Att uppfattas som legitim i klimatomställningen : Medias roll för en aktörs legitimitet

Sammanfattning: The aim of the study was to see how the media affects the legitimacy of an actor in the climate transformation, by looking at a specific actor. A qualitative analysis has been carried out in the form of a document study of newspaper articles concerning an actor in the climate transformation. The qualitative analysis is supplemented with a quantitative analysis, with the aim of providing an overview of the empirical evidence. With the help of an analysis tool, we have investigated how the media affects an actor's legitimacy. The analysis tool was based on literature on how legitimacy can be created in polycentric governance arrangements, as well as within the theory of framing and from a business networks perspective. The quantitative analysis is presented in descriptive statistics and the qualitative analysis is presented in text and with a final summary in tabular form. The analysis showed that the actor often was portrayed as important in the climate transformation, but also credible in terms of empirical credibility, credibility of the speaker and social and political trust. The actor also portrayed themselves as very confident. They were also shown to care about their employees, future generations, and society at large, which should further affect their credibility and trust. Interesting findings from the analysis included bombastic rhetoric from a politician, challenges and criticism did not seem to damage the actor's legitimacy and that the actor has "skipped" some of the factors that the literature describes create or promote legitimacy. But also, the actor was described as a "done deal" early in the decision-making process and that trust in various forms seems to be the most important factor for legitimacy. The conclusions are that the portrayal of the actor in media, positively affects their legitimacy.