Synliga konflikter. En kvantitativ innehållsanalys av svensk utrikesrapportering om Ukraina, Gaza och Sudan.

Sammanfattning

The aim of this study is to examine how the news stream differentiates between three ongoing conflicts in Swedish newspapers. The aim is to map and compare the extent and content characteristics of reporting on three contemporary wars: Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan, during a constructed month where these conflicts competed for attention at the same time.The study applies a quantitative content analysis to a dataset of 333 articles that were collected via the database Retriever. The sample consists of articles categorized as “war or conflict’’ and drawn from the four biggest Swedish news outlets (Aftonbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Expressen and Svenska Dagbladet) between the period 1 April-30 September 2025. To contextualize differences in the news product, the analysis is built on the theory of news value and the Hierarchy of influence model, which together provide substantial tools for examining how conflict coverage may vary between conflicts.The results show that the distribution of coverage is highly uneven between the three wars. Reporting concentrates mainly on Gaza and Ukraine, while Sudan is nearly absent from the material, disqualifying it from further statistical comparisons. Gaza accounts for 183 articles (55%) and Ukraine for 145 (43.5%) whereas Sudan appears in only five articles (1.5%). However, its limited presence remains an important descriptive finding in relation to simultaneous ongoing wars and its visibility in the news reporting. Beyond differences in volume, the findings also indicate systematic variation in how Ukraine and Gaza are represented through content and format. Articles from the Swedish national press agency TT constitute a substantial part of the coverage for both conflicts, but Gaza reporting appears somewhat more strongly associated with shorter, TT-based news compared to Ukraine, whereas Ukraine is more frequently represented in longer articles. Differences also show in news value indicators. Gaza coverage is more focused on violence and human suffering than Ukraine. Half of the Gaza articles focus on violence, while the corresponding proportion of Ukraine is below half. Ukraine coverage is more associated with elite-nation involvement, particularly to the United States. These differences suggest that the two wars are differentiated not only in volume but also in type of content, where Gaza is strongly tied to humanitarian subjects while Ukraine is more focused on geopolitics. By comparing three ongoing wars, this study presents how conflicts can be differentiated within the Swedish media reporting. The results demonstrate that simultaneous wars are not only covered to different extents, but also represented through different characteristics, such as article length, production type and theme. In this way, the study shows how multiple ongoing wars can differ within the same news context, resulting in variation and representation across conflicts.