Blogs and the Agenda Setting Theory : An Examination of References to Blogs in Four Swedish Newspapers During the Pre-election Period of 2006 and 2010

For the last ten years Internet has become more popular and is now used by most Swedes every day. Internet has made it possible for many people to access a great deal of information about news all day long. Internet has also made it possible for people to create their own news and comment on happenings as they are taking place. One way to do this is to start your own blog, which is a kind of diary where you can publish your own thoughts about politics and news. In Sweden the media is often referred to as the third governmental power since the media is examining the government and people in power positions and bringing the people as consumers of news closer to the government. There is a theory called agenda setting that says that the media is an actor that shapes the political issues discussed by the people and politicians. In this essay I have used the agenda setting theory and linked it together with the Medias references to blogs in their news. This I have done to see if the media might be influenced by blogs. I have chosen to conduct my study at two different times, spring 2006 and spring 2010 since this is dates pre-existing an election and the political discussion is more active in media. The purpose of this essay is to examine if there are any references to blogs in four of Sweden’s biggest newspapers. The empirical material has been divided into four categories which are political elite, the establishment, the newspapers own journalists and others. This I have done to see if there are any specific changes over time regarding the different categories. The questions I have answered in this essay are: Are there any references to blogs in the four newspapers? If yes, witch categories of blogs are the references too? If yes, how often are there references over a two-month period? How does the change regarding references to blogs look over time? After conducting this study I saw that there has been an increase in Media’s references to blogs over time. In 2006 there were 22 references and in 2010 there were 93 references. This result points to the fact that media have come closer to the blogs and is using them more frequently when the construct their news