The establishing of subject positions in Swedish news media discourses during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the global media since 2020. To a large extent, it isvia the news media that the public has learned about the risks, levels of danger, governmentalregulations and mandatory actions. This article highlights the subject positions constructedby the Swedish news media from January 2020 to February 2021 in reports about thepandemic. The result shows that citizens can be active-passive or solitary solidarity, thesepositions appeal to individual accountability, thus potentially shaping and fostering citizensin line with the Swedish government’s wider response to the pandemic. The news media’simages are of self-regulated citizens who govern and discipline themselves and othersaccording to the current discourses, all of which simultaneously evoke fear, togethernessand hope. The ideological dilemmas for citizens are whether to be active-passive or, ifnecessary, switch to the solitary solidarity subject position