EU in the news : Swedish depiction and coverage of the 2020 Special European Council Session

Abstract: This study takes on a descriptive quantitative content analysis as means to investigate how the Swedish media covered and depicted the Special European council session between 17th to 21st of July 2020. Based on Agenda Setting and News Framing theories, the study investigated three aspects of the meeting's news coverage: (1) The overall interest and focus put on the meeting, (2) the interest and focus put on individual issues pertaining to the meeting, and (3) the Swedish News Framing of the meeting. The study found a large interest by the Swedish newsrooms centered on the final day of the meeting. This is especially the case with the Swedish public service network who had an overall higher coverage pertaining to the meeting. The coverage of the meeting was also found to have mainly revolved around the Covid Relief fund, with other subjects present but with a secondary importance. The meeting was mainly framed based on the economic consequences as well as conflict within the meeting, with little focus on the human impact. The paper was also able to find a large difference in how the meeting was framed based on the individual newsrooms, with the public service differentiating itself from tabloid and quality press through its overall weaker framing.