It is through the material that is presented to us by the media, that we form our perception of the world and our opinions about it. Therefore the framing of news is important to study, especially in our globalized world where the economy, politics and communication has a strong connection. Earlier studies have shown that there is a general fascination in Sweden for the United States, which not only have influenced popular culture, but also other parts of the Swedish society like news coverage. Some even say that Sweden is the most americanized country in the world. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine if Swedish news are being more americanized than news coverage in other parts of the world. Through a qualitative framing analysis this study examines which frames that occurs in news articles related to the american elections Super Tuesdays in newspapers from Sweden, Kenya and Singapore. The result of this study shows that the news coverage in many respects portrays the election in a similar, entertaining way, which can be assumed to be due to the americanization of news. However, there is no clear evidence that the Swedish news coverage would be more americanized than the Kenyan and Singaporean.

Den här uppsatsen ämnar göra ett nedslag i den politiska utrikesrapporteringen, och undersöka hur mycket tid som SVT:s Rapport ägnar åt amerikanska presidentvalet i förhållande till det norska stortingsvalet. Uppsatsen ämnar också undersöka om det har skett någon synbar förändring över tid. En kvantitativ innehållsanalys av Rapportsändningar i anslutning till respektive lands val under perioden 1980-2017 ligger till grund för uppsatsen. Det teoretiska ramverket utgörs av medieforskning om nyhetsvärdering och vilka aspekter som gör en händelse till en nyhet, och teorier om globalisering likväl som en homogenisering i anglo-amerikansk riktning av medieinnehållet. Resultatet visar att de amerikanska presidentvalen uteslutande värderas högre än de norska stortingsvalen. Vissa amerikanska presidentval får dessutom mycket högre siffror än andra, vilket kan härledas till teorier om elitcentrering och sensationsaspekter i nyhetsvärderingen, likväl som en globaliserad medievärld.

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The aim of this study is to examine how the holiday Valentine’s day was introduced in Sweden during the 1950’s. The essay reviews the topic from the field of economic history, with focus on advertising history in Sweden during the first half of the 20th century. Valentine’s day has roots in English medieval traditions and a Roman legend from 270 but has no evidence of being celebrated in Sweden earlier than 1956, when the company Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) launched its first collection of Valentine’s day cards to be put on presents to give to your loved ones. In that sense, the Swedish form of celebrating Valentine’s day stems more from American pop culture and customs, which makes the analysis of Valentine’s day in Sweden fitting in the discourse on Americanization of the European advertising industry and culture. The study uses the definition of Americanization provided from Harm G. Schröter (2005), and reviews advertisements and commentary found in newspapers such as Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet (1956–1971) from a narrative approach, described by Peter Hansen (2012). The research questions focus on how advertisements create meaning around the holiday Valentine’s day, and whether or not the introduction of the holiday in Sweden can be seen as a part of Americanization of the Swedish culture and advertising industry. The study found that advertisements for the holiday uses Swedish and European history, an emphasis on selling the feeling of gift giving and the strive for a modern lifestyle to create meaning around the holiday and a legitimate place in the Swedish calendar. The introduction of the holiday can also be seen as a part of Americanization of the Swedish advertisement industry, with examples as portraying the American celebration as an ideal and using American advertising techniques in the advertisements analyzed.

This thesis concerns the development of Swedish ice hockey as a national phenomenon during the period 1920–1972. The dissertation explores how the sport of ice hockey in just over half a century was transformed from a rather insignificant North American cultural import to one of Sweden’s most treasured pursuits by and large, and harbouring a national team (known as “Tre Kronor”) that at the height of its popularity in 1970 gathered almost the whole nation (82 percent of the adult population) in front of TV-sets during national game broadcasts. The analytical approach of the study is grounded in the theoretical assumption that “to be Swedish” is something you “learn” on a daily basis, and that an investigation of how “the nation” is constructed as an imagined community must see to the interplay between national rhetoric on the one hand and national practice on the other. This means that the analysis moves on two different levels, where the first is comprised of the sporting practice in itself (teams, games, players etc.), while the other deals with the conception of ice hockey in relation to national identity. The empirical investigation shows that the introduction of ice hockey in Sweden was “launched from above” under the influence of unbridled nationalistic sentiment in Sweden at large at the turn of the 20th century. The study also shows that during the inter-war era the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation promoted the spread of ice hockey in Sweden by stressing the game’s benefits as a more practical sport than the similar and already established winter sport, bandy. It is also argued that in most cases it was not so much a genuine passion for the game itself, but instead prosaic factors (economical considerations, sporting success and maintenance of ice surface etc.) that made sporting clubs take up ice hockey. After World War II the public interest in ice hockey exploded in Sweden. In the cold war era, Tre Kronor came to function as a thermometer of how the so called Swedish model stood up in comparison to the superpowers of the world. The analysis also underlines the importance of the comprehensive organizational and moral rearmament of Swedish ice hockey at large conducted by the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation in the post-war era, since it helped its cultural incorporation in the Swedish welfare state and its connection to Swedish national identity