Objektivitet i politisk journalistik
En studie i mediekommunikation
Abstract Mona Sahlin's dishwasher decides the election! Maybe. How journalism portraits politics is at least not fully objective with focus on societal matters. There is also a change over time indicating an up-going trend of less objective journalism. Other results of this case study indicates that politicians are more inclined to participate in journalism than before and that politics presented as scandal is increasing.The aim of this study is to investigate objectivity in political journalism over time. Using the quantitative content-analyses the study encoded 600 journalistic articles subjecting politics in the Swedish society. These articles were chosen from Swedish newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet, both paper editions only excluding web editions. Theories supporting the study are the framing-theory, the knowledge-theory and other theories describing how objectivity changes over time.Objectivity has been debated in journalism and has founded different perspectives on how professional journalism can be obtained. This has historically changed the practice of journalism and the study assumes from this phenomenon. Citizens are dependent on journalism for information on things that does not belong in their everyday life. Politics is such a subject that needs to be reported on and that's why this study investigates objectivity in political journalism. The result concludes extreme choices of subject in political journalism, where about 50 % of the articles encoded portrayed the everyday chores or statements of politicians. This is indicating an up-going trend of less objective journalism and is supported by other less extreme results of the study.