Vem har bollen? En kvantitativ innehållsanalys av svenska mediers inkludering och gestaltning av fotbollssupportrar

Abstract

One main principle of journalism is letting all parties speak on matters that concern them. This thesis seeks to investigate whether Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Göteborgs-Posten, Svenska Dagbladet, SVT Nyheter and Sydsvenskan act in accordance with said principle when writing about football supporters. The main aim is examining how the newspapers mentioned, portray football supporters and to what extent supporters are given the opportunity to make statements regarding issues that concern them. This is done through a quantitative content analysis where 313 articles from the newspapers above are read and coded through 15 variables (see appendix). They are retrieved through the database Retriever, and manually selected by the writers to ensure only relevant articles are included. Theories applied are the Framing theory and the Agenda-setting theory. As this study aims to explore how football supporters are portrayed, the Framing theory serves as the main theory used. The reason being that said theory explains that the public perceives an actor as the media portrays them. The Agenda-setting theory is relevant as it explains how issues and actors given media attention are deemed important by the public. The findings show that football supporters are portrayed in a predominantly positive manner, as well as given the opportunity to make statements on issues that concern them more often than other actors. However, when portrayed in a negative manner, such as described as violent or dangerous, supporters are in most cases not given the chance to defend themselves.