Mid Sweden University

In this study, I conducted a qualitative study of what the Swedish press wrote during the first days of Germany's occupation of Norway. In this survey, two of the largest Swedish newspapers, Aftonbladet and Dagens Nyheter, were used. Aftonbladet is known for being pro-German in the first years of the war while Dagens Nyheter tried to remain completely neutral during the war. The newspaper articles that were examined were between the period 1940-04-09 and 1940-04-12, where I chose to include all articles that dealt with the Norway conflict. Three questions where asked that I tried to answer by analyzing the newspapers. The first question that was asked was: What did the reporting look like during the first days in Sweden when Germany occupied Norway? and the answer to that question was that on the first day, April 9, the Swedish press focused a lot on the British mine exposition around the coast of Norway. In the days that followed, the news was about Germany's explanation for the invasion and the British reaction to it, and there was a lot of reporting about the battles in Norway, about the Norwegian government and the king and about the situation in Norway in general. The second question that was asked is: In some articles, is there negative reporting against Germany or another great power, if so, what is it? or have the newspapers complied with the government's order to not write negative things about another state in order to not drag Sweden into war? The answer to that question is that you could see that there was hostility towards the great powers. On the first day, April 9, the hostility was directed at the British because they had laid mines around the coast of Norway and it was a violation of Norway's neutrality. The days after that, the hostility shifted and it was more focused on the Germans than the British. But in many articles where there is hostility to great power, the articles refer to someone else who says it and did not express their own thoughts or opinions, especially in Dagens Nyheter. The third and final question was: Do we find any differences between Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet when it comes to reporting on the German occupation of Norway? The biggest difference between the newspapers' reporting is that Aftonbladet was much more opinion-based while Dagens Nyheter focused more on disseminating news. Aftonbladet dared to express their own thoughts and opinions in the articles while it does not appear in Dagens Nyheter. One other difference is that there were alot more articles from Dagens Nyheter than from Aftonbladet.