Vadå nationell självbild? : En diskursanalys av hur svenskspråkig tryckpress förhåller sig till The Local Sweden:s nyhetsförmedling av Sverige och "det svenska"

Sammanfattning: The Bachelor dissertation What do you mean national self-image? is a discourse analysis of the relationship between Swedish news providers. The study aims to investigate how Swedish-language print media interact with the main provider of Swedish news in English, The Local Sweden, and what it reports as the “essence” of the nation and its people.   The investigation has been conducted through the implementation of Ernesto Laclau’s and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse analysis and uses intertextuality, stereotypes, social representation, as well as nationalism and the imagined communities as its theoretical framework. The material selected for the analysis comprises publications by Swedish-language print media from the year of 2014, which engage in a dialogue with The Local Sweden beyond the generic interaction of news. The dissertation concludes that Swedish-language print media approach The Local Sweden’s news coverage in two ways: in agreement or in opposition of what has been reported. When The Local Sweden has published something with the intention of capturing the “essence” of Sweden and its people, they bring attention to the Swede’s hugging culture, their food and souvenirs, as well as their knowledge of language. The results of the study suggest that The Local Sweden manages to provide new information on the subjects, which then leads to Swedish-language print media responding with entire articles dedicated to these topics. The articles convey a sense of fascination and curiosity toward the findings and confirm that The Local Sweden has been correct in their observations. However, when The Local Sweden publishes something with the intention of presenting Swedish news rather than the specific “essence” of it, they find different angles in news stories than what has been covered by Swedish-language print media. The results of the study suggest that by doing so they set themselves apart and provoke Swedish-language print media into responding by incorporating a comment for and/or relating to them as a news provider. The comments convey that Swedish-language print media question The Local Sweden’s validity as a valuable member in covering Swedish news.