Abstract: Female musicians´ part and the treatment in the music world are more and more loudly debated. Criticism regarding female musicians in music journalism is often expressed. The purpose of this essay is to examine and analyze three areas within Swedish music journalism, and investigate whether or nor female musicians and male musicians are participating on the same conditions.
This bachelor thesis explores how two of Swedens most read and well considerd newspapers have provided the Swedish citizens with information about the treaty of Lisbon. Sweden became a memberstate of the European Union (EU) in 1995 and since then a lot has changed in the swedish political organisation. Now the Swedish citizens have to learn these changes, get to know and understand them. In this process media plays an important role. The main questions of the thesis are if the newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, two Swedish broadsheets with a large audience, provide their readers with information about the effects of the treaty of Lisbon. Changes and effects considering the political organisation of EU, power and influence. The study also examines whether the publications contribute to the formation of a new European identity. To answer the questions the method of Etnographic Content Analysis (ECA) has been used. Two themes were designed for the analysis: information about organisation, power and influence and information about identity. To these themes several questions have been asked to the material. The analyzed articles were chosen from the two year period when the treaty was to be approved in all of the national parliaments. Results show that information about the treaty of Lisbon has been provided to the readers. Although, the information has been of various quality and relevance. A lot of the articles focus on the ratification process of the treaty rather than the effects in power and influence that it might have on the memberstates and the European Union. The information that the articles provide are mainly focused on the changes of the political organisation. Other findings are that none of the newspapers can be considered to contribute to familiarize and to build a new European identity. This because the analyzed articles didn’t contain European perspectives and failed to put the European Union in a relevant context. In the conclusion the study shows that Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet provides the Swedish readers with information about the treaty of Lisbon. Although the information mainly focused on the process and not on the effects the treaty. The newspapers did not contribute to the building of an European identity.
Authors: Sofia Eriksson and Malin Wändahl Title: To swim with sharks -‐ a qualitative study of female journalists work situation in Cape Town due to gender Level: Bachelor of Journalism. Autumn 2013 Location: University of Gothenburg Although the distribution of sex in the South African media houses is equal, research shows that the work conditions for women and men are unequal. Therefore, we have studied how the situation looks like beyond the statistics. The aim of our thesis is to examine, due to gender, how female journalists in Cape Town experience and cope with their work situation in a profession traditionally dominated by men. To achieve the purpose we had a qualitative approach with interview as method. We interviewed six female journalists at newspaper houses in Cape Town. In the analysis we applied the concepts of journalistic field, doxa, journalistic culture as well as strategies and tactics to get a further understanding of the collected material. We have found that journalists’ work conditions, which are deeply influenced by gender, are determined by unequal structures created for men. In contrast to statistics, there are more female journalists than male journalists in the newspaper rooms in Cape Town. The journalists experience a lot of stress in their profession, due to a heavy workload and understaffed newsrooms and due to expectations of overtime and the need to produce many articles per day. Newsrooms in Cape Town are characterized by structures that are designed for men, which make it impossible for female journalist with children to advance in any significant way. The work conditions make it difficult to combine work and family since women are expected to be responsible for children and household. The journalists perceive sexism in the field, both at the office and in interview situations, and to handle it they reduce and deny the truth of its impact. The doxa, which contains values and norms that are perceived as the truth by the journalists in the field, emphasize masculine values and the man is the invisible baseline. The doxa is reproduced by the journalists themselves but also by the managers in the media house who does not provide entry for ”girly-‐girls”. In order to handle the very stressful work situation the journalists give their role as a journalist a higher value, in order to justify the sacrifices they have to make. Their personal life is strongly affected negatively by their work situation. As a result, half of the journalists in the study do not see a future in journalism.
The person in focus – A study of the changing role of individuals’ on the newspaper’s front pages over the last 50 years Written by: Victor Kennmark, Fredrik Palmqvist & Anders Wollner Bachelor’s degree of Journalism Department of Journalism, Media and Communication Autumn term 2013 University of Gothenburg Our purpose with this study is to examine if and how the person-centeredness and personalization has changed on the front pages in the four biggest newspapers in Sweden over the last five decades; 1962-2012. Our angle is to look at the changes to see if the tabloidization, commercialization, and marketization having a bigger impact on our media landscape, and media content, in current years compared to earlier years. ! We have used both Swedish and international studies and theories. When it comes to commercialization we have mainly focused on studies by Ingela Wadbring, and Sigurd Allern. We have used Sigurd Allern’s, Ingela Wadbring’s and Josefine Sternvik’s theories on tabloidization. We’ve also include Marina Ghersetti’s theories about sensational journalism, personalization and news values. For the theories about medialization, personalization and agenda setting we’ve used Jesper Strömbäck’s studies. Ulrika Andersson and Jenny Wiik’s theories about marketization is also included in our study. ! The study has carried out in a quantative content analysis, by coding 1788 articles and using 16 different variables. We have examined four different newspapers, two tabloids – Aftonbladet and Expressen, and two morning papers – Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. These are the four biggest newspapers in terms of a national distribution. Aftonbladet and Expressen has used the tabloid format since before 1962, but Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet converted to the tabloid format in 2004, and 2000. We saw a significant increase in personalization after the two morning papers changed their format. ! Our results also shows that both person-centeredness and personalization having a bigger and more crucial part overall on the biggest newspapers front pages in 2012 than in 1962 if we see in terms of how the newspapers uses personalization. The amount of personalization is bigger, but not that noticeable. Instead we can see a big change in how the individuals are described on the front pages. In short: it’s more about the individuals as persons instead of the individuals as representatives. ! Another significant change can be seen in how the newspapers use the pictures and the amount of pictures that is being used. In the earlier front pages that we’ve studied there is a lot of body text and smaller pictures, not necessarily with people in them. On the front pages of today it’s more headliners and bigger pictures, usually with the person in focus.
