The aim of this study was to examine which effect tabloidization has had on the news content and the presentation of the Swedish news program Rapport, during the years 1979 and 2009. Rapport is broadcasted in the Public Service channel "Sveriges Television". Our main concern was to examine whether Rapport has stayed true to their assignment or if they have made changes to appeal to the popularised audience. To do so we focused on three questions: What is the journalist’s role? What becomes news? Who are interviewed? We used theories such as social representation, news value and media logic to help us perform the analysis. Qualitative methods were used to analyse the news broadcasts, of which John Langer’s story-types was the primary method. In addition to that we used the method of semiotics to reveal signs of tabloidization in the imagery of the broadcasts. Our results showed that the tabloidization of Rapport lies in the format rather than the news content. The changes in the news content are barely noticeable, even though the time span is quite long. The format however, has seen some tabloidization in 2009, with changes to the vignette and the feature structure. We also found changes in which people that Rapport chose to interview and changes among the journalists themselves. For instance we discovered that the representation of different groups of people is much more varied in 2009 than it was in 1979. The results also showed that the journalistic role has shifted from the task of educating the citizens to the task of being sensational and entertaining.

<p>The aim of this study was to examine which effect tabloidization has had on the news content and the presentation of the Swedish news program Rapport, during the years 1979 and 2009. Rapport is broadcasted in the Public Service channel "Sveriges Television".</p><p>Our main concern was to examine whether Rapport has stayed true to their assignment or if they have made changes to appeal to the popularised audience. To do so we focused on three questions: What is the journalist’s role? What becomes news? Who are interviewed?</p><p>We used theories such as social representation, news value and media logic to help us perform the analysis. Qualitative methods were used to analyse the news broadcasts, of which John Langer’s story-types was the primary method. In addition to that we used the method of semiotics to reveal signs of tabloidization in the imagery of the broadcasts.</p><p>Our results showed that the tabloidization of Rapport lies in the format rather than the news content. The changes in the news content are barely noticeable, even though the time span is quite long. The format however, has seen some tabloidization in 2009, with changes to the vignette and the feature structure. We also found changes in which people that Rapport chose to interview and changes among the journalists themselves. For instance we discovered that the representation of different groups of people is much more varied in 2009 than it was in 1979. The results also showed that the journalistic role has shifted from the task of educating the citizens to the task of being sensational and entertaining.</p><p><p><p> </p></p></p>