The Unexamined Alcohol Monoply : A quantitative studie about media’s reporting of Systembolaget

Media and journalists influence the Swedish democracy and form opinions among the public. With this is mind, media has a responsibility to be a critical institution and to strive for impartial reporting. However, it can be argued that party political opinions are embedded within media organisations hence, preventing neutral reports. With this in mind, Systembolaget, the Swedish alcohol monopoly, becomes especially interesting. Partly, because CEO, Magdalena Gerger, recently wrote a debate article protesting a motion allowing direct sales from small business alcohol producers. Additionally, Systembolaget has a unique position of power in the Swedish society. The purpose of this thesis is to explain which generalised image of Systembolaget that is portrayed based on articles from the four largest Swedish newspapers: Aftonbladet, Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, over the course of one year. In order to meet the purpose, a quantitative content analysis was conducted, where 412 articles from the selected newspapers were analysed. A qualitative method was then used to analyse expressed opinions towards Systembolaget. The findings indicate that a majority of the articles about Systembolaget tended to be “neutral” (e.g. beverage tips). Furthermore, none of the analysed articles were written with an auditing perspective on Systembolaget. Finally, the thesis concluded that there is a difference between the selected newspapers reporting on Systembolaget. Future research should strive to further look into the reporting of Systembolaget through time.