This essay is an exploration of the debate between John Finnis and Stephen Macedo on the value of homosexuality. In “Is Natural Law Theory Compatible with Limited Government?” Finnis, a natural law theorist, rejects value-neutralist arguments, stating that the political community can and should make value judgments about its members’ life-choices and that such normative evaluations are compatible with liberalism. Particularly, Finnis argues that homosexuality is in its essence always harmful and degrading, thus unable to participate in the basic human goods it imitates. Furthermore, he argues that the political community in liberal democratic societies is justified in discouraging homosexual conduct as a viable way of life. Macedo, while also rejecting pure value-neutralist liberalism, carefully considers but rejects Finnis’s argument, which rests on an unrealistic description of value and ends of human sexual activity.

Mass media is of great importance for the public conversation as it makes it possible to spread information to the citizens of the nation. In order to influence citizens perceptions of the world, it is of great value for journalists to discuss particular subjects in newspapers. Analyses of daily newspapers therefore proves they are of relevance as they provide us with knowledge about how opinions are created as well as how the politics shapes the public conversation. In order to increase our knowledge of how the debate regarding European membership appeared in Swedish newspapers, this essay has studied Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and Aftonbladet. Three newspapers with different political orientation. The essay describes how the different newspapers, with different opinions appeared as well as how the newspapers articles were written by reason of their political views. The essay shows that the bourgeois newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, wrote positive articles regarding the membership and negative regarding the government whereas the social democratic newspaper Aftonbladet was skeptical about the membership as well as the opposition. This essay further explains how a newspaper study can be used in educating high school students in history where they increase their knowledge of source criticism and examine and interpret newspapers in order to understand how coverage of politically charged subjects can differentiate, depending on which newspaper they read.