HT12 MKV C Hörnfeldt Svensson
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Uppsala University Department of Informatics and Media Supervisor: Amelie Hössjer Bachelor thesis, January 2013 In the red Political scandals in the media and the effect of political affiliation Sofia Hörnfeldt and Jonatan Svensson Sofia Hörnfeldt and Jonatan Svensson 2013-02-01 Abstract I denna studie har politiska skandaler studerats ur et framingperspektiv. Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att undersöka hur rapporteringen skiljer sig åt mellan höger- och vänsterpolitiker i beskrivningen av politiska skandaler. Genom en kvantitativ första undersökning har det konstaterats att vänsterpolitiker blir omskrivna mer när de är involverade i politiska skandaler, särskilt om skandalen är av ekonomisk natur. I en andra kvalitativ del undersöktes två skandaler på djupet, genom kritisk diskursanalys. Resultaten av den undersökningen visar att vänsterpolitiker gestaltas på ett annat sätt än högerpolitiker när de är involverade i skandaler av ekonomisk natur. Skillnaderna tycks framförallt bero på sociokulturella faktorer. De förväntningar som allmänheten har på politiker påverkar hur de gestaltas i media. Om en politiker inte lever som den lär blir granskningen av densamme mer negativt vinklad. Nyckelord: Politiska skandaler, politisk tillhörighet, sociokulturella faktorer, förväntningar, skillnader mellan höger och vänster, diskrepans, ekonomiska skandaler, framing, gestaltning, konstruktionism, kritisk diskursanalys 2 Sofia Hörnfeldt and Jonatan Svensson 2013-02-01 Contents 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 4 2. Purpose and scientific question ................................................................................ 6 3. Background .............................................................................................................. 8 4. Theory .................................................................................................................... 10 5. Material and Method .............................................................................................. 18 6. Quantitative results ................................................................................................. 30 7. Qualitative results ................................................................................................... 34 8. Analysis and conclusions ....................................................................................... 57 9. Discussion .............................................................................................................. 61 10. Sources ................................................................................................................. 63 Appendix 1 ................................................................................................................. 67 Appendix 2 ................................................................................................................. 82 Press release ............................................................................................................... 83 Translations ................................................................................................................ 85 Revidering av uppsats ................................................................................................ 86 3 Sofia Hörnfeldt and Jonatan Svensson 2013-02-01 1. Introduction Freedom of the press is a fundamental part of the Swedish Constitution (Sveriges Riksdag, 2012). The press both informs about and reviews politicians. But the relationship between the media and politicians is not unproblematic. Media has to sell, because besides being a democratic function, newspapers and TV channels are more often than not profit-driven organizations (Stömbäck, 2000: 158). Strömbäck states that the relationship between politics, media and society is not solely based on media ownership or how many media channels are available: content is of importance too (2003). Recent research made by Allern, Kantola, Pollack and Blach- Ørsten showed that scandals have become all the more apparent in the Scandinavian media landscape (2012: 48 – 49). The issue of political scandals, while being one of the most complex concepts in political communication, is one of the most interesting ones. Questions like; “why do certain scandals receive more coverage than others?” and “why are scandals framed in a certain way?” are big general questions that have only partly been answered (for example, see Bromander, 2012). This particular thesis will attempt to add to the knowledge about political scandals by examining the differences in reporting between right and left wing politicians that have been involved in scandals during the last ten years. The role that sociocultural factors play in the portrayal of the scandals will be of specific interest as well. The idea that there is a difference in the reporting between right wing and left wing politicians in the media is a highly relevant one. It relates to many different and important issues; possible bias of the media, how sociocultural structures affect journalism and what power prejudice can have over reporting, only to name a few. For this reason, it is not only interesting to academics, but to the public in general. The main variable of interest in this thesis is political affiliation. However, three additional variables are featured in the study as well; gender, position of government and nature of the scandal. The characteristics of these variables, as well as justifications for their inclusion in the study, will be explained in greater detail further on. This thesis will have a two level approach, consisting of one quantitative part and one qualitative part. A total of eight political scandals were studied in the quantitative part, covering 1313 articles from four Swedish newspapers. In the 4 Sofia Hörnfeldt and Jonatan Svensson 2013-02-01 qualitative part, an in depth analysis was made of two scandals, selected from the eight scandals examined in the quantitative part. The results were then analyzed from a framing perspective, with emphasis on the constructionist approach. 1.2 Previous research A study conducted by Allern et al (2012) shows that political scandals have tripled during the first decade of the millennium in the Nordic countries, and Sweden is on the top of the list for the most scandals (Allern et al.: 35). The authors argued that it is not politicians’ moral standards that have become lower; rather, a shift of what is seen as acceptable behavior has taken place in society (ibid.). This, along with an increased commercial interest for sensational political journalism and a more pro- active role of the media are seen as the main reasons for the increased prevalence of political scandals in the media (ibid.). How sociocultural factors affect the perception of politicians is relevant in this context as well. A dissertation presented by Jenny Madestam examined what kind of a leader the chairpersons of two different Swedish political parties were expected to be like, according to the members of their respective parties (Madestam, 2009). She came to the conclusion that there is a great ambivalence in what is expected from the leaders, with many expectations contradicting each other. A Social Democratic leader, for example, should be like a friend and father at the same time. The leader of the Liberal Party was supposed to be both deep and superficial at the same time (Madestam, 2009). This dissertation was based on an empirical study of the Social Democrats and the Liberal Party of Sweden. In recent years, examining differences in reporting between politicians of different genders has been a quite popular subject of research in Sweden (Bromander, 2012: 54). Bromander himself examined the effects of gender on political scandals (2012). He examined 92 political scandals that had occurred in Sweden over a period of fourteen years (Bromander, 2012). Bromander argued that female politicians are more extensively covered; there is a stronger demand for accountability and media coverage is less forgiving. There was also a higher risk that female politicians involved in political scandals resign. However, Bromander did not account for 5 Sofia Hörnfeldt and Jonatan Svensson 2013-02-01 political affiliation in his study; he suggests that political affiliation should be studied further (Bromander, 2012: 43). 2. Purpose and scientific question The purpose of this essay is not to fully explain why some scandals become massive media spectacles and some completely fade in to oblivion. Rather, the purpose is to show that there is a difference in the frequency of reporting between right wing and left wing politicians involved in political scandals and as to how the reporting is framed. As the scope of this thesis is relatively limited; attempts to provide results that can be generalized over a much larger selection of scandals will be comparatively modest. What is aspired to here is showing that political affiliation could be of importance when it comes to explaining how political scandals are framed in the media. The scientific question asked is twofold. How does the political affiliation of politicians affect the frequency of reporting about scandals that said politicians are involved in? How does the framing of political scandals differ between right wing and left wing politicians? The questions could conversely be expressed as a hypothesis: H: There is a difference in the amount reported between right