Mother Svea’s stepchildren : Representations of the Torne Valley in the daily press during 1900-1909

The study seeks to get an understanding of how, in which context and why depictions of aminority group are constructed, communicated, and manifested in the daily press by examining how the Swedish region Torne Valley was represented in the daily press during 1900–1909. Furthermore, the ambition with the study is also to highlight if and how the minority group is created in relation to the majority group. This was conducted by answering when and how the Tornedalians and the Torne Valley as a geographical as well associocultural environment was described in the media at the time and why they were represented in that way. Additionally, the study adopts an outsider-approach to examine the concepts as exonyms (formulated by others). This was carried out through a qualitative discourse analysis of over 200 unique texts from three Swedish newspapers, Svenska Dagbladet, Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning and Göteborgs Aftonblad, which was supplemented by a brief quantitative analysis. The latter, to determine when the concept of Torne Valley and the Tornedalian minority group became known in the daily press. In the study, the second half of the 19th century is categorized as an introductory phase. This is followed by an establishment phase under 1900–1909, with a peak during the beginning of the 20th century. The establishment phase is not only when the concept was used more frequently but rather when the concept gained more attention in the press and entered the public arena. The results show that the Torne Valley mainly was brought to the light related to three overarching subjects – the folk high school in Matarengi, the year of famine between1902–1903 and the railway issue. This is extended to several discourses which are the exotic landscapes, the land of the future left behind, the dichotomy between Swedes and Finns, the cultural- and civilization project and the nation-building process. The study also shows that the depictions seamlessly are interwoven with communicated interests and ambitions which are based on economic, cultural, ideological, military strategic, and geopolitical grounds. This is supported by previous research. The construction of a minority group therefore derives from instrumental, situational, and contextual conditions, which allegedly serves the imagined majority group. As I see it, this is ultimately shown in the conflicting and competing representations of the Tornedalians and the Torne Valley