Det återvunna folkhemmet : tevejournalistik och miljöpolitik i Sverige 1987-1998

Sammanfattning: This study is an analysis of how television journalism, specifically Swedish publictelevision (SVT) and the commercial channel TV4, have approached environmental,consumption and lifestyle issues from 1997 to 1998. A central issue considered is howtelevision journalism in Sweden has contributed to an ideologieal change in societywhereby ecological considerations have become individualized, as well as reformulatedand re-ftamed such that they are no longer (or not) regarded as a hinder to technical andeconomic progress. Environmental politics on an internationallevel, as well as bills inthe Swedish government have played an important role in this development. Anoverarching ambition of this thesis is an examination of how a consumption-orientedenvironmental discourse has been communieated in television news. This question raisesa nurnber of others: what are the themes that can be identified in the news stories? Howare these themes articulated? Which actors have access to this discourse? How areperspectives on thethreat against society and nature that environmental problems implydepicted, including visions ofthe society and natural world that we aspire to have? In order to examine how television news reporting contributes to theconsumption-oriented environmental discourse I exarnine the actual form of the newsreporting, Le. how the message is packaged. What patterns are observable in influentialtext and pictures and what do they have to say with respect to environmental issues? Thepoint of departure in this case is that the tools employed to create meaning, such asmetonymy, metaphors, c\icMs and symbols, are geared at creating understanding andpersuasion, at the same time as they must be meaningful within a cuiturai context. Insuch a manner they reveal pertinent perceptions of a foundational character with respectto environmental issues and how we regard the society in which we wish to live. Themeswhich I have identified as receiving a great deal of coverage in television news reportsare explored in four differentempirical chapters covering media depiction of recycling,consurner durables, environmental politics and automobile use. This study conc\udes that television news stories are a co-creator of building a"green people's home" in Sweden together with the formal politics. They provide thearena for formal politics to be framed and to provide the public with moral guidelinesabout how to deal with the environmental question on an individual basis. Theirdepiction of visions and threats to Nature and Society says as much about whatenvironment is worth preserving, as how the economical and social welfare system characteristicfor Sweden during the post-W.W.II years - could be maintained.