Mördade kvinnor och mordmisstänkta män : En studie om hur svensk press porträtterar kvinnliga mordoffer

This essay aims to investigate how female murder victims are portrayed in Swedish newspapers. By analyzing how the murder of the two Swedish women, Tova Moberg and Kim Wall, are portrayed in four of Sweden’s biggest newspapers; Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet we aim to understand if, and how, they differ. Four research questions have therefore been conducted: 1) What are the similarities and differences between Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet’s way of portraying female murder victims? 2) What meaning does the genre, for example type of newspaper, the editorial department and type of article have in the depiction of female murder victims? 3) What meaning does the production of the male suspects (in these two specific cases) have for the portrait of the female murder victims? And lastly 4) How can our results be connected to previous research, in terms of media representations of women as crime victims? The theoretical framework was used to answer these four questions, and involves the social constructionism perspective, genre theory, gender theory and a combined chapter of media rethorics, media logic and media dramaturgy. The material consists of articles from the four newspapers, and the chosen method is textual analysis. The results show, that there are explicit examples, and implicit tendencies of victim blaming in both murder cases, but not in all four papers. In conclusion, the tabloids tend to write in a way to intrigue and interest, while the daily newspapers seem to write in more of an objective and neutral manner. This essay is partly built upon previous studies on victim blaming in british newspapers. Previous research about the phenomena of victim blaming or ideal victim has not been conducted in swedish press and this essay can therefore serve as a contribution to the scientific field of media and communication and journalism in Sweden.