Medias makt i samhället: Porträtteringen av muslimer i samband med koranbränningarna i svensk nyhetsmedia mellan åren 2020 - 2023

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the news media frame and represent Muslims in Sweden in relation to the recurring events of Quran burnings in recent years. The main re-sources that the result is based on is from 144 news articles and opinion pieces from four dif-ferent newspapers, Aftonbladet, Göteborgs-Posten, Svenska Dagbladet and Sydsvenskan. To analyse these articles, three types of analytic frameworks are used: the agenda setting theory with focus on framing and priming, orientalism and Habermas philosophic approach to a civic forum for debate and participation. The method was a combination of a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative text analysis with a specific focus on Muslims' interpretive preference in the news articles. Bacchi’s fourth question about what is left unproblematic in the problem representations was also used. The main findings are that there has been a comprehensive news reporting about three different topics, which were identified in three different categorizations: security, freedom of expression and violations. In Security, Muslims were framed as rioters and terrorists con-nected to the Quran burnings. There was also some portrayal of Muslims and imams during the riots as sensible. In the category Freedom of expression, Muslims were framed as having an inability to understand Swedish values such as freedom of expression. Even though Muslims in some cases were portrayed as a vulnerable group, the main findings are that Swedish freedom of expression is portrayed as more fundamental. They were also portrayed as easily offended, when violated. Opinion articles went into more depth on the topics mentioned in the news arti-cles and Muslims did not have a particularly large interpretative advantage.