During the last decades, the Swedish newspaper industry has seen a decline in circulation and ad revenues. Most of the Swedish daily newspapers are present online, and has been since the middle of the 1990s. The general situation has been that the news offered online are free to read, and as a result, daily newspapers have relied on ad revenues to fund their presence online. With the rise of major players on the online ad market, such as Google and Facebook, the newspapers in Sweden have been faced with a new problem when it comes to making their online presence profitable. A solution to the problem, brought forth by the daily newspapers, has been to implement paywalls on their online news sites.
This study examines the general situation for Swedish daily newspapers when it comes to paywalls. By using a quantitative method, the study examines the occurrence of paywalls on Swedish daily newspapers, as well as examining what kind of paywalls the Swedish daily newspapers use. Furthermore, the study tries to seek out the incentives that the Swedish daily newspapers have when it comes to implementing a paywall, as well as examining the reasons for choosing a specific type of paywall. This is done by using a qualitative method in the form of semi structured interviews with representatives from five Swedish media groups.
Our study shows that around two thirds of the Swedish daily newspapers already have some kind of paywall implemented on their online news sites, and that the most common type of paywall is the soft paywall. The results from our study also show that the type of paywall that an online newspaper uses, seem to be dependent on what news group the newspaper is a part of, and if one publication in a newsgroup uses a certain type of paywall, the rest of the publications in the news group are likely to use the same type. Furthermore, the study shows that several of the daily newspapers without some form of paywall, are going to be implementing one in the near future.
The main reason for implementing a paywall seems to be a general opinion amongst the media groups, which argues that the newspapers need more than just one source of revenue in order for them to be financially viable.
Keywords: Paywall, Swedish newspapers, Digital revenue, Digital subscriptions, Online news, Paid content

The aim of this study is to make an initial attempt at investigating how conversations between men and women are structured in Swedish podcasts. More specifically, it uses Conversation Analysis to investigate how gender roles are recreated in podcasts as a new media format.
This is done by looking at how the word is distributed in terms of speaking time, share of lines and share of interruptions. It is also done by looking at how men and women approach different conversation topics.
The material used in this case study is a transcript of one episode of well-known Swedish food podcast Eat This! which is hosted by one female and one male. By analysing the transcript both quantitatively and qualitatively, we found that the conversation structure in our case study simultaneously recreated and strayed away from the gender roles found in our selection of literature. In terms of how the two hosts divided the conversational space, there were infinitesimal differences between the female and male host. This deviates from how a mixed-sex conversation is usually organized, in the way that the man commonly takes up
more time and space. However, in regards to how the different hosts approached different conversation topics, gender roles were re-established. The woman took on a more personal, intimate viewpoint when discussing a subject while the man had a more distanced and status-inclined way of addressing different topics. In conclusion, the study shows that while
gender roles are reaffirmed in the podcast format, the medium can serve as a space where new types of conversations and voices are allowed to take place.
Key words: Conversation Analysis, Podcast, Gender, Gender Roles, Conversational
structure, Lifestyle Journalism, Media, Medium.
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Title: ”Hon har inte alla besticken i lådan” – En kritisk diskursanalys av hur kvinnliga respektive manliga mördare framställs i Veckans Brott
Author: Sofie Furusäter & Mikaela Söderberg
Subject: Undergraduate research paper in Journalism studies, Dept. Of Journalism, media and communication (JMG) Gothenburg University
Term: Spring 2017
Supervisor: Marina Ghersetti, JMG Gothenburg
Pages/words: 38/15648, excluding appendix and reference-list
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Swedish television program Veckans Brott portraits female and male murderers.
Method: Critical Discourse Analysis
Procedure: 10 cases (within 14 episodes) were analyzed through Critical discourse analysis.
Results: Our analysis show some differences between the portrayal of the male and female offenders in the Swedish television program Veckans Brott.
Key words: Crime, gender, media, murderer, Veckans Brott, narratology, discourse
analysis, norm
Nyckelord: Brottslighet, genus, medier, mördare, Veckans Brott, narratologi,
diskursanalys, norm

