Flickan som ville leva : En kvalitativ studie om rapporteringen kring försvinnandet och mordet av Wilma Andersson

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to examine how two different newspapers covered the disappearance and murder of Wilma Andersson. The research questions were: How are the victim and perpetrator portrayed? What differences and similarities can we see in national news media versus local news media, and how did the image of the victim and perpetrator change over the course of the coverage?   The method used was critical discourse analyses of 14 articles in the local newspaper Bohusläningen and the national tabloid Aftonbladet. By analysing the assigned characteristics from each source, it was determined that the victim, Wilma Andersson, was portrayed to the reader as a young and innocent girl. She was described as caring, responsible and ambitious. She was depicted as a girl with a bright future and love of life. The local newspaper labeled her as a part of the community, while the national tabloid focused on describing her character through family members. The perpetrator, Tishko Ahmed, was portrayed as a cold and sinister man who was indifferent to Wilma Andersson’s disappearance and death. However, early on in the national tabloid’s coverage he was also described as an everyday man. The local newspaper was more prone to cover the story in a neutral manner, while the national tabloid dramatized the event to a greater extent. Our study shows that the geographical distance between the newspaper and the place of the crime scene is the main factor in the differences between the portrayals of the people involved. The closer the newspaper is to the crime scene, the closer they are to people who knew the victim and perpetrator. This results in the newspaper being more cautious in how they cover the story.