sturctures proceeds to influence the production of news.

Background: Previous studies in media and law make visible that the asylum seeker or the conceptual immigrant is being mediated as a stereotype. Whether or how the words of the conceptual immigrant are mediated to the media consumer has not been investigated further, though. Therefore, this study analyses 25 articles published in the Swedish dayli news magazine Norrbottens-Kuriren; all concerning a hunger strike that took place in Boden in the spring of 2013. The study’s approach is limited to the specific media event of the Boden strike, which according to media scoolar Nick Couldry is the place for a ritualization of journalistic practice such as objectivity. The event is chosen because of its duration, making possible a longer preiod of media coverage than what usual news stories on the conceptual immigrant most often holds. The media event is also taking place in a central part of the town of Boden, which also is a news value criteria (closeness), not often connected to the conceptual immigrant.

Method: With the methods of the critical discourse analysis (CDA), this study investigates significant tendencies in the reproduction on the journalist’s possible objectivity and dependence on inner and outer institutions is making this. Therefore, inter-discursive and inter-institutional relations and their linkage to the potential subject’s voice are made visible. Since neither the media consumer, nor the one to carry out the research can be expected to have been present during the interviews, only published material is analysed. According to the CDA method, the position of the subject depends on other subject’s positions, as well as on surrounding discourses in a bigger, sociocultural context. Therefore, the CDA method enables thematic, linguistic and contextual analyses of the selected material, which is of high scientific relevance for the specific study. The CDA also makes visible hidden and neutralised structures that are not always detected in quantitative studies. (Esaiasson et al, 2012:212-3).

Result: The 25 articles published between April 19 2013 July 3 2013 are all written because of the same event; the on-going hunger strike. The fact that no article on the subject is published thereafter shows the temporality of the result. All of the articles handles the notions of the hunger strike, and the different discourses; the one of the local citizen, the one of the journalist and the one of the Other, they all made visible the dependence on institutions. In three articles out of 25, the asylum seeker was enabled a subjects position where his/hers words were cited. Most often this person was described as a far distant group without sexes, names or opinions. At the samet time, the media event – the hunger – strike is discussed by surrounding institutions, politicains and citizens. Conclusion: The asylum seeker embodies the media event, but the subjects position and the voice is for others to take hold of. According to Nick Couldry, the media event is ambulant, why the possible future subject position of the asylum seeker wont be part of this event (Ibid 2003, s. 90). This is also made possible by the naming of “strikers”, that which is nothing after a strike. Therefor, the asylum seekers are to embody, but to be excluded from the news event, or to always be situated by the side if it’s border. Therefore, this study proposes reasons to, as Ylva Brune once did, (Brune 2004, s. 344) regard dependence on institutions and ritualised ideals of objectivity as part of the (re-)preoduction of the Other, where the asylum seeker serves as place for the news story, being telled by and for a ”we”, that is not him/her. Does or can even a media event include the Other, that is; the one without a subject’s position? Using the words of Trinh-t Min-ha (Chen, N. M, 2002), the closest the Other can get is to speak nearby.

The Swedish morning show ”Gomorron Sverige”, part of public service broadcasting, two years ago changed its profile towards being more news driven. The purpose of this paper is to review the content of the program before and after the change to see if in fact the balance between entertainment and information changed in line with ambition/the charter. The measures applied have been the number of agenda items for the specific categories as well as time spend on each category – news, entertainment or publicity of one´s own product. We have looked only at the part of the morning show not specifically dedicated to the daily news. This study is based on a quantitative analysis consisting of 193 analytical units that have been individually categorized against a system of codes where each code is representing specific characteristics. What we are looking for is the theme of content, how the content is presented and the persons represented. The current debate in media suggests that even public service broadcasters are more and more influenced by a commercial agenda. Focus is moving from a focus on quality and information towards commercial interests. Opinion differs naturally and the debate basically suggests a difference in normative expectations to public service channels. One view is that news is more and more packaged and served in ways satisfying a commercial angle. One way of evaluating this is an analysis of the balance between news and entertainment in so-called mixed programs, such as Gomorron Sverige. In this program news and entertainment comes together in what internationally is known as infotainment. Gomorron Sverige is challenged with the need to live up to the demands for quality of information and news. At the same time they are expected to retain viewer numbers while competing against channels with a purely commercial base driven by popular demand. How does the public service program present the information? The result of our analysis show that from a starting point of an equal balance between information and entertainment, there has been a move towards a larger share of information based on agenda items on the show. This is true even when measured on time allocated. Time for information driven agenda items have increased by 32 percent while time spend on entertainment has been reduced by 31 percent. Furthermore, publicity of own products has increased as well. Average time for such bits have increased by 30 seconds. Before the new charter it was not common for any such bit to exceed one minute while today they can last up to three minutes. Our analysis clearly demonstrates that Gomorron Sverige has increased its share of agenda items focused on delivering information. We find it fair to conclude that the producers of the program have delivered against the new charter. The new profile of Gomorron Sverige can be categorized as informative with an informal tone. The roles covered by guests in the program have changed ever so slightly but the guests still fill the same purpose. For the most part guests visit the program to debate issues or add knowledge as subject matter experts. Journalists represent the largest category of guests and the presenters have been given more time to shine.

