När skandalen faller mellan stolarna

Abstract

Title: ”When the scandle falls through the cracks” – A quantitative comparison- and content analysis of two Swedish political scandals

Authors: Hugo Göthberg, Josefin Bengtsson and Yasmine Christensson Kavur

Level: Bachelor thesis in Journalism

Term: Autumn 2022

Supervisor: Britt Börjesson, MKG Gothenburg

The major objective of this study is to investigate how exstensive the media coverage was in the largest newspapers, TV-news programmes and radio-news around two political Swedish scandals that took place 20 years apart. The two investigations in question for this thesis are Valstugereportaget, conducted by the programme Uppdrag granskning in 2002 (SVT 1), and the second one is Partiernas hemliga pengar, conducted by the programme Kalla fakta in 2022 (TV4). This study has been done through quantitative comparison- and content analysis method. We have constructed a theoretical framework based on the theory of medialization (Hernes, 1978) and the theory of media hunting criteria (Allern & Pollack 2009). To give an answer to our thesis, three questions were constructed:

1. Can both political scandals count as subjects of media hunting?
2. What similarities and differencies can be seen in the reporting coverage regarding the two political investigations in press, radio and television?
3. Which factors can be assumed plays a part in the two scandals reporting range in press, radio and TV?

We have sorted articles and news broadcasts in both television and radio covering the two scandals using an analysis schedule. The sorted content was published during a one week period, in this case from the day the original investigation was broadcasted and six days forward. All the empirical material for this study was collected in November of 2022, and resulted in a total of 322 units of analysis.

The first question resulted in the conclusion that both political scandals could be defined as subjects of media hunting. As for the second question, the most prominent conclusion was that newspapers were the media that which reported most frequently  about both scandals. However the reporting range of Partiernas hemliga pengar subsided much faster than Valstugereportaget. The third question was answered by the multiple factors we found during this study, that can be applied as reasons for the different reporting coverage regarding the two scandals. The conclusion that can be drawn  from our study, in addition to the fact that both cases can be seen as subjects of media hunting , is that Valstugereportaget was reported on 33 more times than Partiernas hemliga pengar. We were able to draw the conclution that factors such as medialization, economic winnings and the changes in the media landscape possibly can play a part in the differences that have been seen throughout the study.

Keywords: Media hunting, scandal, medialization, the media landscape, media coverage