Conversation rounding the question if Finland and Sweden were to apply the membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been a heavily debated issue in different news medias for several years.

This thesis constitutes an attempt to characterize the dominant frames that the media, in both Finland and Sweden, uses when discussing issues rounding NATO. The theory which is used to understand the phenomena is framing. 150 articles, published in the Finnish Helsingin Sanomat and the Swedish Dagens Nyheter during the timeframe of January-August 2017 were analysed.

The research methods that were used in the thesis are quantitative analysis through descriptive statistical analysis and a comparative study of the results.

The thesis concludes that, the most used dominant frames are frames that describe conflicts between different actors. This conclusion, with respect to the theory, means that it is unlikely that the Finnish or the Swedish population would think more highly of joining NATO in the near future.