Titel: Herr Sport gräver inte – en kvantitativ innehå#sanalys av sportmagasinet Sportspegeln Författare: Jesper Åhlander Kurs: Journalistikgranskning, Instutitionen för journalistik, medier och kommunikation (JMG), Göteborgs universitet Handledare: Marie Grusell Syfte: Att kartlägga innehållet i Sportspegeln 2014, med fokus på innehåll med ett kritiskt förhållningssätt till sportvärlden. Metod: Kvantitativ innehållsanalys Material: Analysen baseras på ett totalurval under 2014 och omfattar 51 avsnitt av sportmagasinet Sportspegeln Huvudresultat: Studien visar att fem procent av innehållet i Sportspegeln under 2014 är sådant som behandlar sportvärldens negativa inverkan på individen och/eller samhället. Den största delen av det totala innehållet i Sportspegeln 2014 handlar om herridrott och den absolut vanligast förekommande sporten är fotboll. Det är sällan innehållet fokuserar på något annat än det idrottsliga utövandet. Innehållet berör oftast idrottare verksamma på internationell nivå, med undantag för de högsta svenska ligorna i fotboll och ishockey. Innehållet har stark elitcentrering, främst på svenska sportstjärnor. Stora idrottshändelser tar mycket av utrymmet i Sportspegeln. En procent av innehållet handlar om handikappidrott.

Bachelor’s Thesis in Journalism Title: One Hundred Years of Swedishness. A Study of Vidi, Den Svenske Nationalsocialisten, Nydemokraten and SD-kuriren Authors: Nils Gruvebäck and Rebecca Lundberg Academic term and year: Spring term 2015 Department: Journalism, Media and Communication Supervisor: Tomas Andersson Odén Examiner: Mathias A. Färdigh During the last two decades nationalist movements have mobilized throughout Europe. In Sweden the growing party is called the Sweden Democrats. During these years they have been accused of having a racist agenda, but since 2005 when Jimmy Åkesson became leader of the party, they have changed their logotype from a burning torch to a blue and yellow hepatica, their popularity has grown and they have tried to dissociate themselves from their rightwing past. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how nationalist movements in Sweden have developed during the last one hundred years. By starting with Vidi, an antisemitic newspaper from 1914, moving through the 1930’s and the Nazi party National Socialist Worker’s Party, to 1994 and the populist party New Democrats and the Sweden Democrats 2014 we want to see how these parties differ from one another – and what they have in common. By using the ECA-method (Ethnographic Content Analysis) we are exploring how swedishness is portrayed and constructed in four nationalist magazines associated to these movements: Vidi, Den Svenske Nationalsocialisten, Nydemokraten and SD-kuriren. Through a postcolonial perspective we investigate how the idea of Swedishness changes throughout the years, in relation to how the idea of the other changes. We see how the idea of Swedishness is created by how the other is portrayed, and how the two are in one way symbiotic and get meaning from one another. We also examine how media is portrayed in these magazines. In a Swedish nationalist discourse it is not unusual to accuse media for censorship, lies and “Swedish hostility”. As this study will show, the idea of Swedish hostility was vital already in 1914.

