This study aims to investigate if there has been a shift over the last 25 years in the discourses on how trade unions are being discussed in Swedish print news media. More specifically, I will investigate whether a social change and change in power relations of trade unions can be detected in the discourses. The questions that guide this study are (1) How have discourses and discursive practices around news media reporting on unions and their role in society changed over the last 25 years? And (2) What kind of power relations can be detected in these discourses? 52 articles from four different print newspapers within the period of 1995–2019 and six semi-structured narrative interviews with union representatives, labor market reporters and think tank representatives compose the study’s material. From the material, three central themes could be extracted and analyzed with the theories of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and power resource theory (PRT). These themes are (1) the coverage of trade unions’ abilities and agencies, where union initiatives rarely are covered and unions, in general, have faded into more of a commentating role. (2) The discourse of the Swedish model serves as a discourse of power and highlights the alliance of unions and employers’ organizations. And lastly (3) how the reporting has moved away from a collective focus to a focus on the individual in the labor market. Conclusively, the study highlights the relational aspects of power and question whether the Swedish model is contra-productive on the part of labor, as the lack of conflicts fails to draw attention and thereby also fails to create a widespread and collective understanding of what unions are and do. / Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka det skett en förändring i hur man talar om facket i svenska tryckta nyhetsmedier under de senaste 25 åren. Mer specifikt kommer jag att undersöka om en social förändring och förändring av maktförhållanden kring fackförbunden kan utläsas ur diskurserna. Frågorna som leder denna studie är (1) Hur har diskurser och diskursiva praktiker kring nyhetsmediernas rapportering om fackförbund och deras roll i samhället förändrats under de senaste 25 åren? Och (2) Vilken typ av maktförhållanden kan utläsas i dessa diskurser? 52 artiklar från fyra olika tidningar inom tidsperioden 1995–2019 och sex semistrukturerade narrativa intervjuer med medarbetare på fackförbund, arbetsgivareorganisationer och tankesmedjor samt arbetsmarknadsreportrar utgör studiens material. Från materialet kunde tre centrala teman extraheras och analyseras med teorierna kritisk diskursanalys och maktresursteori. Dessa teman är (1) rapporteringen av fackförbundens agens och förmåga. Fackliga initiativ rapporteras det alltmer sällan om de har i allmänhet fått en mer kommenterande roll än en agerande roll. (2) Diskursen kring den svenska modellen som fungerar som en maktdiskurs och underbygger alliansen mellan fackförbund och arbetsgivarorganisationer och legitimerar deras maktposition på svensk arbetsmarknad. Och slutligen (3) hur rapporteringen har skiftat från ett kollektivt fokus till ett fokus på individen på arbetsmarknaden. Sammanfattningsvis belyser studien de relationella aspekterna av makt och lyfter frågan om huruvida den svenska modellen skulle kunna vara kontraproduktiv för fackförbundens räkning. Detta eftersom bristen på konflikter leder till mindre mediauppmärksamhet och därmed inte bidrar en utbredd och kollektiv förståelse kring vad fackföreningar är och gör.

The news media are powerful purveyors of culture in North America. Crime news reporting particularly is an influential means by which the news media define the boundaries of deviant and non-deviant behaviour. For the purposes of the present research, I examined the ways that the print news media constructed cases of male-perpetrated Intimate Partner Homicide (IPH) in Alberta. Using a social constructionist theoretical orientation grounded in an Ethnographic Content Analysis methodology, I examined 381 newspaper articles that discussed four separate incidents of male-perpetrated IPH. Approaching these data from the perspective of media reciprocity and a social constructionism epistemology, I considered the various ways that the print media presented these cases for their audience, but also the various ways that the audiences expectations and the general zeitgeist of the culture may have affected this presentation. Much of the dominant discourse in the cases I studied was consistent with previous research examining IPH presentations in the news media, namely that the media present victims and perpetrators in stereotyped ways according to their gender and ethnicity. However, I also examined some less prominent themes, including those that were pro-feminist, ambivalent, fictionalized, and constructed for the purpose of audience titillation and voyeurism. Additionally, owing to the qualitative nature of the methodology, I was able to examine discussions that subverted the stereotypical representation of victims and perpetrators in the news media and examine how these presentations could affect audience understanding of the phenomenon of IPH. Overall, the present project led to a discussion of how the media construct various facets of psychology and feminism and how these facets are in turn constructed by society in a reciprocal process whereby the media influence culture and culture correspondingly affects the media.

The news media are powerful purveyors of culture in North America. Crime news reporting particularly is an influential means by which the news media define the boundaries of deviant and non-deviant behaviour. For the purposes of the present research, I examined the ways that the print news media constructed cases of male-perpetrated Intimate Partner Homicide (IPH) in Alberta. Using a social constructionist theoretical orientation grounded in an Ethnographic Content Analysis methodology, I examined 381 newspaper articles that discussed four separate incidents of male-perpetrated IPH. Approaching these data from the perspective of media reciprocity and a social constructionism epistemology, I considered the various ways that the print media presented these cases for their audience, but also the various ways that the audiences expectations and the general zeitgeist of the culture may have affected this presentation. Much of the dominant discourse in the cases I studied was consistent with previous research examining IPH presentations in the news media, namely that the media present victims and perpetrators in stereotyped ways according to their gender and ethnicity. However, I also examined some less prominent themes, including those that were pro-feminist, ambivalent, fictionalized, and constructed for the purpose of audience titillation and voyeurism. Additionally, owing to the qualitative nature of the methodology, I was able to examine discussions that subverted the stereotypical representation of victims and perpetrators in the news media and examine how these presentations could affect audience understanding of the phenomenon of IPH. Overall, the present project led to a discussion of how the media construct various facets of psychology and feminism and how these facets are in turn constructed by society in a reciprocal process whereby the media influence culture and culture correspondingly affects the media.

The news media are powerful purveyors of culture in North America. Crime news reporting particularly is an influential means by which the news media define the boundaries of deviant and non-deviant behaviour. For the purposes of the present research, I examined the ways that the print news media constructed cases of male-perpetrated Intimate Partner Homicide (IPH) in Alberta. Using a social constructionist theoretical orientation grounded in an Ethnographic Content Analysis methodology, I examined 381 newspaper articles that discussed four separate incidents of male-perpetrated IPH. Approaching these data from the perspective of media reciprocity and a social constructionism epistemology, I considered the various ways that the print media presented these cases for their audience, but also the various ways that the audience’s expectations and the general zeitgeist of the culture may have affected this presentation. Much of the dominant discourse in the cases I studied was consistent with previous research examining IPH presentations in the news media, namely that the media present victims and perpetrators in stereotyped ways according to their gender and ethnicity. However, I also examined some less prominent themes, including those that were pro-feminist, ambivalent, fictionalized, and constructed for the purpose of audience titillation and voyeurism. Additionally, owing to the qualitative nature of the methodology, I was able to examine discussions that subverted the stereotypical representation of victims and perpetrators in the news media and examine how these presentations could affect audience understanding of the phenomenon of IPH. Overall, the present project led to a discussion of how the media construct various facets of psychology and feminism and how these facets are in turn constructed by society in a reciprocal process whereby the media influence culture and culture correspondingly affects the media.