Demokratins tjänare eller medielogikens lakejer? : En studie av fyra tidningars gestaltning av politik i samband med riksdagsvalet 2014.

Sammanfattning: From a democratic viewpoint, the way in which the media frames politics is essential. Should issue frames be left out in favor of other types of frames, it could result in voters struggling to make informed decisions come Election Day. What is more, research shows that game frames may cause lack of confidence in politicians and declining political interest. Against this background, the present study aimed to find out how two broadsheets, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, and two tabloids, Aftonbladet and Expressen, framed politics in connection with the 2014 Swedish parliamentary elections. The thesis also intended to identify possible differences between the two newspaper types and to make tentative comparisons with previous studies so as to be able to comment on framing developments. The method that was used is content analysis. More specifically, the thesis examined the existence of a number of frame types in selected articles. A total of 235 articles were analyzed, 62 in Dagens Nyheter, 46 in Svenska Dagbladet, 52 in Aftonbladet and 75 in Expressen. The results of the study are rather depressing. Considering the average numbers for all four newspapers, the issue frames amount to only about a fourth or a fifth of all frames. In addition, the issue frame percentage seems to decline with each election. However, there are substantial differences between the broadsheets and the tabloids. As in the vast majority of previous studies, the broadsheets contain a much larger share of issue frames that the tabloids. Thus, the former satisfy the needs of democracy to a larger extent than the latter. Further studies are, however, of the essence to confirm the results that are presented in this thesis. It is very important, for the sake of democracy, to continue investigating the media’s framing of politics, as well as framing effects.