Research project Interactive Racism in Swedish Online Media, Press and Politics

Interactive Racism in Swedish Online Media, Press and Politics: Discourses on Immigration and Refugees at Times of Crisis

This project intends to analyse how contemporary racism and xenophobia are moulded in public, including online, discourses on immigration and refugees. We look into how and why racist views become particularly widespread in Sweden at times of socio-political crisis and how online racism interacts thereby with migration-related opinion journalism and discourses of political actors. The project breaks new ground as it sets the focus on how racist discourses are shaped in an ongoing interaction across various social fields, and how this interaction facilitates the spread and recontextualisation of racist views in the Swedish society. In three systematic and empirically founded studies, we assess how racism is discursively constructed in Sweden and how it contributes to discursive shifts related to topics of immigration, immigrants and refugees in: (1) public "talk" in social media and on the internet; (2) political editorials and opinion leaders in the press, (3) public statements from elected representatives of the main political parties – during 2015 and onward. The study combines content and critical discourse analysis. Adopting a contextualised and critical approach, the project will establish how “interactive racism” is shaped in discursive/dialogic interaction between citizens, press /opinion leaders and politicians and how it contributes to a social climate in which elements of racist discourses are becoming increasingly visible in Swedish society.