Title: Palestinian freelance journalists – self-censorship, customers and role in society Number of pages: 67 Authors: Linnea Fridh and Jens Wingren Mentor: Gabriella Sandstig Course: Bachelor thesis, Journalism studies Period: Spring 2015 University: Faculty of Journalism, Media and Communication (JMG) University of Gothenburg Purpose/ Aim: The aim of the study is to map and analyse the working conditions, possibilities and limitations of Palestinian freelance journalists.. Main results: By analysing the answers of our respondents we have concluded that the main possibility with the working conditions of Palestinian freelance journalists is their flexibility. As long as they are financially safe (for example from working another job) they can be more straightforward and uncompromising in their journalism. Freelance journalists are however limited by the financial scarcity of the Palestinian media that don’t pay them enough and offer lacking support. Feeling excluded from the union is also something that specifically affects the freelance journalists and might make them feel more vulnerable. There is therefore a slight paradox inherent in the situation of the Palestinian freelancer: they have the opportunity to do good and critical journalism, but only if they can support themselves financially in some other way. Another finding of this study is that freelance journalists may alter their implications of professional ideals such as objectivity and neutrality when they work with foreign news desks. Working with this kind of customers also provides a way of expressing oneself with less fear of repercussions from differing factors in Palestinian society that might want to silence dissent.

The purpose of this study is to compare employed journalists’ and freelance journalists’ attitudes to work with information-, communication- and PR-assignments. Our research questions are:

• What are the attitudes to work with information-, communication- and PR-assignments among employed journalists and freelance journalists?

• Why are journalists willing or not willing to work with information-, communication- and PR-assignments?

• What impact has the labour market on the attitude to work with information-, communication- and PR-assignments?

• Has the professional journalistic identity any impact on the attitude to work with information-, communication- and PR-assignments? To answer the questions we used different theories about the labour market and also described the journalistic ideals and the relation between information, communication, PR and journalism. Our intention was to reach general conclusions, and we decided that the best way to answer our questions was to do a quantitative study. Therefore we made an online survey. This was also the most time- and resource-efficient way. It was sent to all reporters who worked at local stations in public service radio or public service TV. It was also sent to all reporters who worked in the daily press in the same towns as mentioned above. The survey was also sent to all the freelancers in the freelance catalogue in the same towns as above.

Our survey was sent to 1158 journalists in Sweden, 566 journalists answered the survey. The results show that freelancers are more positive to work with information-, communication- and PR-assignments than employed journalists, although journalists overall are more positive than negative. The freelancers are positive to these types of assignments mainly because of economic reasons. The employees, on the other hand, have a positive attitude mainly because this kind of business provides more work opportunities.

The different attitudes of the two groups of journalists can be explained with the differentiation on the labour market. Among the employees the jobs are becoming fewer and the freelancers have a harder economic situation. A clear majority of the freelancers are willing to work with these assignments even at the same time as journalistic assignments. Among the employees, on the other hand, most of them are not willing to work with both kinds of assignments simultaneously. Furthermore, the study shows that journalists who have experience of information-, communication- and PR-assignments also are more positive than others. The results show as well that the journalistic ideals that are associated with the profession overall are strong. They are stronger among the employees than among the freelancers. The freelancers are willing to work with information-, communication- and PR-assignments regardless of what ideals they agree with. The employees are more positive to these kinds of jobs if they to a larger extent agree to the ideals that today are less associated with the profession.

In this study we have done an explorative study of the Swedish magazine industry. In light of recent years staggering development of technology and new devices we found it imperative to examine how the editorial environment has changed. The purpose was to study how editors approach the web as an editorial platform. Which problems and difficulties they experience and how they intend to approach this predicament. Since research in this area is scarce and problematic due to the constantly shifting environment. We are hoping that our results would fill a gap that could clarify and assist the market in how they can approach the web. Our theoretical framework relies on the assessment of seeing a magazine as a business. Where the structures, business models and income is the main aspects. The theories also consider the public as the major influential factor. Even though the main focus in this paper is not on the public, we define that they have an indirect effect on every decision made by the editors in magazines. To get a comprehensive assessment of the situation we decided to undertake two studies. Initially through a survey which was sent to the editors of a large proportion of the magazine industry. Thereafter we did a few qualitative research interviews with editors. The magazines they represented were distinctly different concerning resources, capabilities, ownership and so on. The result we gathered was interpreted and generalised on the industry. We do not consider the results to characterize every single title on the Swedish market. We do however claim that the conclusions and results are good estimations and predictions. What we found was that there is a great concern in the industry regarding the web. The main issue is that editors have no clear idea on how to capitalize the content especially from the readers. A vast majority consider their presence and work on the web as vital. And it will continue to be important in the future. Furthermore there are some indications that the web is becoming more important than the traditional paper. And that the products will become two separate commodities, joint together by the brand. There are some predictions that longer text and a new model for distributing the content will become a reality in the nearby future. This study confirms that former studies are somewhat out-dated even though they were satisfactory at the time of their publication. In that sense this paper offers an updated view on the digital problematic for the Swedish magazine industry. Our goal was to uncover answers where there are none. Nevertheless this exploration is valuable in the sense that it presents indications and provides a better understanding for the problematic in this day and age.

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.