The Swedish television series “Kalifat” premiered on January 12th, 2020 and quickly became heavily debated in the Swedish media for its portrayal of Islam and Muslim people. The aim of this research is to study the arguments and attitudes found in this debate and relate them to the theoretical framework of media dissemination and mediatization. The theoretical perspectives creating the foundation for this study is the formative, reflexive and representative media dissemination as presented by Hodkinson (2017). The mediatization theory will also be used to situate the debate and the series itself within a broader context. The empirical material used in this study consists of 10 Swedish debate articles published between January 19th and February 18th 2020.  A qualitative argumentation analysis has been used to identify the attitudes and arguments in the debate. In addition, these have been coded, categorized and structured in accordance with a systematic text condensation. The analysis shows that there are both positive and negative attitudes towards the series, with most of the arguments in the debate conveying a negative attitude towards the series and its portrayal of Muslims and Islam. These arguments are mainly related to stereotypification, prejudices and negative representation. Arguments related to a more positive attitude towards “Kalifat” is connected to the journalists view of what the series is trying to impart upon the audience, and its realistic representation of an important topic in society.   In relation to the three concepts of media dissemination the study has concluded that the different arguments relate to the interconnectedness of media and religion. The study shows that most of the arguments put forward can be understood in this context by implementing the understanding of media as conduits, language and environments. The study also concludes that both the debate and the series itself can be interpreted and understood in relation to all these media functions. The results found in the study also correlate with previous research on the subject.

Since the 1990s, many countries have become more ethnically diverse. The structure of the people, the demos, is changing. According to Robert Dahl’s fourth criterion of what a democratic process is, the people should have control over the political agenda. Previous research has shown a significantly lower political participation and representation of immigrants in the political and media sphere in Sweden. Do the people really control the agenda? This thesis examines the representation of people with a foreign background from outside Europe on Swedish debate pages by collecting a sample of writers' names from three established Swedish newspapers; Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, and Aftonbladet, during the time period 1992–2022. Using a name algorithm to determine country of origin, the results show an increase in representation to the point of 2002. From 2002 to today, the representation of non-European foreign background on Swedish debate pages has decreased.

This study aims to analyze whether the discourses of the phenomenon of honor-related violence and oppression have changed over time in the Swedish daily press. This is operated through a discourse analysis of debate articles from seven newspapers published around the country. The methodological and theoretical premise is based on Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. Further, three theories has been applied; The construction of “the others” by Jonsson, de Beauvoir’s theory of The Second Sex and Nussbaum’s universal theory of justice. The purpose of selection of articles has been to find relevant debate articles concerning opinions on the phenomenon of honor-related violence and oppression. The results and analysis has been divided into three main themes: a legal discourse, a discourse of "us " and " them " as well as a discourse of patriarchy. The results indicate that the phenomenon is influenced by its time in the shape of current events and areas of conflict.

The aim of this thesis is to assess whether agency advocacy in newspapers debate articles has increased since the 1970’s and what forms agency advocacy take. This is done by investigating if the number or share of debate articles written by agencies increased from the 1970’s to the 2000’s, what types of communication approaches and subjects that are used over the years. The theoretical approach is based on research about new public management (NPM) and mediatisation through a normative institutionalist perspective. It is mainly a quantitative study where we collect debate articles from four different decades and code the content according to three ideal types: information, agency advocacy by promoting issue and agency advocacy by legitimating agency.  The thesis finds that the share and to some extent the number of debate articles has increased over the years, which supports the NPM theory and in part mediatisation theory. All ideal types are present; agency advocacy exists in all analysed debate articles while information is highly absent.  There is little change over the years which make it difficult to assess which theory that is supported.

The purpose of this study is to investigate and identify underlying problems in newspaper representation of integration and labor market. My media analysis includes articles published in 2018-2022. The purpose of this is to get as nuanced picture as possible. This thesis uses theories that individually or jointly help define and answer problems in medial narratives of integration and labor market. Social constructivism is applied as theoretical and conceptual lens by which to analyze and critically study social constructions shaped by language. Conceptually, the notion of stigma is utilized together with empirical work in order to understand the structural discrimination that occurs in the news texts. Established and outsiders brings out the dichotomy between different groups in society. I have found that the explored debate articles show complexity of a divided society. Integration and the labor market produces immigrants as a societal problem. Immigrants become synonymous with criminals and threats to the economy. My media analysis shows that the debate is used as a political instrument, used to blame others for its failed reforms and efforts. Since most articles use this type of representation, this contributes and is reproduced as knowledge to the reader.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the medial portrayal of Romani people in the newspaper Dagens Nyheter from 2013 and 2014. In the theoretical chapter the concepts of new racism is used to speak of what is considered racist in the Swedish society today. Other concepts that are used are type and stereotype which are used to explain how our context is depending on distinctions to understand what surrounds us. Concepts such as myths and binary-oppositions are other theories that are used in this study.  Six debate articles have been selected to investigate how the Romani people are represented. Discourse analysis was used to answer the main questions in this study and was used to answer the purpose of this study. The main result was that the Romani people was discriminated and were not given the opportunity to speak their mind. It was always someone else outside this ethnic group who presented their view on something. They were considered passive as a group, in need of help from the remaining society. Said newspapers made generalizations about the group and connected them to begging. Finally, the perhaps most interesting result that this study finds is that the media makes distinctions between the Romani people and other social groups. The Romani people are made out as “the others” and a “we” and “them” in the Swedish society becomes prominent.