As in most other countries, powerful interests in society, representing the political and economic elite groups, generally seem to be over-represented in the news. Systematic content analyses of Swedish news media confirm this picture, regardless of whether election campaigns, crises or news reporting during ordinary conditions are studied (Sahlstrand 2000; Strömbäck 2008).
However, the misrepresentation of sources is not extreme, and there is a general awareness among news media representatives about this problem. The issue of news source diversity is also addressed in written media declarations. Public service media operations are based on charters in which diversity in news reporting is central, and most private news media organizations have policy documents with the same recommendations (Andersson odén 2001).
Most interviews with representatives of leading national media outlets indicate a high degree of awareness concerning the problematic traditional prominence of elite sources. Countermeasures include broad analytical pieces that are not tied to just a couple of sources, internal monitoring of sources appearing in the news (female, male, age, spokesperson, decision-maker, ordinary person, etc.) and setting goals for the appearance within different categories, enterprising and investigative projects, using social media to identify and find new sources and thoroughly fact-checking political statements in the election campaigns during 2010. The representatives of the afternoon papers viewed themselves as more people oriented than elite oriented and praised the new online opportunities for diversification.
Regional media representatives also recognized the problem of favouring elite sources in the news. Both private and public media companies referred to news policies supporting an increased presence of hitherto unrepresented source categories. At the same time, the difficulties associated with achieving increased diversity were generally explained by daily newsroom routines and practices.
