Nobel Relations – Hur Nobel Biocare framställs i svensk press under våren 2002 i samband med företagets övergång till hodingbolag

Abstract Title Nobel Relations – an analysis of the reported Swedish media image of Nobel Biocare in relation to the the firm’s shift of legal domicile during the spring of 2002 Author Helene Carlson Course Media and Communications, Extension Sequence Semester Spring term 2003 Method A qualitative analysis of press cuttings, completed with clarifying quantitative compilations Material 116 articles from daily newspapers and weekly/monthly magazines: 34 articles and 51 news-items or news agency telegrams about Nobel Biocare, 29 articles written on issues somehow related to Nobel Biocare, and 2 reports based on interviews with the company’s CEO Heliane Canepa. Main Results The overall media image of Nobel Biocare is rather positive. However, in the period of time before the piece of news had become offical the articles were speculative and questioning, wondering whether they could trust the CEO. The main press release attracted a lot of media attention and the articles were here – at first – neutral, and stressed out journalists basically summarized the words of Nobel Biocare. Some even quoted the entire text – without mentioning the source. However, for the company that is a good thing, as it means that it gets its message across to its target groups, formulated the way they put the words – i.e. positively. Two days after the press release the press became more cruel – the regional news paper Göteborgs-Posten seemed to feel slightly humiliated by the way CEO Canepa had withheld them facts only a week earlier. This newspaper is the most negative one and the reason is probably – also – the fact that some of the Nobel Biocare employees and fellow citizens might risk losing their jobs if the company would move its headquarters to Switzerland. In contrast, the most positive and uncritical newspaper was Svenska Dagbladet. When comparing the press release to the facts given high priority by the press, both parties had similar listings except on one point: the taxes. Although very profitable for the company and its stockowners, the reduced corporate taxes seem to upset the press a little and many of the articles use that angle to their texts. But although they try to make it sound bad they can´t help but mentioning the positive financial facts related to the issue, which takes the edge off their argumentations. After the press release and up until when the stock was to be listed in Zürich, the press texts got more and more positive. A stronger use of languange rhetorics, dramatized headlines and an increasing amount of illustrative pictures marked this phase. The elite sources were by far the most frequent, and the only way of equalizing the CEO´s words was to find other equally respected experts.