A voice for the people or a megaphone for the authorities? : An analysis of how SVT.se reported about the Swedish government’s actions during the covid-19 pandemic in relation to their role as public service

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine how the Swedish public broadcaster SVT depicted domestic measures taken by the government and other authorities as a result of the covid-19 pandemic with attention to their double role as public service. Public service media have a unique role in both acting in favour of the authorities when providing crucial information to the citizens and acting in favour of the public when investigating the work made by the authorities. Building on framing theory and a theoretical framework consisting of public service concepts and governmental crisis communication, critical discourse analysis will interpret how SVT domestically reported about the covid-19 pandemic, with attention to the roles they assumed. The results showed that SVT took on three different roles: the educational role, the informative role and the journalistic role. This duality opens up normative questions regarding how SVT’s articles should be interpreted by the readers, what SVT aims with their news reporting and how transparent they are with their readers. The study does not criticise SVT having different roles in their news reporting. Instead, their guiding principles show that it is necessary to take on contrasting duties towards both the government and the citizens. However, they do not fully follow these principles, which can be seen in their scarce journalistic role despite it being an important part of their public service report.