Sweden is increasingly becoming a multicultural society and has received more immigrants per capita than most other European countries. In 2019, 19 per cent of the population was born outside Sweden. However, media content largely does not reflect these minorities, and they are not particularly well represented in the news. Journalists and editors are mainly ethnic Swedes and news consumption is generally lower among immigrant groups – a situation similar to what it was a decade ago (see von Krogh & Nord, 2011).
Public service media are obliged to provide content for ethnic minorities in Finnish, Sámi, Meänkieli, and Romani Chib. Programmes in immigrant languages like Arabic, Kurdish, Persian, and Somali are offered by public service radio on regular basis, and newspapers published in these languages may receive state subsidies for production and distribution. However, the supply of regular news is still relatively limited in suburban areas where many immigrants live.
The alternative media scene has become slightly more important in recent years. In Sweden, alternative media are mostly found on the far-right, and they have positioned themselves as alternatives for those who do not find legacy news media credible. Fria Tider, Nyheter Idag, and Samhällsnytt are the three most widely consumed, each reaching around one-tenth of the Swedish online population every week (Newman et al., 2019).
