Facklan - gemenskap över gränser : Tidningen som verktyg för att förstärka banden inom Skandinaviska Socialistförbundet i Chicago 1921-1922.

• Main Author: Svensson, Albin
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV) 2021
• Subjects: Media; Imagined communities; Comintern; 1920s; Swedish-American; Community; SwedishAmerican press.; Föreställd gemenskap; Komintern; 1920-talet; Svensk-amerikansk; Gemenskap; Svensk-amerikanska tidningar.; History; Historia
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-101308

The study centers around The Scandinavian Socialist Federation and its newspaper based in Chicago called Facklan. This newspaper and its association has not been thoroughly researched before in a qualitative manner and existed in a time when communism started to spread around the world which makes them both interesting to research. A qualitative text analysis will allow a study that aims to examine how the newspapers content built or strengthened a feeling of fellowship within the federation. This will be researched through three aspects – communist, swedish and as a federation. With a contextualizing chapter the study is set into a historical period. This enables the reader to understand the context around the federation and its newspaper. Furthermore the study uses Benedict Anderssons idea of imagined communities. The source that has been used to enable this study is a digital archive made by Minnesota historical society, in which Facklan is included. The results show that Facklan indeed did build or strengthen a feeling of fellowship amongst its readers. It did this primarily by connecting the Comintern´s ideas and values with the news around Sweden and the federation. It is difficult to point out how deeply this affected the federation but it most likely brought the divided federation closer together and possibly enabled the merging with another American-Scandinavian socialist federation.