The image of Sweden in times of crisis : A qualitative text analysis of the Anglo-Saxon media reporting of Swedenduring the Covid-19 pandemic

Covid-19 has been the focus on international, national, local and individual level during thelast 1,5 years, and it has been a constant subject in international media reporting. This studyaims to investigate how Anglo-Saxon media has described Sweden during this time of crisis.We have chosen to investigate specific features of Swedish exceptionalism which are thewelfare state, public administration and economy, and how these have been framed by themedia. This is done through investigating Anglo-Saxon articles in relation to Sweden and thepandemic, where we have selected articles related to our predefined features, which will bethe foundation for the analysis. Since we are investigating material consisting of text, wehave used a qualitative text analysis in order to expose and examine how Sweden has beenframed internationally. Based on the empirical section, as well as the theoretical framework,we conclude that media reporting has used features of Swedish exceptionalism to describeSweden have been frequently occuring in our material. Public administration has been themost prominent aspect in the material, followed by the economic feature, and thereafter thewelfare state. The tonality has varied, but a majority of the article expressed a positivetonality