In January of 2017 Martin Kragh and Sebastian Åsberg published a research article titled “Russia’s strategy for influence through public diplomacy and active measures: the Swedish case”. One of the main theses of the research article was that the cultural pages of Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet repeatedly uses narratives from Russian government operated news agency Sputnik, often accused of being a Russian propaganda outlet. Aftonbladet Kultur resented the accusation and a Swedish researcher pointed out methodological flaws in the article, flaws
Martin Kragh later warded off.
One of the dominant themes Kragh and Åsberg found in the articles in Sputnik was that of a “positive image of Russia”. We argue that if Aftonbladet Kultur were to use narratives from Sputnik and thereby spread Russian propaganda, one would be able to detect a positive image of Russia in their reporting. The purpose of this study is to determine whether Martin Kragh and Sebastian Åsbergs accusations against Aftonbladet Kultur are legitimate.
In this bachelor thesis we examine whether Aftonbladet Kultur are spreading a positive image of Russia. The method used is qualitative comparative text analysis and the theories taken into consideration are framing theory, attribution theory and Karen Phalet and Edwin Poppe´s theory of evaluation of national stereotypes through competence and morality. By looking at the
overall image of Russia presented in Aftonbladet Kultur and also comparing it to the cultural pages of the other major Swedish tabloid, Expressen, we seek to determine whether the image presented in Aftonbladet Kultur is unreasonably positive.
The main findings in this study are that the image of Russia presented in the cultural pages of both tabloids is negative. There are small differences between the two cultural pages, one of them being the way they explain negative Russian actions. Aftonbladet Kultur are more likely to explain negative behaviour with external factors like outside pressure, while Expressen Kultur explain nearly every negative action with internal factors like the temper or underlying motives of the Russians. Also Aftonbladet Kultur are less likely to paint the picture of Russia as a threat than Expressen Kultur are. In both cultural pages Russia’s morality is described as low whereas their competence in Expressen Kultur most often is described as high and in Aftonbladet Kultur described as somewhat lower. With the differences being small we find that Aftonbladet Kultur are not spreading a positive image of Russia in the articles studied.
Keywords: Russia, Putin, Framing, Attribution, Aftonbladet Kultur, Expressen Kultur

Our purpose with this study is to identify different opinions of sponsored content among Swedish news journalists who work at newspapers. The purpose of this study will be examined through three main questions:
How do news journalists motivate their view on sponsored content in relation to the journalistic ideals?
How do news journalists perceive possible conflicts of interest between economic and publicistic goals?
In which forms do news journalists want to work with sponsored content in the future?
We examine these questions by doing qualitative interviews with four journalists at Svenska Dagbladet and four journalists at Göteborgs-Posten. The ages and the sex of the people we interview is mixed so we can identify differences between these sexes and generations.
We will compare their opinions and views on sponsored content with their relation to professional identity and already established ideals. We want to see if the ideals are different to journalist that work with sponsored content in contrast to journalists that have not worked with sponsored content.
Our result show that even though advertisements take other forms than before and management in media have more and more control over both economic and publicistic questions, journalists still hold on to their ideals.
The result shows differences between younger and older journalists. Although the result may not be compared by age, but rather by form of employment, the younger journalist were more tolerant towards sponsored content. The result also showed that those who had worked with sponsored content before had a more tolerant view. Those were also the journalists who said they could work more with sponsored content in the future. This while the older journalists said they would never work with that kind of content.
Keywords: Sponsored content, ideals, professional identity, managerialism.
Nyckelord: Sponsrat material, yrkesideal, yrkesidentitet, managerialism.

