Att sätta Agendan : En intervjustudie om lärare i samhällskunskaps friutrymme och nyhetsanvändning

Sammanfattning: This study aims to contribute knowledge about how secondary teachers perceive their work with political news, in their teaching in the subject social studies. The study is based on qualitative interviews with five secondary teachers, who hold varying experience of teaching in the subject of social studies. The results shows that the teachers work with relatively similar news sources as well as media forms, and they are primarily influenced by their own personal news media preferences. The data shows that it is equally common for the teachers to use the method and ideal type of news integration as well as of news coverage. Regarding the teacher’s approach, the respondents mainly represented the ideal type of strong objectivity along with a weak neutrality. Conclusions that could be drawn from this study are that teachers largely have a positive view of political news in their teaching whereas aspects as accessibility, lack of time and the feeling of too much content represent challenging factors. The study points out that the teachers have a great interest in the news and that the media can be used as a possible source for knowledge in teaching. But this is only true under certain circumstances where source credibility is constantly present. Perhaps the study's most important contribution is that of the increased knowledge about the teacher’s selection of content, together with making teachers' media views and understanding of media influence visible. This highlights the complexity of the position the teacher finds themselves in, both as a frontline bureaucrat as well as an agendasetter.