<p>Climate change is thought to be one of the most pressing environmental problems facing humanity. However, due in part to failures in political communication and how the issue has been historically defined in American politics, discussions of climate change remain gridlocked and polarized. In this dissertation, I explore how climate change has been historically constructed as a political issue, how conflicts between climate advocates and skeptics have been communicated, and what effects polarization has had on political communication, particularly on the communication of climate change to skeptical audiences. I use a variety of methodological tools to consider these questions, including evolutionary frame analysis, which uses textual data to show how issues are framed and constructed over time; Kullback-Leibler divergence content analysis, which allows for comparison of advocate and skeptical framing over time; and experimental framing methods to test how audiences react to and process different presentations of climate change. I identify six major portrayals of climate change from 1988 to 2012, but find that no single construction of the issue has dominated the public discourse defining the problem. In addition, the construction of climate change may be associated with changes in public political sentiment, such as greater pessimism about climate action when the electorate becomes more conservative. As the issue of climate change has become more polarized in American politics, one proposed causal pathway for the observed polarization is that advocate and skeptic framing of climate change focuses on different facets of the issue and ignores rival arguments, a practice known as “talking past.” However, I find no evidence of increased talking past in 25 years of popular newsmedia reporting on the issue, suggesting both that talking past has not driven public polarization or that polarization is occurring in venues outside of the mainstream public discourse, such as blogs. To examine how polarization affects political communication on climate change, I test the cognitive processing of a variety of messages and sources that promote action against climate change among Republican individuals. Rather than identifying frames that are powerful enough to overcome polarization, I find that Republicans exhibit telltale signs of motivated skepticism on the issue, that is, they reject framing that runs counter to their party line and political identity. This result suggests that polarization constrains political communication on polarized issues, overshadowing traditional message and source effects of framing and increasing the difficulty communicators experience in reaching skeptical audiences.</p> / Dissertation

Den här undersökningen gjordes för att ta reda på om svensk flyktingrapportering ändrades efter det att Sverige införde gränskontroller den 12 november 2015. Syftet var att se om rapporteringen ändrades när det politiska läget och opinionen ändrades, men även att generellt se hur flyktingrapporteringen ser ut. Både kvantitativ och kvalitativ undersökning gjordes. I den kvantitativa undersökningen jämfördes 50 artiklar från september 2015 med 50 artiklar från januari 2015. Variablerna togs fram bland annat med hjälp av gestaltningsteorin och orientalism, som båda är delar av undersökningens teoretiska ramverk. Sedan undersöktes artiklarna kvalitativt genom en kombinerad diskurs- och framinganalys för att på ett djupare plan ta reda på hur flyktingfrågan och flyktingar beskrivs. Resultaten ger en indikation på att det skett en förändring mellan september 2015 och januari 2016. Flyktingarna beskrevs bland annat mer frekvent som passiva, och mer sällan som individer. Mer generellt visar resultaten att flyktingarna oftast beskrevs som en grupp utan någon identitet. Adjektiv som kan väcka identifikation användes sällan för att beskriva flyktingarna. De beskrevs istället med adjektiv som ensamkommande och asylsökande. Den mest förekommande benämningen på flyktingar var just ordet flyktingar, följt av flyktingbarn och asylsökande. Flyktingarna beskrivs ofta som passiva i artiklarna, och de citeras sällan. De som citeras mest i artiklarna är myndighetspersoner och politiker. Dessa resultat pekar på att svenska journalister, omedvetet eller medvetet, skapar en bild av verkligheten där orientalismens mönster av världen finns kvar. Det skapas en gräns mellan ”vi svenskar” och ”de där flyktingarna”. Denna gräns förstärktes efter gränskontrollernas införande. / The aim of this study was to find out whether Swedish news reports on refugees changed after border controls were enforced on the 12th of November 2015, and thereby investigate if the changed political policies had any effect in the news reporting. Another aim was to study the general patterns in the news. Both qualitative and quantitative researches were made. Regarding the quantitative research, 50 articles from September 2015 were compared with 50 articles from January 2016. The variables were designed by means of framing theory and orientalism, both being parts of the theory framework of this study. Then the articles were analyzed qualitatively with a combined discourse and framing analysis to find out on a deeper level how refugees and the refugee situation in Sweden were described. The results indicate that there has been a change in the reporting between September 2015 and January 2016. The refugees were more frequently described as passive, and more seldom as individuals. More general, the results illustrated that, in most cases, refugees are described as a group without an identity. Identity-generating adjectives were sporadically used to describe them. Instead, they were associated to adjectives like ensamkommande (unaccompanied) and asylsökande (~asylum seeker). The most common word to describe refugees was flyktingar (refugees), followed by flyktingbarn (refugee children) and asylsökande (asylum seekers). Most frequently quoted people in the articles were government officials as well as politicians. These results indicate that Swedish journalists, consciously or not, are creating a picture of the world were the lines of orientalism still persist. A demarcation line between “us swedes” and “those refugees” is created. This line became more distinct after border controls were enforced.

