Authors: Fanny Edstam & Joacim Kettil Title: Between Askim and Angered. A quantitative research of media’s presentation of individuals in different socio-economic residential areas. Level: Bachelor of Journalism Location: University of Gothenburg Language: Swedish Number of pages: 41 Gothenburg is a city that struggles with the issues of segregation. Residential areas like Askim are poorly integrated and areas like Angered have a high amount of immigrated inhabitants. Our hypothesis, with this in mind, is that one can assume media reports from different socio economic residential areas in different ways. The assumed difference in reporting can have an effect in the readers beliefs that an area can be better or worse than it actually is. In this way media can reinforce or cement an already substantial belief on what residential areas and their inhabitants are like, when the truth can be more balanced. If you only hear positive stories from one area, or on the other hand only negative ones from another, the reader is primed to connect the residents to the same issues. Therefore, the study aims to evaluate how people are portrayed in local media depending on what socio-economic residential area they reside in. A quantitative content analysis on three local newspapers was conducted during the year of 2013 with a total of 633 coded and analyzed units of articles who mention the residential areas. The residential area Nordost and its inhabitants are portrayed in a more negative way compared to the residential areas Centrumväst and Sydväst. The findings are connected to different media theories like framing and priming. It is concluded that our results on the whole match our hypothesis and our theories. But it is problematic to draw any definite conclusions because of the comparatively small amount of variables we analyzed.

This case study aims to find out whether the promotion of Swedish news through push technology, and the selection process behind it, obeys the traditional criteria of news values. A months-worth of push notifications, sent out by the mobile phone applications of newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Expressen, were analysed through the application of a number of taxonomies meant to determine their newsworthiness. These taxonomies were, however, based on 20th century media, and do not necessarily adapt well to analysis of digital news publication forms. The purpose of this study is therefore to find out which criteria are still relevant to the news selection behind a digital format such as push notifications; and which have become obsolete. The basis of this study is the criteria of news values originally designed by Galtung and Ruge in 1965 and revised by Harcup and O’Neill in 2001; as well as the model of assessing front page news proposed by Hvitfelt. The content analysis was conducted in a manner as similar to that of Harcup and O’Neill’s own study as possible, so as to constitute a re-revisal – revamped for the digital age. Our results show that the criterion of “frequency” – that is the conformance between the time-span of an event and the publication frequency of a medium – has acquired an ambiguous importance. Urgency and freshness of an event have become the most important factors of newsworthiness; still the term “frequency” seems antiquated when there is in digital media no such a thing as a conventional deadline. We conclude by suggesting a further revisal of the Galtung-Ruge-Harcup-O’Neill-criteria, better suited to formats such as push notifications.

The main purpose of this thesis is to explore journalists’ views of the role of journalism in the asylum processes. The potentially problematic phenomenon is growing, and its spread will affect the way publishing decisions are made in the future. The subject is new and foreign to many journalists, and little to no research has previously been done on the subject. Our study will therefore provide new insight in the field of journalism ethics. We have conducted a qualitative study based on interviews with eight Swedish journalists who in one way or another have reported on threatened asylum seekers. In order to understand the journalists’ responses in a broader context, an interview with lawyer Aino Gröndahl was also included in the study. The analysis is based on theories of journalistic values and ethics, specifically consequence neutrality, objectivity and social responsibility. In addition, journalistic ethics in a changing and global media landscape has been an important theoretical field. The analyze method is based on P. Burnards’ (2008) thematic content analysis. In the analysis we assumed four analytical themes; The Journalistic Task, Relationship to the Source, The View of Consequences and Responsibilities, and The Role in Specific Cases. One of the more interesting results of our study is that journalists are largely unaware of media attention being used as a strategy in the asylum process. Journalists tend to de-emphasize their own importance in asylum cases. Aino Gröndahl, however, confirms that journalists’ actions greatly effect the asylum process. The journalists hardly reflect over the impact an article can create, even though they operate in a globalized and connected world. Journalists often implement consequence neutrality – but respecting the sources’ security is an important factor.

Abstract: In this study I have tried to understand the thoughts and perceptions of Swedish fashion journalists in regards to the status of their profession using qualitative interviews.