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Crisis Communication in the Time of Corona: A comparative analysis of Danish and Swedish public news narratives

When the coronavirus disease COVID-19 spread through the world’s countries in early 2020 and dominated the news media, a contrast between how Sweden was combatting the virus compared to other countries who used stricter restrictions quickly became apparent and frequently discussed in media. Through a comparative content analysis, this study aims to investigate how narratives concerning the coronavirus have been presented in Swedish public news medium SVT compared to its Danish equivalent, DR. Any differences in such news reporting could indicate the possibility of media influence behind why one country implemented and adhered to stricter restrictions than the other did.Utilizing a quantitative as well as a quantitative approach, 245 articles from Danish and Swedish sources were coded and analysed through theory grounded in situational crisis communication (SCCT). The findings however revealed similar results, identifying the same four key SCCT-narratives in both countries: anxiety, blame, flattery and care. The theoretical contribution of this study is centred on the reflection of how these similar results may relate to one another on a societal and sensemaking level. The study ultimately also emphasises the flexibility of SCCT strategies as useful narrative tools for further research.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-23572
Date January 2020
CreatorsRadlovacki, Andrea
PublisherMalmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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