Populärt med populism? En kvantitativ och kvalitativ analys om alternativmediers populistiska uttryck i rapporteringen om terrordådet mot svenskar i Bryssel 2023

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the populism aspect within alternative right-wing and left-wing media. It is carried out by conducting a quantitative study combined with a qualitative study for closer analysis. The quantitative analysis is conducted by using a code scheme for coding the articles from the alternative medias which will be cross analyzed. The qualitative part is a simpler form of analysis to help deepen the study and look for patterns, explanations and interesting discourses within the reporting. The study wants to discover if alternative medias articles and reporting contains populism which enforces ideals including “us against them”, nationalism and criticism against the establishment. To make the study concrete and concise the study will only contain articles that report about the shooting of three swedes in Brussel the 16th of October 2023. It has been officially announced as an act of terror against Swedes by virtue of the burning of Qurans in Sweden the last three years. Two of the men died, and the third survived. This is a major event which most of media reported about, therefore it is a fitting event for our study. The study has three main topics: 1. Does alternative medias reporting about the shooting of three swedes in Brussel contain populism? 2. How does the mentioned populism unfold? 3. How does the alternative media reporting about the shooting of three swedes differ from the reporting of traditional media? The results from our study show that there are populistic aspects in the reporting from alternative media. Right-wing alternative media has a higher chance of emerging nationalistic opinions and discourses than the left-wing alternative. The left-wing alternative media created an “us against them” discourse by criticizing the politicians in power, which are of the current election term of Swedish parliament right-wing. It also became clear that the alternative media are selective in which information they keep in the reporting by illustrating certain aspects of a situation and leaving other aspects out to fit their narrative.