Det övergripande syftet med studien var att studera hur terroristen, representerad av Anders Behring Breivik och Rakhmat Akilov, konstruerades i fyra svenska dagstidningar efter två händelser benämnda terrordåd: attentaten i Oslo och på Utøya 22 juli 2011, och lastbilsattacken i Stockholm 7 april 2017. Detta utifrån ett socialpsykologiskt och diskursanalytiskt perspektiv med den sociala identitetsteorin som ramverk och ingrupper och utgrupper i fokus. Resultatet visar att det förekom olika diskurser för de två gärningsmännen, där Breivik framställdes som en individ som är en målmedveten, kallblodig ensamvarg, medan Akilov definierades utifrån sina presumtiva grupptillhörigheter som en passiv och kollektiv främling som agerat på terrororganisationen IS initiativ. Breivik kan utifrån resultatet placeras i en ingrupp och Akilov i en utgrupp, vilket indikerar ett samhällsklimat där ”vi” ställs mot ”dom”, något som i sin tur kan påverka individens identitet och värderingar. / The purpose of this paper was to study how the terrorist, represented by Anders Behring Breivik and Rakhmat Akilov, was constructed in four Swedish newspapers after two terrorist attacks in Norway July 22, 2011, and in Sweden, April 7, 2017. The study takes on a social psychological and discourse analytic perspective, where the social identity theory with its ingroups and outgroups is central. The result shows that there were different discourses for the two offenders, where Breivik was portraied as an individual who is a purposeful cold-blooded loner, while Akilov was defined on the basis of his presumptive group affiliations as a passive and collective alien. Based on the results, Breivik can be placed in an ingroup and Akilov in an outgroup, which indicates a social climate where ”we” are set against ”them”, something that in turn can influence the individuals identity and values.

The aim of this bachelor thesis was to analyse and examine which images the morning newspaper Dagens Nyheter and the tabloid paper Aftonbladet choosed to use on their front pages when reporting about the terrorist attack in Stockholm 2017. We also wanted to examine if there were any differences or similarities between morning newspapers and tabloids images on their front pages.    Before our study we did a mapping where we examined how many images, between April 8 and April 30,  the two newspapers used when portraying the incident on their front page. The mapping helped structuring our process by creating categories before deciding which images we wanted to examine more closely. We conducted a qualitative study and used semiotic image analysis, visual rhetoric analysis, metonymy, metaphor and index. We analysed twelve pictures; seven from Aftonbladet and five from Dagens Nyheter.          By examining this we established that there were both differences and similarities between the newspapers. The biggest difference was that Aftonbladet used more dynamic images while Dagens Nyheter used more approximations. Aftonbladet´s images portrayed the attack with dramatic, close-ups images where the images felt more realistic and Dagens Nyheter portrayed the attack with more objective images. A similarity that we found was that both newspapers used images of authoritarian people and implied that the society stands united against the terror. We also found that the suspected terrorist, Rakhmat Akilov, was presented as a threat from the outside that destroyed “our” western world.

This study is a comparative critical discourse analysis between one of Sweden’s biggest newspapers Aftonbladet and one of Sweden’s biggest alternative web newspapers Fria Tider. The comparative analysis will focus on both media outlets coverage of the terrorist attack on Drottninggatan in Stockholm, Sweden on the 7th of April 2017. The terrorist attack on Drottninggatan was one of the biggest of its kind in Swedish history where five people died and over a dozen were severely injured. The attack was performed by an assailant by the name of Rakhmat Akilov who described himself as a Muslim and would later claim to have sympathy for the Islamic State. The attack was widely covered in Sweden by all sorts of media outlets ranging from the more well-established newspapers to social media and alternative media sources. Former researchers have studied different types of alternative media in a variety of ways but there has not been a study on how the news coverage in an alternative media differs from that of the traditional and more well-established media. The material studied in this research are a total of 32 articles gathered from the web archive of Aftonbladet and Fria Tider. All articles were published between the 7th of April and the 12th of April 2017, and they all covered events related to the terrorist attack on Drottninggatan. The articles were analyzed with the help of four predetermined steps of critical discourse analytical criteria that were established beforehand to minimize the risk of our own presuppositions interfering with the reliability of the study. The purpose of the study was to analyze the ways in which the coverage of the terrorist attack on Drottninggatan differed between a right leaning alternative media and one of the biggest newspapers in Sweden. This was achieved with the theoretical basis of theories of alternative media, othering, framing theory, hegemonic theories, and orientalism. The results of the study show that there are both a lot of similarities between the news coverage between both media outlets but also a lot of stark differences. The similarities occur when the factual basis of the text does not leave things open to interpretation. Where the differences lie between Aftonbladet and Fria Tider are in the construction of certain events and in the construction of the assailant Rakhmat Akilov. This occurs when the opportunity presents itself for Fria Tider to apply their political and societal beliefs.

