Entusiasten, domedagsprofeten och skeptikern
Diskursanalys av Earth Hour 2009 i svensk nyhetsjournalistik
Campaign journalismEarth HourIdentity and the mediaCreating togethernessMedia eventsDiscourse analysisSwedenBarometernAftonbladetSvenska Dagbladet
The purpose of this study was to examine how Swedish newspapers framed the campaign Earth Hour. Did media encourage their audience to join in and how did they create a sense of togetherness regarding the campaign?The theories connected to the study are media logic, media events, identity and the media, collective togetherness, symbolic interactionism and discourse. The method used was a qualitative discourse analysis. We analysed three Swedish newspapers: Aftonbladet, Barometern and Svenska Dagbladet. We analysed fifteen different texts ranging from regular news articles to columns.The results showed that Earth Hour continuously is presented as either a way to save the environment or as a useless stunt that people participate in to quiet their guilty conscience. Whether the text in question is positive or not regarding Earth Hour the message is always about urging the audience to act by participating or take an active choice to keep the light on and thereby not comply with the campaign. The results also showed that there are three different types of characters represented in the texts that serve as a way to create togetherness and awareness regarding the Earth Hour campaign. These three characters are the enthusiast, the prophet of doom and the sceptic. More than one of them is never represented in the same text and their main purpose is to symbolise the message that the text has. Continuously the characters give you a view of how to be a participant or a non-participant. These are the two sides you are given, there is nothing in between. By only showing one side of the discussion about the campaign the news papers were creating an "us" versus "them" kind of mentality where everything but "us" were considered wrong or simply ignored.