Studien följer upp vissa delar av Lars Nords avhandling Vår tids ledare (2001). Nord genomförde sina undersökningar 1993, alltså 20 år tidigare än denna studie. Vår studie utgick från frågeställningar om ledarskribenternas egenskaper, deras redaktionella produktionsvillkor och förhållande till de politiska partierna i dag och i jämförelse med år 1993. I studien undersöks även i vilken utsträckning ledartexterna behandlar lokala, nationella och internationella ämnen samt förekomsten av osignerade, signerade och signerade ledare med bylinebild. Studien utgick från teorier om journalistiska produktionsvillkor utformade av Kent Asp, Pamela J. Shoemaker & Stephen D. Reese, Armin Scholl & Siegfried Weischenberg samt Wolfgang Donsbach. Genom en enkätundersökning liknande den Nord genomförde, samt två olika analyser av ledartexter undersökte vi vad som skett på ledarsidorna sedan 1993. Resultatet visade att vissa förändringar skett. Banden till partierna har sannolikt försvagats då en betydligt lägre andel av tidningarna i dag ägs av partier. Dessutom har avsevärt färre ledarskribenter i dag partipolitiska uppdrag. Ledarskribenterna värderar aktualitet och nyhetsorientering i högre grad än 1993 och deras egna intressen styr i stor utsträckning deras ämnesval, vilket inte var fallet i Nords undersökning. Generellt ligger ett stort fokus vid ledarskribenterna i form av hög andel signerade ledare och signerade ledare med bylinebild. Skribenterna refererar också gärna till sig själva i sina texter. Även om skribenterna på många sätt närmat sig kolumnisterna, är den politiska profilen fortfarande ledarsidans djupt rotade skiljemärke. Kårens sammansättning är sig relativt lik och det verkar fortfarande vara främst nationella frågor som behandlas på ledarsidorna.

Titel: When online hate becomes a threat to democracy - a qualitative study about editorial writers experiences of online hate The aim of this study has been to, through an intersectional gender perspective, identify how interviewed editorial writers at Swedish newspapers experiences, and are affected by, online hate and how the effects of online hate could have consequences for the democratic function of journalism. This has been done through qualitative interviews with eight editorial writers from different Swedish newspapers, four female and four male, two of which has another ethnic background than Swedish. The theoretical framework for the study has been intersectional gender theory, the theory of participatory culture and Sara Ahmed’s theory of the link between emotion and rhetoric. The results of the study are categorised into four different themes: ”Racist online hate”, ”Sexist online hate”, ”Emotional online hate” and ”Consequences of online hate”. The results show that female editorial writers with another ethnic background than Swedish are getting an disproportionate amount of racist and sexist online hate because of their gender and ethnicity. Further, the study shows that female editorial writers are exposed to sexism which is something that is absent in the online hate directed towards the male writers The male editorial writers tends to reduce their experiences of online hate, even though some of them are or have been exposed to aggravated libel, on the grounds that female colleagues are worse affected. The study shows that subjects that trigger online hate are integration, feminism, national security and Romany beggars. The consequences of online hate that the editorial writers identifies are very individual. The ones that are worst exposed tell stories about personal consequences such as fear of safety in public, need of protected identities and self-censorship. The ones that don’t consider themselves very affected by online hate talk more about societal consequences such as the threat of online haters tone becoming the norm on the internet, the need of  common guidelines for social media, and a threat against the freedom of speech. The conclusion of the study is that the experiences of online hate is very individual for the editorial writers, but there are clear structures that shows that women and persons with another ethnic background that Swedish are exposed to sexist and racist online hate. Some subject are triggering for online hate and there are consequences, such as self-censorship, that can be seen as threats to democracy and freedom of speech. Keywords: social media, online hate, hate speech, editorial writer, journalism, media, democracy, freedom of speech, gender, race, ethnicity, participatory culture, sexism, racism, emotional rhetoric