The Partisan Reporter : A study of the news reporting on the American race issue by Sven Öste, 1963-71

Abstract: This thesis presents how the American race issue was depicted in Sweden during the 1960s until the early 1970s by studying the work of Sven Öste in Dagens Nyheter. Sven Öste was Dagens Nyheter’s Washington correspondent between 1963-1966 and 1968-1971, where he did prize winning reporting on the Vietnam war and covered the American race issue. Previous research has shown that the race issue was one of the key factors that changed Sweden’s perception of America. Despite this, there is a lack of research on how the American race issue was depicted or discussed in Sweden. This is important to remedy. Providing an understanding of how the American race issue was depicted will improve our knowledge of the Swedish image of America at this time. I will explore how Öste wrote about the Black liberation movement, the white resistance and how we are to understand his reporting. The results show that Öste contributed to a negative image of America through his reporting on the race issue. Öste supported the Black liberation movement, as shown through his emotional and moral writings. Furthermore, Öste compared the race issue to the struggles in the Third World, which contributed to the negative image of America. In doing this, Öste became a transnational actor. With these results, new insight is provided into how the American race issue was depicted in Sweden.