Environment – so much more than climate : A quantitative content analysis about how Dagens Nyheter reports about the Swedish environment goals.

The aim of this study is to examine how the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports about the environment. Through a quantitative content analysis 335 news articles from the first half of 2018 and 2021 have been examined, with the Swedish environmental goals as base. The Swedish environmental goals were agreed on by the Swedish government in 1999 and have been a part of the sustainability work ever since. Only one of the 16 goals have been achieved so far. This study examines what environmental goals Dagens Nyheter prioritizes in their agenda and shows how the articles are presented and contextualized. Climate impact is a dominant topic during both time periods, based on several aspects. At the same time, several of the other environmental goals receive minimal reporting even though they have not been fulfilled yet. With the agenda setting as a theoretical framework this will affect the citizens' image of the reality, which they later will act upon. The readers will believe that the climate is the most important topic to put effort into, at the same time as many of the other goals don't need their attention. To contribute to the field, the study’s focus on the environmental goals brings new aspects to the discussion about environmental journalism, in comparison to earlier studies that mostly focus on the climate alone