The battle over the relevance of history

A topos analysis of the Sweden Democrats’ White Paper and its party history as reflected in mass media during the 2022 Swedish election campaign

Abstract

This discourse-analytic study deals with the media coverage of the Sweden Democratic White Paper and the party's history during the 2022 Swedish election campaign. Political language is under scrutiny. Specifically, the analysis divulges how history is used as a topos or source of argument when debating the Sweden Democrats (SD). Empirical data is derived from Swedish national media as accessible in the Media Archive (Retriever), amounting to a total of 138 media sources. Different ways of approaching the party history are distinguished in the media reception of the White Paper. Two basic topos groups are distinguished. Topos group 1 contains the notion that history is something already finished and not relevant to the present. Topos group 2 implies that history is alive and relevant to the present. It is suggested that these topos groups, encompassing various sub-topoi, form the basis for different specific arguments concerning SD in the data. Based on the number of hits in the Media Archive, one can conclude that the White Paper itself did not take central stage in those parts of the election campaign that are reflected in the data. Stronger connections were made between SD and the topic of right-wing extremism.