Och så en fråga till Anders Tegnell …

Journalistisk kritik vid de myndighetsgemensamma presskonferenserna med anledning av covid-19

Abstract

And then a question to Anders Tegnell… Journalistic criticism at public authorities’ press conferences during the Corona pandemic in Sweden

Swedish public authorities have arranged coordinated regular press conferences since the outbreak of the pandemic in spring 2020. This study analyses the questions from journalists during the press conferences, and in particular to what extent critical questions were asked. In total, 20 press conferences during four different time periods were investigated. The results indicate that critical questions from journalists were relatively more frequent during press conferences in the beginning of the pandemic compared to later phases. Contrary to expectations based on previous research, the share of critical questions did not correlate with political conflict patterns. In this case, media driven factors such as newsworthiness and media logic considerations seem to play a more important role for the understanding of journalism critique of public authorities during the press conferences.