Gorbatjov ur ledarsidors synpunkt : en undersökning om 10 svenska dagstidningars ledarsidor ändrar åsikt om Gorbatjov före, under samt efter Augustikuppen 1991

Sammanfattning: The aim of this essay was to examine whether 10 Swedish newspapers editorial pages and their leader writers changed their view on Mikhail Gorbachev before, during and after the August Coup in 1991. Moreover, the aim was also to see if the editorial pages used the same sources when they wrote about Gorbachev. In this essay four main questions were asked: - How is Gorbachev described before the August Coup? - How is Gorbachev described during the August Coup? - How is Gorbachev described after the August Coup? - What sources did the editorial pages use when they wrote about Gorbachev? Ten newspapers and their editorial pages from the period of 1-31 August and 1-6 September, as well as 10-31 December 1991 and 1 January 1992 were examined. It was discovered that most of the editorial pages changed their view from being negative in August to being more positive in December. As a conclusion it can be stated that the examined editorial pages did not write much about Gorbachev in the beginning of August and if they did mention him it was in a negative tone. One of the reasons for the lack of mentioning during the August Coup could be that the leader writers were not sure whether Gorbachev would return back to power. In December the views about Gorbachev were mostly positive, which could be related to the fact that the Soviet Union was about to become dissolved. Regarding the sources some of the newspapers referred to the same sources without giving clear information about where the source came from. A majority of the editorial pages referred to the meeting between Gorbachev and George Bush, as well as to Gorbachev’s meeting with the Supreme Soviet after the August Coup.