Too private for a politician or too public for a mother? : Representative claims of motherhood in Ebba Busch and Annie Lööf's YouTube videos

Sammanfattning: This thesis explores the transformative impact of social media platforms on communication and representation. More specifically, it investigates the themes of motherhood portrayed in the YouTube videos of Swedish party leaders and how these themes relate to the process of democratic representation. The research centers around former Center party leader Annie Lööf and the current Christian Democrats party leader Ebba Busch - the only Swedish party leaders to ever have had private YouTube channels. The data for this study spanned between the time period of 09/09-2019 to 20/09-2022, incorporating all videos on both channels creating a total of 70 videos studied. The thesis further employs thematic analysis and a claims analysis based on Michael Saward’s theoretical framework of the representative claim. The findings of the thematic analysis reveal two major themes: Motherhood as a political matter and the impact of motherhood, constructed by a variety of subthemes. These themes show how motherhood is not limited to a biological trait, but also a way to relate to situations and make sense of and/or challenge the norms of everyday life as mothers. Building on the thematic analysis, the claims analysis reconstructs the themes into claims of political representation creating three different claims: the surrogate claim, the relatable mother claim and the dual identity claim. The surrogate claim is a claim where Busch and Lööf do not necessarily put motherhood at the forefront, but rather uses motherhood as a vessel to discuss other topics. The relatable mother claim then looks at motherhood as a performance, where Lööf and Busch make claims reflecting the relatable aspects of motherhood, stressing their likeliness to other mothers. The dual identity claim in contrast encompasses motherhood as expectations, relating to gender roles and other dualities of motherhood. The synthesis of the thematic and claims analysis provides a holistic view of the themes of motherhood depicted in YouTube videos, their significance in the political realm, and their connection to the process of democratic representation. These findings further contribute to a body of knowledge on communication and representation, enhancing our understanding of the evolving landscape of political communication and representation in the digital age.