Crises tend to be crucial political events with the ability to determine the public’s faith in political actors. If well managed, crises provide windows of opportunities for political actors to show ...action, strengthening credibility and pushing through new policies. This article explores one such instance of successful crisis exploitation: the Swedish government’s management of the financial crisis in 2008. During the worst turbulence, the government was able to successfully frame the event, without being challenged by contrasting frames, as a crisis managed with great competence and in the best interest of ordinary citizens. We explain this phenomenon through journalistic styles and standards. The article concludes by discussing the findings where we propose that issue framing, in combination with descriptive journalism, contributes to portraying political actors as credible crisis managers rather than tactical politicians, with the result being that they appear more trustworthy and competent. Moreover, due to unbalanced coverage, actors who are framed as competent crisis managers succeed in further strengthening their positions.
Do Politicians Lead the Tango? Strömbäck, Jesper; Nord, Lars W.
European journal of communication (London),
06/2006, Volume:
21, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The relationship between journalists and their political sources is often described
as symbiotic. Furthermore, political sources are often regarded as more powerful
than journalists in this ...relationship. However, most of the research referred to in
the international literature is done in the US or Britain. Therefore, the question
regarding the relationship between journalists and their political sources, in terms
of power, needs to be asked in other countries. This article examines the
relationship between journalists and their political sources in Sweden during the
National Election in 2002, and in so doing makes a distinction between the power
over the process of news making and the media agenda, and the power over the content
and the framing of news stories. The results show the importance of making such a
distinction. They also show that, in Sweden, it is the journalists and not their
political sources that lead the tango most of the time.
If well managed, crises do not only pose a threat to political actors but also provide opportunities to show action, strengthening credibility and launching new policies. Within the field of crisis ...communication, research has primarily taken an interest in the rhetorical strategies of actors when explaining successes or failures. In this article, we examine key characteristics of what we refer to as crisis exploitation coverage in the news media. We do so based on a comparative quantitative study of 3 crisis cases (terror, floods, and financial crisis) selected due to their differences in journalistic routines and preparedness. The results of the study revealed that the similarities in the cases were more pronounced than their differences. All three cases showed high levels of descriptive journalism and issue framing in combination with unbalanced reporting-characteristics that were all favorable toward the governmental actors in charge of managing the crisis.
This article discusses the relationship between the newspaper market structure in a region and the diversity of local news. It introduces some partial results on studies based on substantial media ...concentration within two very different regional newspaper markets in the North and in the South of Sweden. The findings suggest that the relationship between newspaper competition and local news diversity is rather complicated. The study gives some support to the thought that ruinous competition sometimes could be as bad for news diversity as monopoly media. Adapted from the source document.
The current economic crisis is global in scope, thus affecting both countries in the North and in the South. As a consequence, national European governments are modifying their policies in order to ...cut down on public spending. This article compares how public service media policies are shaped in this new situation in two countries that represent very contrasting models of public service media: Spain and Sweden. The story of public service media survival in times of rapid development of media technology and liberal political hegemony is a common theme in contemporary media and communication research. This study adds to this theme, by exploring the conditions for public service media further by a more explicit focus on how newly elected governments approach public service media policies in times of economic crises. The basic aim of the study is to compare how public service media conditions may change in countries with very different public service media models.
Examines the state of Swedish investigative journalism in terms of how it is perceived by different societal segments, its actual degree of occurrence in daily journalism, & obstacles to its ...implementation. References. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright 2007.
The objective of this article is to analyze the brand new political party Junilistan in the Swedish European Parliamentary election in 2004. The article discusses whether Junilistan can be ...characterized as a market-oriented party, to what extent the party implemented political marketing techniques, and how the electoral success of Junilistan can be explained. The results indicate that Junilistan can be described as a "quasi-market-oriented" party, in the sense that it was inspired by perceptions of unfulfilled voter needs. However, its electoral success should mainly be explained by other factors, such as the second-ranking nature of European Parliamentary elections and growing distrust of established parties in Sweden.
Over 20,000 Swedish tourists were in the region when a major tsunami occurred off the coast of Sumatra on 26 Dec 2004; 543 were later confirmed missing or dead. Here, the Swedish public's perception ...of media coverage of this event & the efficacy of their government's crisis management efforts is evaluated, focusing on the impact of these perceptions on public confidence in politicians & political institutions. Data from an early-2005 telephone survey (N = 1,001 citizens, ages 18-74) & a series of 9 focus groups (total N = 44) conducted in Stockholm, Gothenburg, & Sundsvall reveal that political confidence was low before the disaster & was not enhanced by government handling of the crisis. News reporting of the event was perceived as thorough & professional, increasing public expectations with regard to government actions, but ultimately contributing to a dramatic decline in confidence when the government failed to act either quickly or efficiently to manage the crisis. K. Hyatt Stewart
Reporting more, informing less Nord, Lars W.; Strömbäck, Jesper
Journalism (London, England),
02/2006, Volume:
7, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The purpose of this study is to examine and compare how leading Swedish news media in
television and the press covered and described the terrorist attacks in the USA on
September 11 in 2001, the US ...attacks on Afghanistan later in 2001 and the war in
Iraq in 2003. The article examines factors influencing news decisions and media
ability to maintain fair news reporting. The study looks specifically at the sources
that are used, the occurrence of speculations and whether the coverage was
anti-American or anti-Muslim. The central questions are: what were the most
frequently used sources?, how frequent were different types of speculation?, and how
frequent were anti-American and anti-Muslim rhetorical figures respectively?
Este artículo trata sobre la relación entre la estructura de mercado regional para los periódicos impresos y la diversidad de las noticias locales. Presenta los resultados parciales de algunos ...estudios basados en la concentración de medios impresos en dos mercados regionales muy diferentes en el Norte y el Sur de Suecia. Los hallazgos sugieren que la relación entre la competencia entre los diarios y la diversidad de las noticias locales es más bien compleja. El estudio sustenta, asimismo, la idea de que la competencia destructiva en ocasiones puede ser tan negativa para la diversidad en la información como los mercados monopolísticos.
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