Understanding Netflix’s establishment in Sweden: A study on how Swedish trade press and cultural journalism build up Netflix as powerful with regards to economic and cultural aspects. Gustaf Holmqvist Emanuelsson Stockholm University Department for Media Studies Master Thesis Supervisor: Kristina Riegert Submitted on 12 June 2020 Abstract This thesis expands an understanding of how Netflix has been established in Sweden’s media landscape. It seeks to investigate what effect the press has had, and more specifically, the study explores how the press builds up Netflix as powerful and how it imbues Netflix with legitimacy. Methodologically the thesis starts off with a usage of purposive sampling in order to find articles. The material is further handled with a critical discourse analysis, where writers’ language is explored, along with an investigation into how the world is represented with regards to identities, relationships and sociocultural aspects. Analysed articles with an economic focus come from Dagens Industri and those with cultural focus comes from Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet. Moreover, the study is based on theories and earlier studies within political economy, with a pursuit to understand film and television industry; trade press, to interpret the economic articles; cultural journalism, to interpret the cultural articles from; and power, to distinguished different power aspects in Netflix. The analysis comes in two parts: the economic analysis, which is divided in three ways and a two-folded cultural analysis. When it comes to economic legitimacy, two major aspects are prominent: Netflix’s success in competition against other streaming services and a clear establishment on the global market. Some articles have also given reasons to understand Netflix’s situation as ambiguous, meaning its future is uncertain. With regards to cultural legitimacy, the question of quality is significant, along with a connection to other social contexts such as gender, politics and climate. Netflix is perceived as having a societal responsibility. As a result of this thesis, it can be noted that cultural articles tend to be more critical than economic. Cultural journalists appear to cover the subject with a more open approach, using personal opinions, often suggesting what Netflix can improve. Writers of economic articles demonstrate a stricter portrayal of Netflix, mainly focusing on developments and success. 2 Table of content 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 5 2. Background .......................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 What is Netflix? ............................................................................................................................................... 8 3. Theoretical framework and literature review ....................................................................... 9 3.1 Political economy ...................................................................................................................... 10 3.1.1 Structure of the film industry .................................................................................................................... 10 3.1.2 Political economy in the film industry ....................................................................................................... 12 3.1.3 Television ................................................................................................................................................... 12 3.2 Press .......................................................................................................................................... 14 3.2.1 Trade press ................................................................................................................................................ 14 3.2.2 Cultural journalism ..................................................................................................................................... 16 3.3 Power ........................................................................................................................................ 17 3.3.1 The forms of capital ................................................................................................................................... 18 3.3.2 Journalism power ....................................................................................................................................... 19 3.4 Summary of theories and connection to Netflix ......................................................................... 19 4. Methods and data gathering .............................................................................................. 20 4.1 Collecting economic influenced articles ..................................................................................... 21 4.2 Collecting cultural influenced articles ........................................................................................ 23 4.3 Critical Discourse Analysis .......................................................................................................... 25 5. Analysis - Economic legitimacy ........................................................................................... 26 5.1 Introducing competition ............................................................................................................ 27 5.1.1 Netflix is here ............................................................................................................................................. 27 5.1.2 The competition continues ........................................................................................................................ 29 5.1.3 World representation, identity and relations ............................................................................................ 30 5.1.4 Sociocultural aspects ................................................................................................................................. 32 5.2 Spreading territory .................................................................................................................... 33 5.2.1 World representation, identity and relations ............................................................................................ 35 5.2.2 Sociocultural aspects ................................................................................................................................. 38 5.3 The uncertain future .................................................................................................................. 38 5.3.1 World representation, identity and relations ............................................................................................ 40 5.3.2 Sociocultural aspects ................................................................................................................................. 42 6. Analysis - Cultural legitimacy ............................................................................................. 42 6.1 The question of quality .............................................................................................................. 42 6.1.1 World representation, identity and relations ............................................................................................ 46 6.1.2 Sociocultural aspects ................................................................................................................................. 47 6.2 Applicable to everything ............................................................................................................ 48 6.2.1 Gender ....................................................................................................................................................... 48 6.2.2 Socio-political ............................................................................................................................................. 49 6.2.3 Climate ....................................................................................................................................................... 50 6.2.4 World representation, identity and relations ............................................................................................ 52 3 6.2.5 Sociocultural aspects ................................................................................................................................. 53 7. Concluding discussion ......................................................................................................... 53 References ............................................................................................................................. 56 Appendices ............................................................................................................................ 60 Appendix A ..................................................................................................................................... 60 Appendix B ...................................................................................................................................... 61 Appendix C ...................................................................................................................................... 62 Appendix D ....................................................................................................................................