PLIKTENS ÅTERKOMST: En innehållsanalytisk studie av Försvarsmaktens kampanjfilmer och dess gestaltning av den svenska soldaten efter värnpliktens återinförande 2017.

Abstract

By using qualitative content analysis this study aims to examine the framing of the Swedish soldier in the video marketing campaigns of the Swedish Armed Forces, since the reactivation of conscription in 2017. The role and identity of the Swedish soldier has been a hot topic within critical military studies, especially during the years 2010-2017 when Sweden abandoned the conscription model for All Volunteer Forces. During which the Swedish soldier was framed in recruitment marketing as a self-fulfilling and enterprising individual who saw a career within the Swedish Armed Forces as a way of self-development. However, since the reactivation of conscription the role and identity of the Swedish soldier has changed. The marketing campaigns no longer frame the soldier as a career driven individual, but rather as a protector of Swedish life and security.

The study's theoretical framework draws upon Robert M. Entman’s definition of Framing Theory and his two main concepts of Saliance and Selection. Framing is further discussed from the perspective of identity and power, based on the generally understood notion of identity as discursively constructed, and power as in the manner of Peter Bachrach & Morton Baratz’ notion of non-decisiveness, as well as a Foucaultian discussion of the power of discourse as a means to governmentality. The analysis shows how the Swedish soldier after the reactivation of conscription is framed as an altruistic protector of Swedish life and peace by being attributed with conventional military characteristics such as physical strength, selfdevotion and seriousness, in contrast to blissfully unaware civilian lives.