A ‘snapshot’ of Swedish media’s portrayal of immigrants and refugees leading up to the 2018 election : A qualitative critical discourse analysis from Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet

Abstract: Immigration is a topic that is not an uncommon occurrence within Sweden, especially in regards to the long history of wars and crisis occurred since the beginning of the 21st century. It could take form of individuals fleeing for their lives as refugees from conflict, or as economic migrants seeking a higher quality of life in a new country. The aim of the study was to analyze the critical discourse on how the Swedish media portrays immigrants and refugees in line with Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework and Dijk’s textual analysis from a socio-cognitive approach. The purpose was to focus on gaining an insight on how Swedish media portrays immigrants and refugees. The newspapers that were analyzed was Dagens Nyheter (DN) and Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) which are two of the largest newspapers in Sweden. The results showed that there was a tendency of the Swedish media to lean toward left-wing discourse in comparison to the rest of Europe. However, the perspective of ‘us’ vs ‘them,’ negative economic costs of refugees and less of a voice for the refugees and migrants was found. Some positive actions for future reporting of immigrants and refugees is to give newcomers to Sweden a stronger voice in the media, where a full account of the report is evident and to utilize neutral diction such as, ‘nyanlända’ when addressing refugees or migrants.