Satirical news programs are a very popular concept where people tune in to them for a laugh and might leave with a bit more knowledge on the subjects reported. With the popularity of such shows growing the media’s covering of them grows as well. The question is then how the media portrays these satirical news shows. In this study a framing analysis is used to analyse articles by four American news outlets – two traditional and two modern – to assess how the media is portraying the newer satirical news program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. There has been a lot of research done on how satirical programs affect the world around them but this study instead looks at how the media chooses to portray such a show. The focus is on whether the media treats the program as entertainment or more like another news outlet and what kind of effect that could have on the two genres satire and news. This study shows that the media presents the program as not just a comedy show that makes fun of news but also as a credible source of information. It is portrayed as a bit of both and one is not shown to contradict the other. This indicates that the distinction between genres such as satire and news is blurring which in turn can make it harder for the audience to separate the two and thereby make it more difficult to know what is news and what is not.

Granskning av makt och makthavare är ett av mediernas viktigaste uppdrag och i en jämställd politisk miljö bör uttalanden och ageranden bedömas utifrån lika villkor. Det för ingenting gott med sig om medierna gör en orättvis skillnad på kvinnor och män i deras rapportering om politiska skandaler. Det finns många påståenden om en genusdimension i mediernas rapportering, men relativt få vetenskapliga belägg för detta. Syftet med avhandlingen är att undersöka i vilken utsträckning det förekommer likheter och skillnader i hur nyhetsmedier rapporterar om kvinnor och män i svenska politiska skandaler samt bidra med en förståelse för förekomsten av dessa eventuella likheter och skillnader. I en kvantitativ innehållsanalys analyseras 4345 tidningsartiklar fördelade på 92 svenska skandaler med förtroendevalda politiker på den nationella och den europeiska nivån mellan åren 1997 och 2010. Utifrån teoretiska antaganden om mediernas dagordningsmakt, gestaltningsmakt och medielogik undersöks nyhetsmedierna Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen och Svenska Dagbladet. Studiens resultat visar på flera stora könsskillnader som är till kvinnornas nackdel, men i datamaterialet framträder också många likheter. Som grupp betraktat missgynnas dock kvinnor i flera avseenden gentemot män vilket kan innebära att kvinnor kan få sämre möjligheter till att hantera och överleva politiska skandaler än män. En slutsats är att huvudpersonens kön är en viktig aspekt i strävan efter förståelse för hur politiska skandaler tar sin början, utvecklas och kommer till avslut.

The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union and the possibility of it, has been discussed in the news with reference to the term ‘Brexit’ extensively for at least the last two years. The role of the media has been an important issue around the Brexit decision, which had its peak in June 2016 with the EU-referendum, where the population of the United Kingdom voted in favour of leaving the EU. The given master thesis builds up on these preconditions and aims for a better understanding of the media representation of Brexit on transnational news platforms from Europe and beyond. More precisely, the media output on Deutsche Welle, France 24 and Al Jazeera English after the EU-referendum until the end of the year 2016 is examined and compared to each other. The given form of the study has emerged out of the lack of previous research, where only the role of the media before the EU-referendum and the media output within the United Kingdom have been under investigation. First, a Framing Analysis on a big sample is conducted, where the main frames and the scope of the articles are examined to get a broad picture of the way transnational media reports about the issue. Second, a Critical Discourse Analysis is carried out on a small part of the big sample. In this way, the media output can be investigated more in-depth and the results of both methods complement each other. The results show that even though differences occur, the media representation of Brexit on DW, F24 and AJE are remarkably similar. More similar even than it was expected beforehand. It occurs that the topic ‘Brexit’ is particularly presented with emphasis on the conflictual potential of it, although differences can be found in the application of a national (rather UK) or international context. Furthermore, an uncertainty is present in various elements of the articles on DW, F24 and AJE. The significance of this study is empirically, since knowledge can be generated of Brexit in transnational news. However, also methodological indications are included that can be significant for future research.

Major hurricane landfalls are the most dangerous natural hazard threats experienced in the U.S. Television news is a primary sources of hurricane hazard information and has the ability to influence what viewers understand about and how they respond to these events. While it is understood that media plays a central role in communicating weather, it is unknown whether or not news media content communicates the recommended hurricane hazard adjustments that are needed for preparedness and protection. Thus this study supports prior research calling for a closer examination of the role and effects of visual information in media documents. Using the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, the present research employs qualitative media analysis to explore the framing of hurricane preparedness through television newscasts covering Hurricane Katrina from August 23-29, 2005. Key findings from this study suggest that there are five common frames through which hurricane information is presented to viewers of the national news broadcasts surveyed in this study. Preparedness information was found to be mainly represented through visual content but sparsely mentioned in reporting. The study also found that more often visuals were used to aid story development instead of provide educational or instructional messages that model the adoption of hazard adjustments and have the potential to motivate protective actions and behaviors by helping to increase self-efficacy. The present study concludes by discussing underlying aspects of conflict present within the media frames and offering recommendations for better integration of media content into risk communication campaigns for severe weather.

