The 1980’s were troublesome years for the Nicaraguan Sandinist government and its citizens. After accomplishing the task of overthrowing the 43 years of Somoza rule in Nicaragua, a new challenge was waiting in the shape of the American war against communism. The former Somoza National Guard transformed into the notorious contras, also known as the CIA- and American government-backed freedom fighters who worked hard to recoup the nation and halter the socialist movement in the Central Americas. Today in 2007 the world knows what kind of interventions the Sandinist rule stood victims of; air-raids, sabotage, embargos and mining of the Nicaraguan harbour. Eventually the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the United States should immediately cease and refrain from any action restricting access to or from Nicaraguan ports, and, in particular, the laying of mines. But what did the American public know about its country’s silent war against Nicaragua? This is the core question of this paper. How did the media, and more specifically, how did one of the largest American newspapers the New York Times present the events in Nicaragua to its readers? This essay examines New York Times-headlines and articles covering the years between 1979-1990 in the Nicaraguan history, by means of using the agenda-setting theory, developed by Maxwell McCombs in cooperation with his colleagues Don Shaw and David Weaver. The results of this study will show confirmation of how the New York Times framed the nation of Nicaragua into a communist framework, describing the country as a authentic threat against the American society and its values. The information provided by the New York Times during this era played without doubt a key role in the construction of the American public’s visions of the Nicaraguan reality. By using attributes when mentioning Nicaragua such as “Cuba”, “the threat of nuclear war”, “Soviet” and “communism”, the American public opinion most certainly came to reflect and support the media agenda. To paraphrase McCombs, ‘The media set the agenda when they are successful in riveting attention on a problem. They build the public agenda when they supply the context that determines how people think about the issue and evaluates its merits.’

The role of media in society is significant, and what the media reports influences people. The agenda-setting theory suggests that the issues covered by the media become important topics in society, and through descriptions and attributes, the media can shape public opinions. Sweden's military non-alignment ended with its membership in Nato becoming a reality in 2024. Until 2012, public opinion in Sweden strongly opposed joining Nato. However, a shift occurred, and the gap between supporters and opponents narrowed. This study, through a qualitative content analysis, examined how the editorial pages of three Swedish newspapers described Swedish Nato membership from 2008 to 2015, and how the relationship between these descriptions and public opinion evolved. The results clearly show that, over time, the editorials increasingly portrayed Swedish Nato membership positively rather than negatively. There is a correlation between these descriptions and public opinion. However, it is not possible to conclude whetherthe editorials influenced public opinion or if the reverse is true.

Problem Statement and Purpose: In recent years, skepticism towards AI has increased among Swedes. This study aims to investigate whether there is a correlation between this skepticism and how AI is portrayed by the media. The purpose is to present a depiction of how AI and its development are portrayed in the media, as well as to examine whether reinforcing images are used more or less depending on the nature of the news. Additionally, the study aims to explore differences between public and commercial media's reporting on AI.   Method and Material: The chosen method for this study is a quantitative content analysis. A total of 251 publications were analyzed, all from Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, SVT, and Sveriges Radio. The publications are from the first quarter of 2023 and 2024 and were sourced from the media archive Research Retriever. After collection, the material was analyzed using the statistical analysis tool SPSS.   Main Results: There is a correlation with the widespread skepticism as media reporting on AI is predominantly negative. However, the results indicate that media reporting was somewhat more positive in 2024 compared to 2023. One reason for the increasing skepticism, despite this, may be that according to Agenda Setting Theory, the media has highlighted AI as particularly important to the public. As the negative angle remains dominant, the impression is that it is something to be concerned about. The results show that the difference between public service and commercial media in how they portray AI development is minimal. Profit-driven media tends to publish more frequently. Regarding the use of reinforcement images, it can be concluded that most publications are accompanied by some associated image. Public service uses more positive reinforcement images than commercial actors, according to the study's results. Commercial actors more frequently use reinforcement images in negatively angled articles compared to public service.