In recent years people in Sweden have been more worried about the current situation in Russia. There are reasons to believe that this may reflect on Swedish media and their coverage of the Russian Federation. Another country that is influential and has a big impact on Sweden is the United States. This raises the question if the nation a journalist is covering is affecting their ideals. This is why this bachelor thesis is investigating and comparing in what way two Swedish newspapers are covering news about Russia and the United States.
The purpose of the thesis is to investigate if Swedish journalists are maintaining their ideals about objectivity and source criticism when covering news stories that are either happening in or is affected by Russia or the United States. The hypothesis is that Swedish journalists are less objective when reporting about Russia than they are when reporting about the United States and that the source criticism is affected in different ways when the journalists are reporting about the different countries. The questions at hand is how different sources are treated, if there are any noticeable loaded words in the texts, who is represented in each article, what kind of angle the journalists are working from and what kind of news are covered from the different countries. The thesis is taking the Framing theory, the theory about news valuation and media logic into consideration.
The method used is a qualitative comparative text analysis of articles about Russia and the United States published during a week in September 2016 in the Swedish newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet. To note here is that the year of 2016 is an election year in both the Russian Federation and in the United States with the Russian election in late September and the US election in early November. The analysis was carried out using a mass media rhetoric analysis model.
The main findings in this study is that the type of news from the United States is more varied than the news from Russia in both of the Swedish newspapers. Uses of American sources are plenty and Swedish journalists seem to trust in American media a lot as the coverage is mostly copied from American media sources. The case is very different concerning Russia. Swedish media seem to cover Russia mainly with an political angle. Also military news stories that concern Russia is abundant. Swedish journalists also seem to have a lower standard of objectivity and source criticism concerning news about Russia. The stories about Russia are in general more hostile written than the stories about the United States.
Keywords: Russia, United States, Objectivity, Source Criticism, Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter

Title:
News or Nonsense? – en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av livevideosändningar på Facebook
Authors:
Gunnar Fägerlind, Jonathan Otter och Tobias Kjellberg
Subject:
Undergraduate research paper in journalism studies, Dept. of journalism, media and communication, (JMG) Gothenburg university
Term:
Fall 2016
Supervisor:
Mathias A. Färdigh
Purpose:
In recent years, the phenomenon of livestreamed news-video has gone through immense inflation on social medias – and the phenomenon continues to increase still. In Sweden, news companies are swiftly and gradually picking up on the trend, perhaps led by their American and British counterparts. But, as research has shown, live reporting is not journalistically problem-free. One example (of several) is that live reporting puts a greater amount of pressure on reporters to deliver succinct and cohesive information – all in one take – in comparison to regular video reporting. Furthermore (as we ourselves argue) the ability to maintain a reliable journalistic-ethical approach is heavily compromised during live reporting.
Considering the problems of live video reporting we strove to examine the content streamed as such by Swedish news companies on Facebook, and to what extent the collective material could be defined as news. We also asked ourselves to what extent the live-function was truly necessary, and what general strokes could be found. With the support of earlier research we also discussed what could explain our results and what possible forces that could be pushing the inflation of livestreamed videos on social media.
Method:
Quantitative content analysis based in theories of newsworthiness and journalistic ethics. To exemplify the phenomenon of live-streamed videos on social media as a whole we chose Facebook as our platform.
Procedure:
We analyzed all livestreamed video from all Swedish newspapers on Facebook that were aired between April 1st 2016 and October 29th 2016. We argued for, and operationalized a set of news-criteria of choice and coded the material. We discussed the results with support of previous studies.
Results:
Some videos met the news criteria to a very high degree while some met none. Out of 10 possible news criteria, none struck the full pot. The highest amount of news criteria we found in a single video was 8. On average, the videos fulfilled 3,2 news criteria. Although that is a seemingly low figure, it is higher than we initially presumed. Considering these results though, it is reasonable to assume that journalistic prowess is not the main ambition of these live-videos. One explanation we found support for, was the theory that news companies use social media to increase traffic to their main website. We also discussed what other reasons could explain the results, with support in earlier studies and theories. Amongst these the possible pressure that lies upon news companies to show their audience that they keep updated with the latest technology and trends.
To our surprise we found that one fourth of all live-videos were shot when and where the referred happening actually took place, justifying the use of the actual live-function. In most cases though, the necessity of the live-function could be put into doubt.
Although these results may seem dire, they don’t necessarily need to be seen on as an implication of journalistic decadence. Seen from another perspective, these live-videos seem to be a complement to news companies’ main product – which in this case is old-fashioned newspapers. If the live-videos does not negatively affect their main product it could be argued that the part of the live-videos that actually contains news, although it may be small, contributes to an overall greater journalistic coverage.
Key words:
Live reporting, social media, facebook, nyhetsvärdering, journalistisk etik, livevideosändning