Problem: Tre särskilda PR-event fick spridning i svenska tidningsmedier under 2013 och 2014. Vad i den journalistiska processen gör att särskilda händelser blir uppmärksammade nyhetsfenomen? Hur blir särskilda event nyheter och hur ser nyhetsvärderingen ut ur ett sociokulturellt perspektiv? Teori: Jag använde nyhetsvärdering och sociokultur som teoretiska ingångar för att belysa problemet. Nyhetsvärdering beskriver hur journalister arbetar efter grundregler som kan få oss att förstå nyheters komplexitet. Galtung och Ruges nyhetsvärderingskriterier, medielogik, dagordningsteorin samt framing är teorier för att värdera nyheter. Sociokulturella teorier om myter och ideologier används för att tolka kulturella värden i eventen som nyheter. Metod: Kvantitativ metod användes för insamling och kartläggning av sociokulturella kriterier. En kvalitativ textanalys ställdes mot den kvantitativa undersökningen. Jag gjorde då en kulturanalytisk nyhetsvärdering med hjälp av Galtung och Ruges nyhetsvärderingskriterier: frekvens, tröskelvärde, tydlighet, relevans, konsonans, överraskande, kontinuitet, bra blandning, elitnationer, elitaktörer, personifiering och negativitet. De kriterier som artiklarna uppfyllde tolkades sociokulturellt utifrån kulturanalytiska perspektiv och journalistiska arbetsrutiner. Resultat: Diagram visar i hur stor utsträckning sociokulturella kriterier nämns i respektive nyhet. Kriterierna visade sig vara stereotypa karaktärer, sociala institutioner och platser samt ordval. Nyhetsvärderingen visade samband med sociokulturella teman som är typiska för en rådande kultur, i fallet den kultur som finns i den publik svenska tidningsmedier riktar sig till. Studien visar att det är möjligt att med sociokultur i samspel med nyhetsvärde kan förklaras varför vissa event blir virala nyheter i svensk massmedia. Diskussion: Tillslut argumenterar jag för att de tre eventen har särskilda kulturella kriterier gemensamt och som kan beskrivas som ett syntagm utifrån ett kulturellt paradigm. Syntagmet sätts i system utifrån vad massmedia och publik ingår i för föreställningsvärld och vad den innehåller för myter om vad som är viktigt. Den särskilda föreställningsvärlden liknas vid paradigmet som syntagmet skapas ifrån, vilket går att beskriva samtliga event med.

The aim of our study was to examine war pictures rewarded by the prominent foundation World Press Photo. Direct and indirect the foundation displays pictures to Western audience, pictures that are considered prestigious and current by the foundation itself. The image of World Press Photo and the editorial staff behind the organization therefore reflect how the West perceives current events in the world. Hereby, knowingly and unknowingly the foundation contributes to construct and reproduce everlasting pictures of important events. By examining how pictures are constructed and to ascertain what resemblances and differences that pictures of the Vietnam War as well as modern wars and conflicts contain, we consequently investigated eight war pictures awarded by the foundation World Press Photo. Our findings indicate that these war pictures offer emotional aspects like compassion and suffering. In addition, several photos provide notion of a postcolonial perspective of us and them. Our results also display that the awarded war pictures.

In October 2015, a masked man armed with a sword and a knife entered the school Kronan in the Swedish town Trollhättan. Four people, including the perpetrator, were killed and another two severely injured. The aim of this study is to examine the frames in medias description of the event and of the perpetrator from the view of the journalistic responsibilities. The event in Trollhättan can be seen as an act of terror and during such events the journalistic responsibilities sometimes changes. There is a conflict in the aspect of telling the truth on one hand and protecting the citizens from harm on the other, in order not to reproduce the terrorist’s message in the press. This study is a qualitative framing analysis of 11 articles from the local newspaper TTELA. We found that the most salient frame of the event was grief rather than drama and that the media acted on the responsibility of protecting the citizens from details. The perpetrator was described as a lone wolf with connections to racist groups on the Internet. There was a shallow frame regarding the danger with the groups on the Internet but the main problem was described as gone with the death of the lonely perpetrator.

In the autumn of 2015 a huge amount of refugees were on the run to Sweden. The news media described the situation as a refugee crisis and border controls were initiated. The aim of this study was to examine how two Swedish newspapers, one national and one local, portrayed refugees at the time when the border controls were initiated in Sweden. The questions examined were: How are the refugees portrayed, what are the similarities and differences between Dagens Nyheter and Sydsvenskan’s portrayal of the refugees? To approach this we made two different analysis of reports from each newspaper, three from Dagens Nyheter and two from Sydsvenskan. We did a framing analysis on the text and a semiotic analysis on the pictures. Findings show that the portrayal of refugees are very similar in both newspapers. The refugees are described as inferior, but at the same time brave, well-educated and hopeful. We also found that refugees often are portrayed as “the others” and the citizens of Sweden are portrayed as “we”. Although the similarities outweighs, we found some interesting differences in the newspapers portrayal of the refugees. For example, in Dagens Nyheter the hopefulness is combined with a positive and joyful approach, while Sydsvenskan describes the hope with an uncertainty and concern about the future.