The Appearance of Objectivity: How Immigration-Critical Alternative Media Report the News

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn recent years, alternative media outlets that mimic mainstream news media regarding layout and how they organise their content have become a matter of public concern in Scandinavia. Although a growing body of literature has started exploring alternative media, we still lack knowledge about how active and prominent the journalistic voice is in the articles that Scandinavian immigration-critical alternative media label as “news”. This article qualitatively analyses how different journalistic functions are used as modes of public address by the alternative media outlets and what ideological functions they serve. The results show that the Swedish and Danish outlets can be considered opposite extremes, with the former addressing the public through a generally descriptive style and the latter addressing the public mainly through inflicting normative judgements. The Norwegian case is found in between these. Although the journalistic functions represent distinct differences in how an outlet can address the public, the analysis shows how they share the same ideological functions of convincing the public that the Scandinavian societies have become unsafe due to increased immigration, and that the political elite and the criminal justice system are to blame for the perceived societal crises the Scandinavian societies are finding themselves in.