Swedish sports journalism are often criticized of giving too much attention to teams from big cities in general, and particularly to teams from Stockholm. It´s also a given in sports journalism that a good performance, like a victory in an import game, should result in some media attention. But what happens when these two criteria is opposed against each other? What is most important according to Swedish sports writers; the team from the big city or the winning team? We made a quantitative content analysis on the last ten seasons, 2005 – 2014, of the top Swedish football league, Allsvenskan. But our interest was not to examine every match; our analysis is based on every match where the big city team has lost to a smaller team. During these ten seasons 241 games were played where a smaller team wins against a big city team. We have studied Aftonbladets main article from all these games and, with help from certain theoretical tools, been deciding which team has got the main role in the article. We have been studying the headlines of the articles and which team that it is mainly referring to. Adding to this we’ve also been studying who is quoted in the entrance of the article. We have been analyzing the article picture to decide which team has the main role in it. We have also decided if the article is about one specific person or about the team. By comparing our results with older studies we can say that Aftonbladet gives losing big city teams much more attention than other losing teams. Almost more than half of the headlines focuses on the losing big city team. That number should be put in comparison to older studies saying that Aftonbladet focuses on the winning team in 79 per cent of the main articles. It seems that Aftonbladet thinks it´s at least as important to be a big city club as it is to win the game. We can also show that it´s more common that an article has a one-person-angle when it´s focused on the winning smaller team. It seems that a smaller team depends more on having big name players in their squad to get attention than big city teams have. Being located close to Aftonbladets office in Stockholm is a factor that seems to be important if you are a smaller team and wants attention. The teams that have the toughest time to get attention are located far from Stockholm. They have quite the same results during the last ten seasons as many teams closer to Stockholm but doesn´t get close to the same amount of attention. We can also show that a team that has been successful over a certain amount of time has a better chance of getting media attention, regardless where in Sweden they are located. It seems though that the smaller team has to have been successful in the later years. It doesn´t seem to be enough to have won the league two times in the last 20 years to get attention.

In this study we have looked at medias portrayal of Margot Wallström with the ambition to explore how female polititicans are portrayed in Swedish media. We have done this by a critical discourse analysis on articles from the two biggest daily- and evening papers in Sweden, with a total of 16 articles. We have stood upon the theoretical foundation consisting of gender research, media effects research and discourse research. The gender research has given us explanations and manifestations of the difference between the media portrayal of men and women. The research on media effects has been our way to firmly establish the relevance of our study in a societal perspective. And lastly, the research on discourses has given us the understanding and the tools to go through with our study. To ascertain how gender is portrayed, in the portrayal of Margot Wallström in Swedish media, we developed three analytic themes to apply on our material. Those themes are The Mans Favorite, which focuses on Margot Wallströms private and professional relationships, The Female Self-Thinker, which focuses on her role as a politician, and Politician and Mother, which focuses on her role as a mother. We found that Margot Wallström through her career as a politician has travelled from the role as a mother to the role of a politician. Her family and the matters of her private life has been all over the Swedish press over the years, and her personality has been a big part of the description of her as a politician. Although she is not explicitly mentiones as a female politician more than a few times, she is indeed seen as a woman in politics.

This study examines how the Swedish newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet report about hiv and aids. We start our analysis in the summer of 1987 when the famous designer Sigshten Herrgård reveals that he is hiv-infected, which causes a massive press coverage. To see how the reporting changes over time we compare the articles from that summer with how the epidemic was covered by the press in 1997 and 2007. Totally we have studied 355 articles. We chose the theme partly because of Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar (2012), a Swedish tv-serie about the lives and deaths of young homosexuals in Stockholm in the 80’s. It is based on a book serie written by the author and playwright Jonas Gardell who is critical to how media covered hiv and aids when it first came to Sweden. According to him the reporting was alarming and he refers to an article that described hiv as a punishment for people with an immoral lifestyle – homosexuals, prostitutes and drug addicts. We wanted to see if this really was what the reporting was like in the 80’s and what have changed since then. Our results shows that Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet often mention homosexuals, drug addicts and prostitutes in the reporting about hiv and aids. It is most common in 1987 but risky groups can be found in some of the articles from 1997 and 2007 as well. We can also see that the hiv-infected people very seldom get to express their view about the issue, instead it is experts, organizations and authorities that are the main actors as subjects in the reporting. We can determine that journalists often use words with a negative value in the articles about hiv and aids, such as promiscuous, non-human and reckless attitude. There has been an increasing amount of people getting hiv in Sweden, while the amount of articles in Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet have decreased.