The aim of this study was to examine what Swedish elite athletes’ experiences, opinions and ideas are about Swedish sports journalism. We wanted to understand how sports journalism works through the athletes’ point of view, since there is a symbiotic relationship between professional sports and the media. To approach this we carried out a qualitative study based on seven personal interviews with elite athletes representing seven different sports. The theoretical frames used in this study are symbolic interactionism, the agenda-setting theory, framing theory and the sports media complex.The result shows that according to the athletes the journalistic content depends on a range of components, the most important being the relation between the journalists and the athletes, which is mainly based upon the journalist’s knowledge and participation. The sports media complex, which explains the symbiosis between sports and media, is very explicit in our results and so is how journalists set the agenda for the audience. We discuss whether distorted coverage and insufficient knowledge can result in the citizens not getting a chance to fully understand the reality of sports in Sweden and how stereotypical journalism communicate certain meanings and values about sports to the audience.

<p><strong><strong><p>This thesis has its focus</p>on media portrayal of a large political institution; the European Union. Articles from two nations daily newspapers have been analyzed in order to examine how the European Union is described and framed for their readers. The newspapers that was chosen for this study and from which the material was collected, were the Swedish newspaper <em><em>Svenska Dagbladet </em></em>the American newspaper <em><em>The New York Times</em></em>. The material was taken from three periods of time, and by this the results did not only serve a presentiment on how the media reports about the subject, but also an idea over the media’s coverage character over time. Also, by analyzing articles from newspapers from different countries, the material could give an answer to whether there is any difference in media reporting and coverage about the European Union over nation borders. </strong></strong></p><p>Theories that have been under observation for this study, and which have functioned as tools for the analyzing process are: the agenda-setting theory, media ideology, framing, media logic and political communication. Further inspirations that have been under consideration and of values through the development of this thesis are thoughts from the modern theorist Jürgen Habermas, and earlier studies that have been made on the subject in matter, for example ones by Lars Palm and Vanni Tjernström.</p><p>Results from this study showed that there were differences between the two nations way of reporting about the subject, and also that changes over time have occurred. Mostly, it was the Swedish news reporting that showed evident change over the three investigated periods. This can be explained by the countries over all changed relationship towards the European Union. Further did results from this study show that the American articles included more actors and subjects, compared to the Swedish articles. This can be a factor of the American articles longer character.</p>

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Efter uppkomsten av hashtaggen #metoo blev sexuella övergrepp och trakasserier ett starkt diskuterat ämne i Sverige och flertalet personer blev uthängda i media efter anklagelser om sexualbrott. Med en rådande oro om hur informationspåverkan kan vara negativ påstod flera forskare att media agerat rättegång genom att de hängts ut utan att ges chansen att försvara sig själva. Denna undersökning har därför gjort en jämförande kvantitativ innehållsanalys på två olika nyhetskällor på internet ­­– Aftonbladet och Svenska motståndsrörelsen, om deras rapportering om sexualbrott efter #metoo. Den förstnämnda är var en etablerad tidning som politiskt beskrevs som socialdemokratisk oberoende. Den andra var en alternativ tidning som sympatiserade med den alternativa högern. Det var olika benämningar inom gestaltning av förövaren, tonalitet till händelsen och volymen på artiklarna som undersöktes. Sedan tolkades resultatet hermeneutiskt utifrån ett agendasättande synsätt samt att ojämlikheter mellan de olika komponenterna bidrog till social stratifiering. Variablerna inom gestaltningen var ras, politisk inriktning, kön och namn. Undersökningen visar att det skedde en stark ojämlikhet i vem som de valt att hänga ut i media, samt hur denne beskrivs. Det var både en ojämlikhet mellan de olika två tidningarna och inom dem. Detta stärker förfarandet om informationspåverkan och uppmärksammar opartiskhet hos medierna samt vikten av källkritiskhet. / After the emerge of the hashtag #metoo, sexual abuse and harassment became a heavily debated topic in Sweden and a lot of people were portrayed in the media after allegations of sexual offenses. With an increasing concern about how the information affects can be negative, several researchers claimed that the media acted as a trial by hanging them out without giving the opportunity to defend themselves.   This thesis has therefore made comparative quantitative content analysis on two different news sources on the internet – Aftonbladet and Svenska motståndsrörelsen movement with their reporting about sex crimes following the #metoo. The first mentioned was a mainstream newspaper that politically was referred to as social-democratic independence. The second where an alternative media that sympathizes with the alternative right-movement.   There were different terms in the form of the perpetrator, tonality to the event and the volume of the articles that were investigated. Then the result was based on an agenda setting approach and that inequalities between the different components contribute to social stratification. The variables in the design were race, political orientation, gender and name.   The survey result shows that there was a strong inequality in who you choose to hang in the media, as well as how this is described. There were both an inequality between the two newspapers and within them. This strengthens the process of information impact and draws attention to the impartiality of the media and the importance of source criticism.

