Populism – vad betyder det? En diskursanalys av termen ”populism” i svensk opinionsjournalistik.

Sammanfattning: ’Populism’ is a term with contested meanings in both academia and media, but the focus of debate on this topic is often directed towards the former category. This essay focuses on the latter and so examines the different meanings of the term ’populism’ in Swedish opinion journalism. It does so by applying terms and theoretical concepts from the poststructuralist discourse theory developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe in a discourse analysis of editorials published between 2016 and 2020 in two nation-wide Swedish tabloids. The study finds several differing overarching meanings among which two stand out as more common: ‘populism’ as a term for describing a range of political actors or political views and ‘populism’ as a threatening trend or ‘wave’ with a specific cause and a corresponding required political solution. Conclusions drawn in the essay suggest that there is reason to employ certain caution upon encountering or using the term ‘populism’ in both opinion journalism and other print media as it is both a popular term and one with a range of different and often opposing meanings.