This study aims to survey and compare Swedish newspaper coverage relating to convicted terrorists Anders Behring Breivik and Rakhmat Akilov. The pivotal question of the study is whether this coverage differs depending on factors such as each perpetrator’s ethnicity and political beliefs. The source material has been gathered from Swedish national newspapers Aftonbladet and Svenska Dagbladet. This study has utilised a mixed research methodology consisting of a quantitative digital text analysis combined with a qualitative frame analysis. The theoretical framework of this study mainly consists of media theories such as framing (as defined by Goffman 1974, Van Gorp 2010, Shehata 2012 and more), construction of crime news and crime waves (Jewkes 2004, Fishman 1978) and news values (Häger 2014). Additionally, theories about orientalism, stereotyping, and ethnicity are applied (Dyer 1997:2006, Said 1978). Other research on the aforementioned topics is also touched upon.The quantitative part of this study has been conducted through the use of text analysis tool Textometrica. A total of 460 newspaper articles mentioning either perpetrator have been analysed. This has highlighted the framing, wording, and phraseology of said articles. The qualitative part of the study consists of an in-depth survey of frames found in a select number of these articles. It draws inspiration from frame research conducted by, among others, journalism professor Baldwin Van Gorp (2010).The results of this study show a noticeable difference in the portrayals of both perpetrators. While Aftonbladet tends to simplify stories, Svenska Dagbladet leans towards a more comprehensive coverage. In general, a certain degree of attention is given to elaborations on Behring Breivik’s personal life and youth to explain his wrongdoings. Akilov, on the other hand, is mostly just described through his foreign appearance and is more clearly conceptualised as a terrorist and as part of a larger network (the Islamic State). / Syftet med denna studie är att jämföra svensk nyhetsrapportering om de dömda terroristerna Anders Behring Breivik och Rakhmat Akilov. Studiens centrala frågeställning är huruvida denna rapportering skiljer sig på grundval av faktorer såsom respektive gärningsmans etnicitet och politiska tillhörighet. Källmaterialet har samlats in från de svenska nationella dagstidningarna Aftonbladet och Svenska Dagbladet. Det metodologiska ramverket består av en kvantitativ digital textanalys i kombination med en kvalitativ framinganalys. Studiens teoretiska ramverk består främst av medieteorier, däribland gestaltningsteorin (definierad av Goffman 1974, Van Gorp 2010, Shehata 2012 med flera) och konstruktionen av brottsnyheter och brottsvågor (Jewkes 2004, Fishman 1978). Dessutom appliceras teorier om orientalism, stereotypisering och etnicitet (Dyer 1997:2006, Said 1978). Tidigare forskning om ovan nämnda teorier inkluderas också.Den kvantitativa delen av studien genomfördes med hjälp av textanalysverktyget Textometrica. Totalt 460 nyhetsartiklar som nämner endera av gärningsmännen har analyserats. Detta har tydliggjort artiklarnas inramning, formuleringar och språkbruk. Den kvalitativa delen av studien består av en mer djupgående analys av gestaltningar identifierade i ett antal av artiklarna. Denna kvalitativa analys hämtar inspiration från gestaltningsforskning genomförd av, bland andra, journalistikprofessor Baldwin Van Gorp (2010).Studien visar en anmärkningsvärd skillnad i porträtteringarna av respektive gärningsman. Aftonbladet tenderar att förenkla skeenden medan Svenska Dagbladets rapportering är mer omfattande. Båda tidningarna uppmärksammar Behring Breiviks privatliv och uppväxt för att förklara hans ogärningar. Akilov å andra sidan beskrivs främst genom sitt utländska utseende och framställs tydligare som terrorist och del av ett större nätverk (den islamiska staten).

This study aims at covering the perpetrators, victims and Sweden's society. The main issue is to examine how these categorization portrayed in the biggest newspaper in Sweden, Aftonbladet. To conduct the survey we have used a critical discourse analysis. The empirical material consists of 55 strategically selected news articles and 127 images related to the analyzed articles. In order to identify discourses we chose to use the following analytical concepts: We, they, include, exclude, ideal offender, ideal victim, the victims who survived and the ideal society to apply the investigation. With these concepts, we were able to identify five discourses and analyse how the perpetrators, victims, survivors and society were represented in the articles. In our conclousion, we found out that Sweden's society gets the largest space in the news texts. The representation of the perpetrator is depicted on the basis of different time aspects. In the first insight, the suspected perpetrator is presented as a father of four children who lived in Sweden to support his family, who remained in their homeland. In the second insight he is conceived as a stranger and a insane human. As far as the victims are concerned, they are usually reflected as saints and they are rewarded by loveful words.

This study aims at covering the perpetrators, victims and Sweden's society. The main issue is to examine how these categorization portrayed in the biggest newspaper in Sweden, Aftonbladet. To conduct the survey we have used a critical discourse analysis. The empirical material consists of 55 strategically selected news articles and 127 images related to the analyzed articles. In order to identify discourses we chose to use the following analytical concepts: We, they, include, exclude, ideal offender, ideal victim, the victims who survived and the ideal society to apply the investigation. With these concepts, we were able to identify five discourses and analyse how the perpetrators, victims, survivors and society were represented in the articles. In our conclousion, we found out that Sweden's society gets the largest space in the news texts. The representation of the perpetrator is depicted on the basis of different time aspects. In the first insight, the suspected perpetrator is presented as a father of four children who lived in Sweden to support his family, who remained in their homeland. In the second insight he is conceived as a stranger and a insane human.  As far as the victims are concerned, they are usually reflected as saints and they are rewarded by loveful words.

