Så gick det för Zlatan i natt - En kvantitativ innehållsanalys av svensk kvällspress rapportering kring utländska fotbollsligor

Abstract

Aim of thesis: The study aims to investigate in which extent Swedish media reporting around foreign football leagues is person-oriented in general and around Swedish players in particular. To achieve this, theories and research about news valuation, media logic, ethnocentrism and National Sporting Heroes will be implemented.

The purpose will be achieved by coding articles from Swedish tabloids (Aftonbladet and Expressen) from four international football leagues (the English Premier League, the Italian Serie A, the Danish Superligaen and the American Major League Soccer) during three different seasons: 1998/1999, 2008/2009 and 2018/2019.

Theoretical framework: This study relies on a number of different theories, although the main one is person-orientation. Other important theories are news valuation, media logic, ethnocentrism and National Sporting Heroes. The study takes off in Ulf Wallin’s Sporten i spalterna from 1998 and Strömgren and Strandlund’s Sportens nyhetsvärdering i kvällspress from 2009.

Methods(s): The study uses quantitative content analysis as method. The number of examined articles are 1182. These were examined with the help of a coding scheme consisting of 16 different variables.

Results: The main result from the study is that 98 percent of all the examined articles were more or less person-oriented. That shows an increase compared to Wallin’s study from 1998 and Strömgren and Strandlund’s study from 2009. Another important result is that a Swedish person (players and non-players combined) is mentioned in 51 percent of all the articles. In addition, 92 percent of all the articles, where a swedish player is the main actor, is either fully or mainly person-oriented.