Race is a taboo subject — and word — in Swedish culture, and the Swedish news media is no exception. During recent years, however, the topic of race and racism has started to be discussed moreand more in the mainstream. Following the global uprisings against (anti-Black) racism and policeviolence during the summer of 2020, the many organizations also in Sweden were pressured to confronttheir own racist histories and deep-seated structures of oppression. In 2020, a petition againststructural racism at the Swedish Radio (SR) was released, taking a stand against racism within thecompany and signed by many journalists of color in the organization. After the release of the petition, it was revealed that journalists that signed the petition had been banned from reporting oncertain topics.Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, this thesis examines the circulation and proliferationof racism within a prolific Swedish media institution, through the experiences of racialized journalists.With a theoretical grounding in Sara Ahmed’s phenomenology, racism is examined as it isencountered in the daily working lives of journalists of color. Additionally, two op-eds published bythe senior management at the Swedish Radio, responding to the petition, are analyzed using critical discourse analysis, to make visible how an institution of journalism such as a the Swedish Radioresponds to accusations of racism.This study finds that, despite an organization’s outward commitment to diversity, journalists of color find themselves in a double bind: being considered not objective enough, and sometimesbeing stopped from, reporting on certain topics because of their race, while simultaneously feeling responsible for racially diversifying reporting: making sure certain topics receive news coverage at all.This study argues for a more “color-aware” approach to journalism in Sweden, taking theimplications of race and institutional racism into account.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-455818 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Karlsson, Johanna Lill-Inger Fredrika |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Medier och kommunikation |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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