Riktiga flyktingar : En undersökning av svenska dagstidningars inramning av flyktingarna från Ukraina 2022

In what ways are Ukrainian refugees framed in Swedish news media? According to agenda-setting theory the choices made by journalists have a real effect on public opinion and politics. This essay attempts to analyse and clarify the portrayal of the refugees from Ukraine in Swedish newspapers in order to make a contribution to the general research about media framing of refugees. 71 articles and editorials from the largest daily newspapers of Sweden, published between February and April of 2022, were read and interpreted. The attributes that refugees were characterised as having were analysed, resulting in two principal frames: the Asset, and the Victim, which represent the predominant ways in which journalists show the refugees as deserving of coming to and remaining in Sweden. The refugees are rarely presented as a problem; rather, it’s the Swedish state and Migration Agency which are portrayed as problematic. The findings are of interest both because of the effect media framing may have on society and politics, but also due to the differences in framing between the Ukrainian refugees and the refugees who came to Sweden during the ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015.