A comparative study of news media representation of Greta Thunberg in Poland and Sweden
2020 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
In August 2018 a 15-year-old girl decided to spend her days outside the Swedish parliament with a sign saying Skolstrejk för klimatet, which in English means School strike for climate instead of going to school. Soon after, other young students decided to follow her footsteps and left their schools to protest for a better environment in their own municipalities and even countries. The protests got the name Friday for future and the girl who started them became an environmental icon all around the world. This girl's name is Greta Thunberg and even now, two years after her first protest she still manages to get peoples' and medias' attention sometimes in a positive and sometimes in a negative way. Sweden and Poland are members of the European Union and supposedly under a common environmental policy, however, while Sweden, Greta's homeland, is one of the top eco-friendly countries, Poland is not as concerned about the environment.
This research aims to find out how Greta Thunberg is framed by the press media in Sweden and in Poland. The study combines frame analysis with the focus on three frames. It discusses differences and similarities when it comes to framing of intentions, capabilities and actions of Greta Thunberg in both Swedish and Polish newspapers. The purpose is to compare both countries' newspapers and see how they frame Greta.
The thesis concludes that the framing of Greta Thunberg is more similar than different in both countries. All newspapers frame her intentions, capabilities and actions in a good way, however, journalists from each country has different strategies emphasizing different aspects of her for portraying Greta in a positive way.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020. , p. 52
Keywords [en]
climate change; media framing; protests; environmental activism; comparative case study; Greta Thunberg; Poland; Sweden
National Category
Political Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-15825Local ID: EIS501OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-15825DiVA, id: diva2:1468352
Subject / course
Political science
Educational program
International Programme in Politics and Economics
Supervisors
Examiners
2020-09-182020-09-172020-09-18Bibliographically approved