Miljökommunikation i dagspressen : En diskursanalys av hur SvD och DN framställer miljöfrågor

• Main Authors: Andreasson Lindelöw, Josefin, Nilsson, Therese
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper, SV 2011
• Subjects: environment; climate; sustainable development; democratic conversations; agenda setting; gate keeper; framing; CDA critical discourse analysis; Media and communication studies; Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-13791

The starting point of this study is that the news media in general strongly influence which topics determine the public agenda by their choice of what is considered newsworthy. The study is based on articles from two major Swedish daily newspapers, Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter.  The aim of our thesis is to establish how the environmental public debate as portrayed in the newspaper corresponds to the environmental discussion within the scientific (subject matter expert) field, that is taught by the academic institutions, or if the two materially differ. The environmental communication discourse at the academic institutions advocates ‘episodic’ formation as the driving force behind transformation of attitudes and behavioral preconceptions. This episodic formation is aimed at incentivizing change by creating intimacy to the incident by linking cause and consequence to the individual citizen instead of to society as a whole. The analysis consists of approximately 50 articles, all published in year 2010, and is based on CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis) where we sought to map out the discourses that frame the representation of environmental topics in these two daily newspapers.  The result shows that the newspapers account of environmental topics only weakly corresponds to the scientific account. The media representation mainly adopts a ‘thematic’ formation in which environmental topics are frequently approached by means of distancing itself or taking a broader and detached stance instead of a specific and attached link to the individual. The result thus shows that the newspapers discourse practice does not positively drive changes to attitudes and behaviors but rather reinforces the prevailing discourse and social posture in society. At the same time the analysis shows that the two newspapers form a forum where many different views and values are being voiced and where many different groups in society are represented in democratic spirit. Both supporting and inhibiting views are presented in this context. If the newspapers overall discourse practice promotes or inhibits transformation of the public’s environmental attitudes and behavior tends towards that ‘status quo’ is upheld at the expense of change. This despite, environmental topics are considered important by the Swedish public in general.