Jämställdhet som utrikespolitiskt vapen : Propaganda som gränsskapande praktik i narrativ om Sverige irysk statskontrollerad medias nyhetsrapportering

The purpose of this study is to examine Russia's foreign and security policy towards Sweden, as bordering practices, in the state-controlled media's international news reporting on gender equality. To achieve this goal the following two questions were formulated: 1) which narratives about gender equality can be read from English-language news articles about Sweden from the Russian state-controlled news company Sputnik News? and 2) in what ways do these narratives function as bordering practices? Utilizing critical border theory and both narrative analysis and strategic narrative analysis this study's results confirm previous research in several ways. The identified narratives have a predominant majority of negative angles to Sweden's disadvantage and there is use of ridiculing language with the intent to diminish Sweden's international position. I have been able to distinguish four main narratives that all touches upon gender equality in some way. These narratives,1) a polarized Sweden, a country in free fall, 2) extreme gender equality /feminism, 3) gender equality as a mirage, and 4) an elite that pursues an extreme agenda, are created by Sputnik by "harvesting" domestic media and then translating and repackaging the content to portray a negative image of Sweden. These narrative themes function in a normative way by highlighting the unusual and that which stands out, and through performative repetition, these foreign policy motivated narratives acts as bordering practices that constantly produce and reproduce the nations' borders, identity and sovereignty. This study concludes that the strategic narratives on gender equality in the Russian state-controlled media identified in this study function as a weapon in Russia's political war towards Sweden.2021-06-02