What is actually associated with the concept feminism? : A quantitative and qualitative analysis of how the concept feminism and the identity around it is portrayed in the newspapers Aftonbladet and Nyheter24.

Feminism is a concept that stands for equality and it is being lively discussed in both political, private and media spheres. As a concept that is so discussed and that is essential in the fight for equality between men and women, it is essential to study what is connected to it. The aim with this study was to examine how the concept feminism and the identity feminist were being illustrated and constructed in the newspaper Aftonbladet and newssite Nyheter24. The methods for the study were quantitative content analysis and critical discourse analysis. The focus of the study was to see what was connected to the concept feminism, how different subjects were connected to it and in which context it was discussed. The theories that were used were social constructivism, discourses, the agenda setting theory, framing theory, binary oppositions, gender and previous research about feminism in media. In both the quantitative and qualitative analysis there were two discourses that defined feminism, and in the qualitative analysis we can also see a discourse around the identity feminist. The first discourse around the concept feminism was one that equated it with equality. It also painted it as a thing that you should have an opinion about, a movement that was connected to politics and society. Generally it gave the concept of equality a more political meaning with its descriptions. The other discourse around the concept feminism, which challenged the other one, was one that painted feminism as a sexist, hypocritical and men hating movement. The discourse separated feminism and equality, and while the people in the articles stood for equal rights between men and women, they were against feminism. The discourse also suggested that you could be a feminist the wrong way, at least if you were a man. The discourse around the identity feminist, that was explored in the qualitative analysis, showed the biggest difference between the news platforms. In both sources the feminist was described as a woman and almost never as a man or non-binary. In Nyheter24 the feminist was passive and a victim. In Aftonbladet the discourse was a bit more divided. It described the feminist as active and it included men in a more in a positive light. But when the female feminist was compared to a man it was suddenly described as passive