At the end of February 1957, the WHO announced that a highly contagious flu epidemic was raging in China, where hundreds of thousands of people had fallen ill. This flu then spreads with furious speed over the rest of the world and becomes known as the Asian flu. The main purpose of the essay is to use a qualitative content analysis to investigate and compare how the Asian flu pandemic was portrayed in the Swedish newspapers Norrskensflamman and Dagens Nyheter at its outbreak in 1957. The reason why these two newspapers have been chosen is due to their differences in quantity, political tendency and their geographical locations. Both dailies have also been available digitally. Based on own investigations in the thesis, as well as research on previous epidemics that have affected Sweden, three themes have been identified; panic, vaccines and societal change. These are a starting point for seeking answers to what the portrayal looks like, what differences there are between the newspapers and whether Norrbotten is affected in a different way compared to the rest of Sweden. The articles on the Asian flu that have been investigated have been located in the two newspapers and compared in relation to each other. The essay shows both similarities and differences in the newspapers' reporting of the Asian flu, where the most prominent are the panic aspects. Together, both newspapers report a much lower death toll from the flu than the actual one, but differ in how much responsibility they take to prevent public panic, for example through word choice. Their early reporting on the work with vaccines also helps to calm and convey that the situation is under control. On the other hand, the content of the articles changes quickly when it is clear that the infection is raging in Sweden. Information in the newspapers regarding societal changes is sparse and there are few indications that they are permanent.There are no clear indications that Norrbotten was hit much harder by the Asian flu than the rest of Sweden, quite the opposite.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:ltu-93495 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Kitti Lundholm, Daniel |
| Publisher | Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik, konst och samhälle |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| 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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