Framing Gender Justice:A comparative analysis of the media coverage of #metoo in Denmark and Sweden

This study examines the media coverage of the #metoo movement in neighbouring countries Denmark and Sweden. A comparative content analysis shows differences in genres, sources and themes across the two samples. Further, the analysis shows that the coverage predomi- nantly positioned #metoo within an individual action frame portraying sexual assault as a personal rather than societal problem in both countries. However, the individual action frame and a delegitimising frame focused on critique of #metoo were more prevalent in the Danish coverage. A framing analysis revealed four different news frames in the coverage: #metoo as (1) an online campaign connecting networked individuals, (2) part of a broader and long-standing social movement for gender justice, (3) an unnecessary campaign fuelled by cultures of political correctness and, finally, (4) a witch hunt and “kangaroo court”. Finally, we discuss and relate these findings to the political and cultural contexts of the two countries and their different historical trajectories for the institutionalisation of feminism and implementation of gender equality policies

”Man ska’ jo nødigt blive en kvinde med en sag”:Rolleforhandlinger på redaktionerne i dækningen af #metoo i Danmark og Sverige

Denne artikel undersøger dækningen af #metoo set med svenske og danske journalisters øjne. Via kvalitative interviews med journalister fra forskellige medier i begge lande viser studiet, hvordan de i dækningen oplevede at pendle mellem mere eller mindre passive og aktive professionelle roller (Bro 2008) og at være underlagt (ofte modstridige) idealer om objektiv nyhedsformidling. Det indebar, særligt i Sverige, et normativt ’push’ mod aktivisme i dækningen af #metoo-bevægelsen, mens danske journalister med henvisning til objektivitet og presseetik var mere tilbageholdende og passive, og udviste en frygt for at blive stemplet som holdningsprægede journalister eller sågar feministiske aktivister. Analysen belyser, hvor- dan den overordnede debatkultur og det politiske klima i et land har betydning for disse normative forhandlinger og for, hvorvidt man føler sig inkluderet eller ekskluderet af det professionelle fællesskab som journalist. Både internt på den kønnede redaktion og eksternt i forhold til nyhedsmediernes rolle i den bredere samfundsdebat om køn og ligestilling

Identity, Empathy and Argument: Immigrants in Culture and Entertainment Journalism in the Scandinavian Press

Cultural and entertainment journalism deals with aesthetic experiences, advice on cultural consumption, as well as reflection and debate on ethical and moral humanistic issues. Does this sub-field of journalism systematically represent immigrants and integration differently than the other news and commentary articles? Comparing immigration discourse in a representative sample of six Scandinavian newspapers between 1970 and 2016 using content analysis we find that cultural journalism, while clearly reverbing with the dominant national issues at the time, did provide alternative perspectives. It not only brought up themes like racism, multiculturalism, national identity and religion more often, but was also more positive, more gender-balanced and more often gave a voice to immigrants than other news did. A closer qualitative reading further suggests a typology of ten main story-types, varying relatively little over time and across national borders. Cultural journalism in this case illustrates how the cultural public sphere can positively contribute to the debate of complicated issues in the public sphere by offering resources for identification, empathy and arguments for specific points of view.publishedVersio

Engaging with The Bridge : cultural citizenship, cross-border identities and audiences as ‘regionauts’

This article explores civic engagement with the Danish/Swedish crime series The Bridge (Danmarks Radio/Sveriges Television 2011–) based on qualitative interviews with 113 audience members, and drawing on the notion of cultural citizenship. The perspective of cultural citizenship, as understood and operationalized mainly by Hermes, is married with critical perspectives on the crime drama genre and its audiences, along with cultural analysis of the construction of and engagement with the cross-border region in which the drama is set. The analysis shows that civic engagement with the crime series is prompted through the construction of community and allegiances through which audiences feel connected. This argument unfolds in three main analytical sections, detailing how audiences’ articulations of community are focused around distinct yet overlapping dimensions of community as (1) a national social ritual, (2) a sense of Nordic community, and finally (3) community as regional identity and sense of belonging to a borderless Öresund utopia – the integrated region between Denmark and Sweden. In so doing, the article offers rich insights into how audiences shape civic identities as members of nation states, of historical and cultural regions and as border-crossers between these geo-cultural entities - in dialogue with popular culture and around the boundary-work of the different communities offered by such texts

Studying the Nordic Resistance Movement : three urgent questions for researchers of contemporary neo-Nazis and their media practices

This commentary provides critical reflections on a number of challenges related to research methodology and ethics when studying organized racism in online environments. Based on ongoing fieldwork of the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) in Sweden, I ask three critical questions about researching the neo-Nazi organization and organized racism more generally: (1) How do we produce valid knowledge of these ‘closed’ groups in their ‘open’ online spaces? What are the limitations of our research on hidden social life when we only have access to what they want us to know? (2) Why and for whom are we producing research on these groups? Or, put another way, what ethical considerations and problems related to intent and research agendas arise in studies of neo-Nazism and other forms of organized racism? (3) What is the emotional labour involved in studying these groups for the researcher and how might it be used in a productive manner