As our society moves into a more technical era, journalism and the reporting of culture have had to follow. But where has that left the cultural critique, and journalist/reviewers, in our local newspapers? This bachelor thesis will try to map and explain the change of the cultural presentation in the local newspapers from the day it was firstly introduced as a genre in the modern journalistic world until today – 1840 and onwards. Whether it has turned into complete tabloid journalism or if it's methods are used to expand the knowledge about the cultural object, it shall be discovered with the help of an analysis of the cultural sections in some newspapers – both from the last quarter of 2012 (October - December) and one date from two years prior to that. One of the answers provided by the analysis, and perhaps the most relevant to this thesis, is that by adding features of tabloid journalism in reports of cultural news, culture journalism can better adapt its contents according to academic and social preferences of what is considered important aspects of information in the news, as it positions itself according to the technological fields and the changes within the cultural area itself.

Between 2002 and 2006, an ongoing conflict surrounding Umeå-based biotech company UmanGenomics and the Medical Biobank at Umeå University played out in the media. The conflict involved researchers, business leaders, politicians, the university board, journalists and the general public. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the public media-mediated conflict surrounding UmanGenomics and Medical Biobank from a media and communication sciences perspective and thereby contribute to research into Science Journalism and media-mediated science-related conflicts. The questions examined by the study are as follows: how was the conflict portrayed in local and national newspapers, respectively, and how did these portrayals change over time? Were there any similarities, or was there any relationship between the media-mediated conflict and the »internal« debate, which are able to be traced via the events registered in Umeå University’s journal of daily events? Which parties elected to involve themselves in the conflict and did their descriptions of what happened differ? Were there any particular aspects of the conflict that were portrayed by the media as »failures«, and if so, what was it that was considered a failure? In total, 654 texts from the local and national media were analysed, as well as the university’s journal. The study has largely been carried out using quantitative content analysis, supplemented by general argumentation analysis. The study’s theoretical bases are taken from research on the relationship between science and the media, from rhetoric research, but also from Science and Technology Studies (STS) in a broader sense. This dissertation shows that the conflict was reported on differently depending on the newspaper’s proximity to the conflict itself, and on which arena the conflict was played out in. This also demonstrates that the conflict, most especially as played out in local news coverage, can be divided into different phases. While the media reports include many instances of those involved laying blame at each other’s feet, it is the market and the conflict that are considered to have been the primary factors in UmanGenomics’ ultimate demise. This study presents five suggestions as to what lessons can be learnt from this media-mediated conflict. The first is that the conflict provides an example of mutual exploitation: the media exploited the events surrounding the conflict in order to produce newsworthy, sensational and descriptive stories. Whereas within the university, the main figures embroiled in the conflict used the media as a front to either introduce or support their own points of view. The second is that the conflict should have given the »university world« an inducement to discuss media strategies and its transparency policies in greater depth. The third suggestion is that the media’s ability to make citizens’ opinions on science-related questions heard is problematic. Fourthly, many of those involved used the conflict to try to position themselves in relation to a rival counterpart, rather than to try to provide the general public with a clear and accurate picture of the conflict. Finally, it is suggested that the use of the »goldmine« metaphor, used to refer to both UmanGenomics and Medical Biobank, may have played a part in limiting media debate on the issue within the confines of a certain type of rhetoric.

The increase of mass shootings in the U.S. has amplified news reporting on mental illness as a possible factor in the shootings despite no evidence linking the two issues. Sources used to explain mental illness in stories that explore the motivations of mass shooters affect audience perception. Through a qualitative content analysis of local newspaper coverage of five U.S. mass shootings in 2015, journalists linked mental illness as a possible motive through sources who were not qualified to treat or diagnose mental illness. Journalists also ignored professional guidance from the Associated Press on mental illness reporting in the context of mass shootings. Additionally, journalists assumed the audience was knowledgeable of mental illness in general terms and specific diagnoses. These findings indicate coverage of mass shootings includes inaccurate information about shooters' motives, and it also continues to frame mental illness as dangerous.

The purpose of this study was to examine if the criticism aimed at the Swedish media was justified or not. The Swedish media’s coverage of the EU is a heavily debated subject between scientists and politicians alike. The coverage has come under fire for being irregular and for only focusing on the national part of the European union. The study has it stand point in the following research questions: “How frequent is the coverage of the EU”, “what differs in the reporting from an election year and a regular year”, “How much space is the EU given in the newspapers”, “Who is behind the information” and “What subjects is the coverage about and who gets to talk”. The study aimed itself at Swedish local newspapers from three different regions of Sweden.    The study used a quantitative content analysis to identify the difference in the reporting during week 22 through the years 2013, 2014 and 2015. By doing this the study found that there was a major difference in the reporting from the election year, 2014, and the other two years where there were no elections. It also found that politics and economics where popular subjects to cover and that Swedish EU-politicians were the most popular persons in the articles. The study also aimed to see if the criticism the media got for only covering the national part of news in from the EU. This the study found was mostly true when it came to local newspapers and also that the EU news mostly took up a large piece of space in the papers because of all the information that had to be in the articles to explain the complexity of the European union. The conclusion of this study is that the Swedish local news media’s coverage of the EU is underwhelming but also hard to improve because the EU also has problems in its information flow and that the Swedish local media tends to use the national angle to sell the news.