Drag i debatten

Sammanfattning: This quantitative content analysis, with a theoretical framework based on framing theory and Hallin’s Spheres, studies how Swedish newspapers reported on a debate surrounding Drag Story Hour (DSH) and the Sweden Democrats (SD) wanting to stop it, during a one-year period. This study analyzes news articles, as well as opinion-based publications in newspapers, to study the representation of different actors and their opinions, as well as the authors’ opinions and framing of DSH and SD’s aim to stop it. After a pre-study of the material and grounds in studies of homophobic arguments, we chose to study the frequency of six different frames of DSH, and three frames of SD’s aim to stop it. The results show an over representation of SD in the material, as they are quite alone with their opinion, but are more represented than any other actor. Moreover, the most common framing of DSH was a sexual framing, which was the most common frame overall. The most common framing of SD’s aim to stop DSH, was that it is undemocratic. Despite a sexual frame of DSH being the most frequent, and SD being the most represented in news articles, the opinion-based publications show that a significant majority of the authors of opinion-based articles are against what SD wants. Our results suggest that SD more or less owns the argument to stop DSH, and argues that it is sexual and/or inappropriate for children. Most other actors, journalists and other article authors either have a positive view on DSH, or do not care about it. The study ends with a discussion on how SD single handedly putting this debate on the agenda may or may not be a ploy for a shift in the general view of drag queens and other LGBTQIA+ events, or a populist political strategy, to polarize the debate on drag queens reading stories to kids.