Respektlösa bovar och duktiga frälsare : En jämförande undersökning av pressens porträttering av Annie Lööf och Åsa Romson under 2013 och 2014

Sammanfattning: The four largest newspapers in Sweden, Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, all have different political stands, but does it affect their reporting on different parties and their leaders? In 2013 and 2014 two of the nine party leaders in the Swedish parliament, Riksdag, were female, Annie Lööf (Centre Party) and Åsa Romson (the Green Party). This study examines the differences between the reporting on these two politicians in four newspapers and how they are portrayed using quantitative content analysis and framing analysis. Earlier studies by Kent Asp have shown that the Green Party (Miljöpartiet) is the most popular party among Swedish journalists, which could mean that the party is overrepresented and gets a special treatment in the media. In contrast, the Centre Party (Centerpartiet) is among the least popular among Swedish journalists and could therefore risk to be underrepresented. This study also researches if the portrayal of these two party leaders is in any way connected to their gender, as previous research shows that women politicians are treated differently to their male colleagues. Topics like family, private life and their appearance are often discussed instead of their work. Lastly this study investigates if there are differences in reporting between an election year, 2014, and a regular year, 2013. Our study shows that the political stands of the newspapers have an effect, even if only slight, on the reporting. Furthermore, Miljöpartiet does not get a special treatment as one might think, it’s rather the other way round. We found that the reporting on Annie Lööf and Centerpartiet was far more positive than the reporting on Åsa Romson and Miljöpartiet. We could not see that the reporters treated these politicians specially based on their gender, contrary to earlier studies. Finally, we found out that the newspapers focus on the party leaders rather than the parties themselves, which corresponds to the tendency of personification discussed in previous research.