Book Review : Eva Block: Amerikabilden i svensk dagspress 1948-1968 (The Image of America in the Swedish Daily Newspapers, 1948-1968). CWK Gleerup, Lund 1976. 178 pp
| Author | James L. Waite |
| Date | 01 June 1976 |
| DOI | 10.1177/001083677601100208 |
| Published date | 01 June 1976 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Book
Review
JAMES
L. WAITE
Eva
Block:
Amerikabilden
i
svensk
dagspress
1948-1968
(The
Image
of
America
in
the
Swedish
Daily
Newspapers,
1948-1968).
CWK
Gleerup,
Lund
1976.
178
pp.
The
main
thrust
of
this
work
is
to
profile
the
image
of
the
United
States
which
has
been
presented
in
the
Swedish
daily
news-
papers
between
the
years
1948
and
1968.
In
thesis
application
the
author
struggles
with
two
formidable
problems
or
objec-
tives.
These
are,
first,
to
see
what
kind
of
change
has
occurred
during
the
time
period
in
terms
of
editorials,
commen-
taries
to
foreign
news,
and
articles
and
reports
from
Swedish
correspondents
in
the
USA;
and
second,
to
utilize
a
method-
ology
which
could
study
the
’process
of
change
in
a
given
historical
situation’.
The
undertaking
is
admirable,
but
there
are
points
at
which
the
impression
is
left
that
the
author
is
more
fascinated
with
the
tool
of
analysis
than
the
outcome
of
change.
Conceptually
the
author has
a
sound
footing
drawing
upon
the
concep-
tual
notions
of
image
from.
Kenneth
Boulding,
Karl
Deutsch
and
Richard
Merritt.
Opinion,
image,
and
change
comprise
the
conceptual
discussion
with
emphasis
on
change.
Interestingly,
change
is
pursued
by
the
author
with
an
eclectic
use
of
social-psychological
theories
in
a
way
which
helps
to
structure
the
findings
of
change.
Central
to
Eva
Block’s
inquiry
(and
a
point
which
continues
to
bother
the
reader
throughout)
is
to
what
extent
editors
and
journalists
have
consciously
tried
to
direct
change
in
image,
and
to
what
extent
have
they
been
successful.
Block’s
methodology
takes
two
forms:
content
analysis,
which
involves
sampling
of
themes
in
the
editorials
of
sixteen
of
the
major
Swedish
newspapers,
and
’de-
mand
analysis’,
which
attempts
to
meet
three
requirements.
The
first
of
these
requirements
is
’what
happened,
and
when?’
This
is
a
step-by-step
process
in-
volving
fewer
newspapers
and
shorter
periods
than
in
the
content
analysis
method.
The
years
covered
are
from
1960
to
1965
and
only
Dagens
Nyheter
(liberal),
Stockholms-Tidningen
(social
democratic),
and
Svenska
Dagbladet
(conservative)
are
consulted.
The
selec-
tion
of
these
three
papers does
raise
considerable
suspicion
in
view
of
J6rgen
Westerstdhl’s
work,
published
at
the
Uni-
versity
of
Gothenburg
in
1968,
in
which
he
classified
Svenska
Dagbladet
as
being
negatively
skewed
on
the
Vietnam
issue.1
The
second
requirement
tries
to
deter-
mine
if
the
image
has
changed
as
a
result
of
efforts
to
restore
consistency.
This
is
accomplished
by
a
theme
analysis
and
registration,
thus
enabling
an
evaluation
of
how
each
paper
reacted
to
new
infor-
mation
about
America.
The
third
require-
ment
concerned
the
position
of
each
journalistic
work
in
the
total
spectrum
of
media
in
society.
By
seeing
each
paper
in
the
’frame
of
reference’
of
other
media,
Block
attempts
to
see
if
the
traditional
ideology
of
the
paper
has
been
followed.
The
final
section
of
the
book
is
a
content
analysis
of
five
specific
parts
of
the
total
press
image:
USA
v.
the
Soviet
Union
and
China,
USA
v.
Vietnam,
USA
v.
Latin
America
and
Cuba,
domestic
politics
in
the
USA,
and
racial
discrimi-
nation.
In
total,
Eva
Block’s
study
is
a
very
ambitious
attempt
(with
much
success)
at
creating
a
systematic
view
of
image
anal-
ysis
in
printed
media.
Skepticism
is
a
natural
by-product,
however,
when
highly
objective
techniques
are
built
upon
the
shoulders
of
subjective
assumptions.
For
example,
why
illustrate
the
Swedish
image
of
America
with
negatively
skewed
sub-
jects
of
focus.
Three
of
the
five
illustra-
tive
parts
of the
image
deal
with
foreign
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