THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEDIA AND THE VOLUME OF DEVELOPMENT AID Empirical Evidence from Swedish Negative Media Coverage on Development Aid during 2012 to 2019

Abstract: Having independent institutions that make impartial decisions is a vital pillar of democratic societies. However, existing research claims that the media has an impact on the volumes of development aid. Although extensive research has been conducted on the relationship, there is a lack of studies that examine the topic out of a Swedish context. To examine the influence of negative media coverage on the development aid of Sweden is therefore relevant from a pro-democratic perspective as well as it enables an analytical generalization to other Western countries that are similar to Sweden. Consequently, this thesis examines how negative media coverage affects the volume, the partner and type of the Swedish development aid between 2012-2019. Thus, three separate regression analyzes were created to test whether negative media coverage affects the total and multilateral volume of development aid from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida, to the recipient countries as well as whether Sida chooses to earmark its aid to the recipient countries after negative media coverage. The findings conclude that both the total and the multilateral development aid from Sida increases with negative media coverage. However, this thesis finds no empirical evidence that Sida is earmarking its aid after negative media coverage.