Brott är generellt sett ett område som motsvarar många kriterier för nyhetsvärdering inom journalistiken och ämnet lockar till läsning. När media rapporterar om olika händelser i världen får därför framförallt våldsbrott mycket publicitet. Det finns tidigare forskning som visar att medias frekventa rapportering om brott skapar en obefogad rädsla hos befolkningen. Mycket forskning kring brott i media finns både nationellt och internationellt, men denna studie fokuserar på en viss typ av brottslighets plats i media som inte alls är lika utforskat, nämligen organiserad brottslighet. Vi tittar på hur den organiserade brottsligheten gestaltas i svensk nyhetsmedia, vilka skillnader det finns i rapporteringen av denna typ av brott i jämförelse med annan kriminalitet, samt om rapporteringen i morgonpress och kvällspress skiljer sig från varandra. Undersökningen gjordes genom en kvantitativ innehållsanalys på 200 artiklar. Hälften av dessa var publicerade i Dagens Nyheter och Svenska Dagbladet som representerar morgonpress medan den andra hälften hämtats från Aftonbladet och Expressen som i undersökningen representerar kvällspress. Artiklarna är också uppdelade där 100 stycken behandlar organiserad brottslighet och de resterande 100 annan typ av kriminalitet. Undersökningen visade att rapporteringen om de olika typerna av brott skiljer sig. Organiserad brottslighet får mer fysisk plats i tidningarna då de i fler fall finns med bilder. Denna typ av kriminalitet framställs som ett större hot/risk än annan brottslighet, händelser gestaltas mer förstorat, och bilderna i dessa artiklar förstärker ofta en hotfull känsla. Organiserad brottslighet gestaltas som farligare än annan brottslighet. Vi såg utöver detta också skillnader i de olika typerna av press. Kvällspress skriver på ett mer förstorat sätt om organiserad brottslighet än vad morgonpress gör, vilket i denna studie innebär att de använder fler ord som endast finns där i syfte att förstärka olika känslor. Kvällspress använder sig också mer av bilder för att befästa de känslorna artikeln ska förmedla. Med stöd av dagordningsteorin, nyhetsvärdering och nyhetsurval, gestaltningsteorin samt kriminaljournalistik har vi utefter våra resultat analyserat och diskuterat vår forskningsfråga. Vi förstår varför organiserad brottslighet får mycket plats då den uppfyller kriterier för att skapa mediedramaturgi, men anser att det kan vara problematiskt då media med hjälp av sin gestaltning kan skapa en obefogad oro och rädsla bland publiken. Detta påverkar inte bara individen utan även samhället i stort eftersom människors bild av den kriminella världen kanske inte stämmer överens med verkligheten. Eftersom detta kan ge effekt på hela samhället anser vi att studien är relevant för makthavare i landet och Polismyndigheten. Under denna studie har det framgått att forskning om organiserad brottslighet är begränsad. Det finns dåligt med statistik och fakta om denna typ av brott och vi ser gärna att man i framtiden forskar vidare i fältet. Som påbyggnad av detta finns det inte heller mycket forskning att hitta om organiserad brottslighet i förhållande till media. Detta saknas framförallt i svensk forskning och vi skulle gärna se framtida svenska forskare fördjupa sig mer i detta område, till exempel genom en liknande studie, med ett större empiriskt material, för att få en ännu bättre bild av gestaltningen av organiserad brottslighet i media. / Crime is an area that meets the requirements for being highly valued as a news topic and is often something that attracts the readers. When media is reporting about what’s going on in the world is especially violent crimes getting much publicity. Previous research shows that medias frequent way to report about crimes creates an uncalled-for fear among the population. There is a lot of national and international research about crime in media, but this study will focus on a special type of crime and the place it has in media, namely organized crime. We look at how organized crime is portrayed in Swedish news media, which differences it is compared to other crimes, and also if morning press and tabloid press reports in different ways and in that case how. The study was done by a quantitative content analysis on 200 articles. Half of these were published in Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet which is morning press while the other half is from Aftonbladet and Expressen which represents the tabloid press. The articles is also divided in to 100 articles about organized crimes and the remaining 100 about other crimes. The study shows that the reporting about the two types of crimes has differences. Organized crime gets more physical space in the papers due to the fact that these crimes more often has pictures in the articles. This type of crime is portrayed like a bigger threat and risk compared to other crimes, it is often written in a magnified way and the pictures is used to increase the sense of threat/risk. Organized crime is portrayed as much more dangerous than other crimes. We also saw differences in the two types of newspaper. Tabloid press is writing in a more magnified way than morning press, which in this study means that they more often use words that is only there in the purpose of increasing the sense of threat. Tabloid press is also using more pictures to fortify the