In October 2015 and April 2017, Sweden was hit by two of the most notorious deadly attacks in modern history. The first was directed towards people of immigrant backgrounds at a school in Trollhättan, the second took place in Stockholm, where a truck drove straight through the crowded pedestrian street of Drottninggatan. In this thesis, frame analysis is used to study how four major Swedish newspapers (Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Göteborgs-Posten) portray the acts of the assailants Anton Lundin Pettersson (N = 89) and Rakhmat Akilov (N = 173), respectively and comparatively. Previous research suggests a disparity in the framing of “international” (i.e. Islamist) and “domestic” (e.g. right-wing) extremists, where the former are typically politicized and treated as part of a larger terrorist threat while the latter are described as mentally ill lunatics with individual motives. This thesis partly enforces this, by showing how Lundin Pettersson’s actions are psychologized to a larger extent than Akilov’s, which are rather put in a standard terrorism frame, as a symbol of “the terrorists’” war on “the West”. The results also show several similarities in framing, like how counterimages are used to strengthen the norms and values of the ingroup after both attacks.

Denna undersökning syftar till att undersöka hur svensk dags- och kvällspress porträtterar den misstänkte gärningsmannen för terrordådet i Stockholm den 7 april 2017. Vidare ämnar undersökningen granska hur pressens språk stärker stereotypiska uppfattningar, samt belysa eventuella likheter och skillnader i framställningen av den misstänkte gärningsmannen. För denna granskning tillämpas en kvalitativ innehållsanalys på totalt 102 artiklar publicerade under en treveckorsperiod i tidningarna Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet och Expressen. Ur analysresultaten framgår att den misstänkte gärningsmannen skildras övervägande likartat och konsekvent i de fyra tidningarna, med betoning på dennes nationalitet, religion och ideologi. Utifrån det dras slutsatsen att språket i materialet skildrar den misstänkte gärningsmannen stereotypiskt och därigenom ger upphov till en samhällsomfattande reaktionskedja. Denna reaktionskedja inbegriper bland annat hur allmänhetens åsikter påverkas av stereotyper, hur allmänheten bedömer politiska partier och därigenom hur politiska partier väljs och på så sätt kan påverka medier och allmänheten. Reaktionskedjan kan i sin tur även skapa nya stereotypiska skildringar av inte bara terrorister, utan även terrormisstänkta individer.

Nyhetsmedia har en stor påverkan på samhället, det är till dem vi med största sannolikhet vänder oss till när en stor händelse drabbar oss. Under de senaste åren har nyhetsmedia fått motstå kritik för hur de särbehandlar olika fall och händelser beroende på vem gärningsmannen är. Vi ville utforska om det faktiskt stämde att vita gärningsmän blir klassificerade som psykisk sjuka, när icke-vita gärningsmän blir beskrivna som terrorister. Genom att fokusera på representation, gestaltningsteorin och attributdagordningen utfördes en multimodal analys på Aftonbladets och Dagens Nyheters rapportering kring händelsen i Trollhättan respektive Drottninggatan. Målet var att se om det fanns några tendenser för särbehandling vid rapporteringen och porträtteringen av gärningsmän och deras dåd. Studien gav inte några definitiva resultat, däremot lade vi bland annat märke till att det fanns nyanser i artiklarna som kunde peka på särbehandling. Vi märkte bland annat att porträtteringen av gärningsmännen skilde sig drastiskt, när Rakhmat Akilov beskrivs som den invandrade brutala gärningsmannen med IS-sympatier, gestaltas Anton Lundin Pettersson som den tillbakadragne, svenska killen som tyckte om hårdrock OCH Nazityskland. / The influence news media has on society is huge, we most certainly turn to the news media whenever a big event affects us. For the last couple of years critique has been directed towards the news media concerning the coverage of crime and how some cases get special treatment depending on who the perpetrator is. We wanted to investigate if it actually is true that white criminals get described as ‘mentally ill’, while non white criminals are categorized as ‘terrorists’. By focusing on representation, the Attribute framing theory and the Framing theory, we did a multimodal analysis on the Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet's and Dagens Nyheter’s coverage of the events in Trollhättan and at Drottninggatan. Our goal was to distinguish if there actually are any tendencies for special treatment while covering a case and portraying a perpetrator within the news media. With this study, we weren’t able to come to any conclusions, but the study did show that there were some nuances which pointed towards special treatment in the news articles. For instance we discovered that there were some differences in the portraying of the perpetrators; while Rakhmat Akilov was described as the immigrating veil criminal who shared sympathies with ISIS, Anton Lundin Pettersson was portrayed as the shy guy from Sweden who was passionate about metal AND Nazi Germany.