<p><p>In our study we examined recurrent patterns and changes in the representation of</p><p>homosexual persons in Swedish daily newspapers 1987, 1997 and 2007.</p><p>We analysed articles about HIV-infected persons and articles with a view to portray the</p><p>life conditions of gay and lesbian persons from the three different years. We chose to</p><p>only analyze news articles that intend to represent real human beings, which mean that</p><p>we did not analyze reports that only reproduce abstract knowledge from authorities.</p><p>With analytical tools from semiotics and discourse analysis we identified some recurrent</p><p>patterns in the representation of homosexual people. We found that a recurrent pattern in</p><p>that when homosexual people are seen as groups, they are described as deviant,</p><p>discriminated and some times as a threat. When portrayed as individuals the nonanonymous</p><p>persons appear in articles and pictures as normal, strong and healthy. Lesbian</p><p>women are not represented in the articles from 1987, but in articles from 1997 and 2007</p><p>they appear as unhappy when single and happy in a relationship.</p><p>The results also showed some interesting differences in news representation of</p><p>homosexual persons between the three investigated years. One example of this is that the</p><p>media stopped referring to homosexual men as a ‘hazard group’ in terms of HIV at some</p><p>point after the year 1987. We recognize this as an important change in the news medias</p><p>perspective on both HIV and love between men.</p></p>

In our study we examined recurrent patterns and changes in the representation of homosexual persons in Swedish daily newspapers 1987, 1997 and 2007. We analysed articles about HIV-infected persons and articles with a view to portray the life conditions of gay and lesbian persons from the three different years. We chose to only analyze news articles that intend to represent real human beings, which mean that we did not analyze reports that only reproduce abstract knowledge from authorities. With analytical tools from semiotics and discourse analysis we identified some recurrent patterns in the representation of homosexual people. We found that a recurrent pattern in that when homosexual people are seen as groups, they are described as deviant, discriminated and some times as a threat. When portrayed as individuals the nonanonymous persons appear in articles and pictures as normal, strong and healthy. Lesbian women are not represented in the articles from 1987, but in articles from 1997 and 2007 they appear as unhappy when single and happy in a relationship. The results also showed some interesting differences in news representation of homosexual persons between the three investigated years. One example of this is that the media stopped referring to homosexual men as a ‘hazard group’ in terms of HIV at some point after the year 1987. We recognize this as an important change in the news medias perspective on both HIV and love between men.