Between the editiorial lines : A study of the newspapers Smålänningen and Kronobergaren on their attitude towards Nazi-germany during the interwar period.

The study is a qualitative textual analysis comparing how two newspapers fromSmåland reacted to Nazi Germany during the interwar period. The purpose of the studyis to illustrate how newspapers' political orientation may influence its content. Theexamined material is limited to letters to the editor, editorials and columns. The twopapers are of different political orientations, Smålänningen is bourgeois andKronobergaren is social democratic. The theoretical basis is founded in Klas Åmarksperspective on Sweden's position in the war, the so-called small state realistic paradigmand the moral perspective, as well all Kosellecks theory about the written word. Theresults of the study shows that what’s written in the editorials, columns and letterswidely differ depending on witch political orientation it has. The social democraticnewspaper, Kronobergaren, had a strong anti-Nazi attitude and wrote a lot about theNazis and Germany. There are many texts that ridicule and criticize Hitler and theNazis. The bourgeois newspaper Smålänningen had significantly fewer textscommenting the Nazi-Germany and their content is often contradictory. Some of thetexts are strongly anti-Nazi, some give their support to Germany and proclaimunderstanding of its actions. Kronobergaren is deeply sympathetic to the Jews andSmålänningen has an anti-Semitic tone in many of their texts. There are also similaritiesbetween the two papers, its joint condemnation of war and the recognition of its terribleconsequences. The study in many ways confirms the previous research available on thesubject