Det här är Mixed Martial Arts! : En kvantitativ innehållsanalys om hur svensk dagspress framställer MMA

Sammanfattning: Purpose/aim: This study was performed in order to describe how Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is reported in Swedish daily newspapers during a five-year period. MMA is a relative new sport in Sweden and it is important that the description by the Swedish daily newspapers is accurate and balanced. Then this sport will have the same opportunities to grow as already well-established sports in Sweden.  Material/Method: The material consists of 159 articles from six different daily newspapers gathered from 2006-12-07 to 2011-12-07. Quantitative content analysis is used to investigate how the newspapers describe MMA. The result from this quantitative analysis are then compiled, analysed and discussed by applying theories of agenda setting, framing and moral panic.  Main results: The result shows that the Swedish daily newspapers give a relative neutral and balanced picture in their coverage of MMA but they are affected to a certain degree of moral panic. A neutral framing of MMA was common in the majority of the newspapers. Swedish newspapers have fulfilled the requirements that you should have on balanced journalism. A majority of the articles described MMA with more or less deviancy and therefore made MMA “Folk Devils”. Further there was a consensus among politicians and other right-thinking people that MMA is a threat to and is dangerous to society. The negative reporting of MMA in the daily newspapers is volatile with one-year cycles with start in late 2009. With one quarter of the articles describing MMA as a problem, there is preconception that MMA is likely to have a negative impact on society. There is a disproportion in the reporting of MMA as a threat as “Swedish Sports” have approved MMA as a sport, but still report it as a problem. Therefore there is some kind of moral panic about MMA in Swedish daily newspaper.