In this study we have explored and investigated how journalist experience the relationship with politicians/press secretaries in the making of political news. The study examines how journalists see the balance of power between them and their political sources in the setting of the news agenda. To do this we have used a qualitative interview analysis. Our theoretical starting points have been based on the social exchange model. The social exchange model has a social psychological and sociological perspective that explains the interaction, social exchange and stability as a process of negotiation exchanges between parties and operators. Social exchange theory posits that human relationship and interaction are formed by the use of a subjective cost-benefit analysis and the comparison of alternatives. On the other hand this model only describes the exchange as rational. To really understand the exchange and power of balance between the parties we had to incorporate factors and theoretical standing points regarding norms, ideal, cultures and organizational structures in our analysis and study. We also had to incorporate the changing strategies of the political actors and how those strategies influence the journalist’s in their daily work. The last factors of analysis we used are based on the changing of the journalistic content and the emergence of analysis and commentating as journalistic tools. Our outset has been that the relationship between politicians/press secretaries and journalist are symbiotic and that the power of balance is changing. We used four themes of analysis to analyze the journalist’s experience of their relationship with politicians/press secretaries in the setting of the news agenda:
1. The exchange between the parties (exchange model)
2. Ideals, norms and internal and external structures/conditions
3. The professionalization of politics and actions of the political secretaries
4. The ever §changing future of political journalism and the emergence of new media channels and analysis and commentating the content of journalism.
The results have shown that politicians and press secretaries have the ability and will to influence the journalists in their daily work and that the journalist work actively to counter this influence in their quest for an objective, impartial and independent journalism. The result has also shown that the actions of influence have increased, and that the different strategies to influence the news agenda have changed. The results have also shown that the journalists don’t believe that the relationship is about giving and taking, and that they have the power over the news agenda. The journalists believe that they gain more in the exchange with the politicians and press secretaries, and that the politicians and press secretaries have to adjust to the conditions set by the journalists. Something that is questionable. We have also found that the internal and external conditions (editorial, economy and technology) are influencing the journalism and the political sphere in a way that may shift the power of balance between the parties.
The question at issue in this essay is how does mass media frame Nobel Prize in Literature? The starting point is to study whether game framing is occuring in media coverage of Nobel Prize in Literature. Previously, game framing has been studied in coverage of politcs, contrasted against issue framing. Game framing means that media frame politics as a game, a contest between politicians about power. This kind of framing is supposed to be used by media in purpose of attracting larger audience. In this essay the theory of game framing is applied in the new context of culture journalism. A theoretical basis primarily consisting of framing theory is used in this study, but also theory about media commercialization and theory about the dynamics between popular culture and high culture. The question if game framing is occuring in media coverage of Nobel Prize in Literature, is a question concerning journalism popularizing a high cultural institution. To exemplify Swedish mass media during the period from 1975 to 2011, two daily news papers are selected, the tabloid Aftonbladet and the morning paper Svenska Dagbladet. The tabloid is assumed to be a most likely case to apply game framing in reporting on Nobel Prize in Literature, while the morning paper is assumed to be a least likely case. Articles on Nobel Prize in Literature are analyzed by qualitative method primarily consisting of discourse analysis. The articles are studied with respect to three main forms of framing; literary framing, popular framing, and Nobel game framing.
Title: Att tårta en politiker – hot mot demokratin eller bara lite vaniljvisp i örat? Number of pages: 35 Authors: Maja Larsson & Josefin Wetterberg Tutor: Marina Ghersetti Course: Journalistikgranskning Period: Fall 2013 University: University of Gothenburg, Dept. of journalism, media and communication Purpose/aim: Our main purpose with this study is to examine and describe the reporting of two similar events, two pieings of well-known politicians in Sweden. The first incident, took place the 17th of April 2001, whereas the second pieing is more recent, 5th November 2013. We aim to understand the differences between these two with knowledge of the political climate in Sweden, but also by journalistic and scientific tools, such as framing theory and CDA. Material/Method: In order to fulfill the purpose of this study we have chosen to use a qualitative method of content analyzes, the critical discourse analyzes, combined with framing theory. Our material constitutes of 34 articles from the four major national newspapers we have chosen to analyze. Main results: Our study shows that the two incidents, the pieings of two well-known politicians, were framed and described in very different ways. Our conclusion is that they were put in different contexts because of changes in Sweden’s social climate.
