Children, Journalism & War : A quantitative and qualitative analysis of Swedish news aimed at children concerning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Following Russias invasion of Ukraine on February 24th 2022, the public service agencies in Sweden that broadcast news aimed at children immediatley faced the challenge of reporting on an ongoing war in Europe. Without leaving information out, and without causing panic or fear. The purpose of this study has been to examine how public service reports on war when the information is directed at children. Analyzing editorial decisions and media pedagogy have therefore been focus points. The methods used were both qualitiative and quantitative content analysis, and the material consisted of Lilla aktuellt (Swedish television news for children) and Juniornyheterna (Swedish radio news for children) broadcasts betwwen the 24th of February and 24th of April 2022. The result display that main events regarding the war were covered, and a child perspective was constantly present. One of the main differences between radio and tv was the amount of political content, eher Lilla aktuellt included more politics than Juniornyheterna. However, both frequently used media logic, and adapted information to children in a way that was considered pedagogically adequate.