feeling that the article is supposed to mediate. With the support of the agenda setting theory, valuation and selection of news, framing theory and court journalism did we along our results analyze and discuss the research question. We understand why organized crime is getting as much publicity as it does, due to the fact that it fulfills the criterias to create media dramaturgi, but we also see it as a problem as media with its portraying can create an uncalled-for fear and concern among the crowd. It does not just affect the person but also the society since the image of the criminal world that people has disagree with the reality. Since this can affect the entire society we mean that this study is relevant for rulers of the country and the police. During the study has it been stated that research about organized crime is limited. There is not much statistics and facts about this type of crime, so we would like to see more research in this field overall. Build up on this there is not much research to find about organized crime in relation to media either. Above all it is the swedish research that’s lacking in this field and we would like to see future swedish researchers immerse themselves into this field. For example, through a study like this, but with a bigger empirical data, to get a better understanding of the relationship between organized crime and media.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att studera hur media, under år 2018, skildrade orsaker till kvinnlig prostitution och hur medias beskrivningar förhåller sig till de orsaker som forskning om kvinnlig prostitution redovisar. För att besvara syftet har en kvalitativ innehållsanalys genomförts av 17 artiklar från Aftonbladet och DN. Resultatet av studien har visat att tidningsartiklar kring orsaker till kvinnlig prostitution beskriver flera skiftande orsaker som har kunnat relateras till den tidigare forskningen. Däremot finns det en överrepresentation av sådana orsaker som genomsyras av tvingande karaktär. Med utgångspunkt i teorin om sensationell journalistik kan det förstås som att denna typ av artiklar är överrepresenterad då den innehåller ett större mått av sensation och därmed högre nyhetsvärde. Resultatet från studien diskuteras utifrån ett dagordningsteoretiskt perspektiv. Allmänhetens föreställningar om orsaker till kvinnlig prostitution tolkas som påverkade av medias rapportering om tvingande orsaker. / The aim of this research has been to investigate how during 2018 media have described causes of female prostitution and how these descriptions relate to earlier research on female prostitution. In order to fulfill the aims of the study a qualitative content analysis was carried out on 17 articles from Aftonbladet and DN. The result of this investigation has shown that newspaper articles express several different reasons for female prostitution that can be related to earlier research on prostitution. However there is an overstatement of causes with compelling character. Based on the sensational journalism theory, it is understood that these types of articles are overrepresented as they contain greater measure of sensation and higher news value. The results of the study are discussed from the theoretical agenda-setting perspective. It has been interpreted that the public's beliefs about causes of female prostitution are affected by reports in media about compelling causes.

This thesis has its focus on media portrayal of a large political institution; the European Union. Articles from two nations daily newspapers have been analyzed in order to examine how the European Union is described and framed for their readers. The newspapers that was chosen for this study and from which the material was collected, were the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet the American newspaper The New York Times. The material was taken from three periods of time, and by this the results did not only serve a presentiment on how the media reports about the subject, but also an idea over the media’s coverage character over time. Also, by analyzing articles from newspapers from different countries, the material could give an answer to whether there is any difference in media reporting and coverage about the European Union over nation borders. Theories that have been under observation for this study, and which have functioned as tools for the analyzing process are: the agenda-setting theory, media ideology, framing, media logic and political communication. Further inspirations that have been under consideration and of values through the development of this thesis are thoughts from the modern theorist Jürgen Habermas, and earlier studies that have been made on the subject in matter, for example ones by Lars Palm and Vanni Tjernström. Results from this study showed that there were differences between the two nations way of reporting about the subject, and also that changes over time have occurred. Mostly, it was the Swedish news reporting that showed evident change over the three investigated periods. This can be explained by the countries over all changed relationship towards the European Union. Further did results from this study show that the American articles included more actors and subjects, compared to the Swedish articles. This can be a factor of the American articles longer character.