How are Jews and Judaism depicted? A textual analysis of Swedish media

In my study, I aim to examine how the printed Swedish media depicts Jews and Judaism. How the agenda is for the depiction of Jews and Judaism and how it can be related to didactic challenges within the school subject religion. The study is based on 194 articles from the Swedish newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, in July and August 2014. I use a qualitative and a quantitative text analysis where I put articles in different categories. The study’s theoretical framework is The Agenda-Setting Theory and my study leans against Bachner (2006), von Brömssen (2012) and Revell's (2010) thoughts on the media having great influence over our image of religion and religious groups. My study shows, among other things, that Jews and Judaism are mainly mentioned in the media in relation to the conflict in Israel and Palestine, World War II or anti-Semitism. In my study, I have found that Jews and Judaism are depicted as an ethnic group instead of a religious group or as religious manifestations. The articles that mention Jews and Judaism are mainly related to negative events, and only two of the articles, according to me, are about something positive. I can therefore with the help of The Agenda-Setting Theory, von Brömssen (2012) and Revell (2010), assume that young people's views on Jews and Judaism cannot be interpreted as a religious depiction. Instead they are rather seen as an ethnic group, and also that young people associate Jews and Judaism with negative events such as war, conflict and hatred