Sprickan i mediernas spegel. En kvantitativ innehållsanalys om äldres representation i svenska nyhetstidningar

Abstract

Title: Sprickan i mediernas spegel – En kvantitativ innehållsanalys om äldres representation i svenska nyhetstidningar Authors: Sanna Manske, Astrid Nyblom and Hanna Pettersson Level: Bachelor thesis in Journalism Term: HT 2024 Supervisor: Britt Börjesson The aim of this thesis is to examine how senior citizens are represented and characterized in Swedish newspapers. According to the theory of representation, the role of the media is to accurately reflect society by allowing individuals from various groups (gender, age, class, ethnic groups etcetera) to be seen and heard. It is not only important that they are represented but also how they are portrayed, as marginalized groups have historically tended to be unfairly represented or mischaracterized. As structured audience targeting has become more common among Swedish media corporations in the last couple of years, the question of whether this affects the content, and who is seen and heard in the news, is being raised. Structured audience targeting is still a new phenomenon, and the existing research is limited. Therefore, to gain a deeper understanding of this practice, a preliminary study was conducted with representatives from two of Sweden's largest media corporations, whose target audiences are 30-50 and 30-39-year olds, respectively. They are actively working towards reaching this audience, with new digital measurement methods both on their audience and their written material. To investigate whether the representation of senior citizens has changed since the introduction of structured audience targeting, a comparison between the years 2014 and 2024 was conducted. The method used is a quantitative analysis of every individual present in the 18 largest newspapers in Sweden, on an average day, April 4th, 2014 and 2024. In total, 1192 individuals were analysed. The results show that senior citizens are underrepresented in Swedish news articles, even when variables such as function and subject matter are excluded. The result also shows that there are great differences between men and women’s representation in media, and among the elders, the difference is extra significant, as more older men are present than older women. There is no direct connection to structured audience targeting as representation of elders increased slightly between 2014 and 2024, although the difference is too small to draw any definitive conclusions.