Authors: Daniel Kirby & Émelie Vangen Lindgren Title: Controlling the Word Level: Bachelor of Journalism Location: University of Gothenburg Language: Swedish Number of pages: 29 The largest arena for public debate in Sweden is the television show Debatt, airing every week on SVT: Sweden’s public service network. Every episode has an audience at around 500.000 viewers. Because the channel is under the rules of the public service agreement, strict rules of diversity are applied. The purpose of this study is to examine the gender representation in Debatt; to investigate how men and women behave in the context of the televised debate and to see if the programme has managed to reflect an equal representation of the voices of men and women. We did this by performing a quantitative content analysis of four different episodes of Debatt, with 4 different hosts – two women hosts and two men. The episodes were randomly selected from the complete run time of Debatt, with the first episode from the first host dating back to 2001, and the latest episode from 2013. By doing this, we wanted to investigate exactly how often and for how long men and women were allowed to speak; how often they were interrupted and what subjects they discussed. We analyzed a total of 1021 units and found that men spoke almost twice the amount of time that women spoke. And when the women were allowed to speak they spoke as a person affected by an issue, or about subjects connected to the private sphere; such as the welfare of children exposed by the media. Men on the other hand totally dominated subjects connected to the public sphere; such as politics and surveillance. On average, men and women both spoke for 14 seconds every time it was their turn to speak. And opposed to our original hypothesis, men were interrupted more often than women. The conclusions of our study show that men do occupy a larger space in the televised public debate than women, but that the differences in their respective methods of debate are minimal, and that the divide between the genders is largely based on editorial decisions, rather than the behavior of the debating crowd.
Title: Schibbye och Persson’s Journey: a qualitative analysis of Göteborgs-Posten’s coverage of ”etiopiensvenskarna” from a narrative perspective. Authors: Viktor Eriksson and Max Sommerstein Subject: Undergraduate research paper in journalism studies, Dept. of journalism, media and communication (JMG) University of Gothenburg Term: Autumn 2013 Supervisor: Mats Ekström, JMG, Gothenburg University Pages: 35 Purpose: To examine how the narrative-model the hero’s journey is represented within the Swedish newspaper Göteborgs-Posten’s articles on Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye, two Swedish journalists who were imprisoned while conducting journalism in Ethiopia. Method: A combination of Ethnographic content analysis (ECA) and Compositional Interpretation (image-analysis). Procedure: A strategic selection of articles published in the supplement Skenprocessen i Addis Abeba, in Göteborgs-Posten. Results: The narrative model the hero’s journey is clearly represented as cultural frames in Göteborgs-Posten’s articles about Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson. The framing of the events are used to simplify the facts and to make them emotionally accessible. We have also determined that the steps of the model largely follow the same chronology in the articles as it does in the hero’s journey. All in all, we have determined that journalism and myth has a closer relationship than one might think.
Authors: Elina Haimi, Emelie Nordh, Kattis Sundén Title: What happens when two becomes one? Level: Bachelor of Journalism Location: University of Gothenburg Language: Swedish Number of pages: 50 A simple rule that any handbook in journalism will tell you is that it’s better, if not necessary, to have at least two different sources, rather than one, when you tell a story. This will keep information accurate and non-biased. You will get closer to the truth if you hear more people. We started to wonder if this would be the case with news papers as well. Will you get a more diverse and multifaceted news coverage with more news papers covering a story than one? This curiosity that we had led us to look all over Sweden for examples where two newspaper had emerged into one, or in other words – where one larger newspaper had bought the smaller one. We wanted to compare how the news coverage had changed since the incline in newspapers. Our investigations led us to Karlskoga, a small city with approximately 30 000 inhabitants. Karlskoga Tidning, owned by the NWT-group, bought Karlskoga-Kuriren, owned by Promedia, in 2011. Cuts were being made and the editorial staff shrunk. Now they had one news team instead of two. The company takeover was unique though, due to the fact that they kept two different heads and two different pages with letters to the editor. We carried out a quantitative content analysis in the two newspapers before and after the take over. In total we analyzed 3394 different articles from the years 2000, 2007, 2011, 2012 and 2013. We also conducted some interviews with important people around the newspapers. One example of a conclusion we made is that nowadays the content concists of less politics and more culture events. There are also more common people that get to express their opinions in the articles and less politicians. We also found out that the small places in the region get less coverage than before. Overall we saw that Karskoga Kuriren had had to adjust more to its new owner. It had for example lost a lot of the coverage of Örebro.