Svininfluensan
en kritisk diskursanalys av medias rapportering
Media has the power to influences society. Some call them the third power of a state. Through amongst others, the agenda setting theory and the framing theory, this report seeks to understand how media describes the swine influenza and how it uses its power to influence people to vaccinate. As this report will show, there is no doubt that media has had an impact on the Swedish population of which 60 per cent followed through with the vaccination. Media used an information discourse and attempted to present its articles in an impartial manner and used governmental authorities and experts to support its arguments. It is further evident that some journalists used words and in some situations metaphors to strengthen the message. Media is supposed to inform, comment, critically analyze and communicate. This report found that media in fact did inform the society about the swine influenza, however it failed in its task to impartially criticize the sources and raise potential risks with the vaccination. It is beyond the scope of this report to evaluate why media failed in its critical analysis. Studies about media has found that media has shifted from critical analysis to mere interpretation. This shift may come to undermine democracy in a society as the citizens are not given the complete picture and in turn are unable to make decisions of what is good for them. In hindsight of the swine influenza, it is clear that a large proportion of the Swedish population became subject to media's power.