The Radicalisation of Sweden’s Image: A study of how radical right groups in other countries depict Sweden online

This project studies how Sweden is depicted online by foreign radical right groups (in the US, Germany, India and China) and how such depictions gain visibility in mainstream news media.

It asks three questions: 1) How is Sweden discursively depicted by foreign radical right groups online? 2) Which foreign radical right depictions of Sweden gain visibility within mainstream news media abroad and in Sweden itself? 3) How do digital media platforms make these online radical right depictions more broadly visible in society?

The project will target the years of 2015 to 2025 – a period during which Sweden’s international reputation has shifted in light of its response to the European refugee crisis, Islamic terrorism and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Depictions of Sweden will be computationally identified within the digital content of foreign radical right groups and online forums and then closely analysed using critical discourse analysis.

Further computational and discourse analysis methods will be used to track traces of these depictions within mainstream news media content.

These steps will inform new understandings of the role of digital media platforms in rendering radical right discourse more visible in mainstream news.

The project will deepen knowledge about the digital dynamics by which radical right discourses gain broader societal visibility and highlight discourses that might influence Sweden’s image abroad.