”ETT NORRLANDSKNÄCK OM ÅRET RÄCKER”. En kvalitativ studie av mediediskurser kring Norrland

Abstract

This study examines how discourse in the news regarding Norrland, a region in Northern Sweden historically subjected to internal colonialism, is produced, reproduced and changes in national and local news coverage. The study specifically investigates the case of the opening of a graphite mine in Vittangi, a village in the northernmost municipality of Sweden. The mine has sparked a conflict that has been widely reported in Swedish media. On one side of the conflict stands the Swedish government and the EU, who claim that the graphite is a necessary part in the building of new, environmentally friendly industries. On the other side there are local politicians, residents, Sami reindeer herders and environmental organizations who claim that the mine would lead to financial losses for the municipality, polluted waters, major challenges for reindeer herding and damage to protected natural areas. The overall aim of this study is to examine the types of discourse that occur in news reporting regarding Norrland, how ideologies and power relations are reflected in these discourses, and to find out what local journalism contributes to the reporting. To examine this, news articles covering the events surrounding the graphite mine from two Swedish newspapers, one local and one national, were analysed. Former research has shown that media representations of Norrland are characterized by postcolonial discourses. Hence, postcolonialism and internal orientalism were chosen as the theoretical framework for the study, together with critical discourse analysis (CDA) to explain the discourses found. CDA was also used as the method in this study to uncover the discourses, ideologies and power relations in the newspapers. This thesis focuses mainly on three aspects: How are Norrland, the graphite mine in Vittangi and the actors involved portrayed in local and national media? What perspectives and voices are highlighted in local and national media, and how do the media's news evaluation and geographical proximity in reporting differ? And how do the discourses in the reporting relate to overarching ideologies such as postcolonialism and internal orientalism? The main findings show that postcolonial discourses were reproduced only in the national newspaper, through the journalists emphasising perspectives that spoke in favor of the mine. In this way, discourses that produced the mine as a necessity for the greater good came to dominate in the national newspaper. The local newspaper generally reported about the issue in a more factual and unbiased way and provided information that the national newspaper was missing. They also aired the local perspectives, most of them critical to the mine, to a much higher extent than the national newspaper. These findings indicate that local journalism contributes with perspectives that are otherwise easily overlooked and a broader picture of issues that can be missed by the ones reporting from afar.