Mathilda Åkerlund
Biographic Data
| ID | 3797523 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mathilda Åkerlund |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mathilda |
| FAMILY NAME | Åkerlund |
| SIGNATURE | ÅKERLUND M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Umeå University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5028-0408 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 67 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
“Be like Sweden” (?)
By means of a longitudinal systematic content analysis across six mainstream US news and six US far-right media outlets, we illustrate in this paper how the Swedish COVID-19 approach was refracted through ideologically diverse media outlets in the US. In doing so, we show how the same events can be interpreted through quite different ideological lenses and misconstrued for political purposes. We show how Sweden was championed as a beacon of limit…
Rape Isn’t Real, and If It Is, Foids Deserve It’
Sexual hate and violence are core tenets of incel ideology, yet few studies have examined in detail how rape is understood and articulated within these digital communities. This article addresses this gap through a critical discourse analysis of 3,353 posts published in one of the largest international incel forums. It investigates (1) how women are portrayed in the context of rape; (2) how rape is understood among incels and how these understand…
My Europe Builds Walls’
This article examines the visual securitising discourse of Sweden Democrats (SD) through a qualitatively centred analysis of the party’s 2024 European Union (EU) election campaign and its official election slogan ‘My Europe Builds Walls: Against Immigration, Against Criminal Gangs, Against Islamists’. Through a comparative, cross-platform multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) of SD’s posts on Facebook, X and TikTok, this article explores …
This Isn’t Journalism, It’s Propaganda! Patterns of News Media Bias Accusations on Twitter, 2010–2020
In several countries, research shows that mainstream news media have increasingly become a target of political attacks, and a recurring accusation is that the news media are biased politically. Since social media play an important role in circulating accusations of media bias, in this paper we analyze 167,527 Swedish tweets about media bias over a ten-year period using the mixed-methods CADS approach, which incorporates computational processes wi…
Cumulative disinformation through citation
Sweden has increasingly come into international far right focus, and digital media sites in the United States have proven especially active in spreading mis- and disinformative narratives about the country. Using social network analysis and descriptive statistics, we trace 776 links over a 27 year-period to understand how U.S. far-right media sites construct the idea of Sweden as ‘the rape capital’ of the world. The article makes several contribu…
The co-construction of political scandal in hybrid media
This article addresses the lack of critical empirical research into the power relations of those involved as hybrid media events unfold. Specifically, I address a gap in the research on how political scandals are (co-)constructed by different contributors in the hybrid media environment. By recreating the sequence of events over the course of eleven days, I map and analyse the hybrid media scandal that triggered a Swedish Liberal Party leader’s s…
The Racialisation of Rape
Far‐right parties and movements have increasingly come to incorporate ideas of gender equality into their political agendas. While seemingly out of concern for women's rights and safety, these issues are in reality seldom more than a veil to further the stigmatisation of Muslim men. With a starting point in the US far right, the situatedness of women in far‐right nation‐building, and the related concepts of boundaries and borders, this paper illu…
The Shifting Image of Sweden Abroad
The 2022 Swedish election saw a radical-right populist party-the Sweden Democrats-gain direct government influence in the country for the first time. This contrasted with the international image of Sweden as a progressive county yet resonated with the country's growing ideological use by foreign far-right actors. This article analyzes the framing of Sweden's image in traditional and far-right online media from the United States, Germany, India, a…
Through a white lens
In this paper, we explore how highly visible users in the context of #BlackLivesMatter on TikTok shape the narrative around Black victims of police brutality, the understanding of these narratives by others, and the potential consequences of these portrayals for the movement at large. To examine these dimensions, we analysed the 100 most circulated TikTok videos and associated comments depicting victims of police brutality using the #BlackLivesMa…
Refugees versus ‘refugees’
This paper analyses how immigrants are understood by Swedish alternative media and the role that Islamophobia plays, if at all, in these representations. What is remarkable is that although all articles were sampled explicitly to discuss Ukraine, the analysis showed that Muslim immigrants figured with unexpected frequency throughout. The value of these two immigrant groups were antagonistically contrasted through arguments of alleged differences …
Politics of Deliberate Inaction
This article analyses the ‘free speech’ online forum Flashback , which adheres to a strict non-interference policy when it comes to user-generated content, but beyond this also forbids users from deleting their own content or accounts. Through a qualitative content analysis, this article sought to understand the relationship between the platform and its users with respect to this unconventional approach to moderation and content removal. This art…
The Sweden paradox
This paper analyses how Sweden has come to be imagined and represented on the websites of US far right organisations since the start of the so-called 'migration crisis' of 2015. It focused specifically on when Sweden is discussed by the US far right and in relation to what events, and what values and associations are attributed to Sweden. The analysis showed that news events were not reported on by US far-right organisations as they took place in…
Dog whistling far-right code words
This paper uses the Swedish, once neo-Nazi expression culture enricher (Swedish: kulturberikare) as a case study to explore how covert and coded far-right discourse is mainstreamed, over time and across websites. A sample of 2,336 uses of the expression between 1999 and 2020 were analysed using critical discourse analysis. The findings illustrate how the expression works like a ‘dog whistle’ by enabling users to discretely self-identify with an i…
From technology speculation to value creation
The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly becoming an important technology, affecting our everyday lives, and is predicted to do so even more extensively in the coming years. Still, the concept remains somewhat fuzzy. As IoT continues to grow in importance and scope, so does the need to understand how the concept is used and what it represents. This study analyzes over nine million tweets over an extended sample period, applying a mixed methods app…
Influence Without Metrics
The study presented in this article explores the processes through which influence takes shape in eclectic online forums with few vanity metrics. Using a dataset of 7.5 million posts in the large Swedish online discussion forum Flashback, it explores who becomes influential, their strategies for appealing to the community, and others’ support of them. While it has been known that Flashback hosts far-right users and content, the current study show…
The importance of influential users in (re)producing Swedish far-right discourse on Twitter
Using a combination of descriptive statistics, sentiment analysis and close readings of a collection of 74,336 Swedish tweets, this article explores the platform usage patterns of users who are influential in a Swedish far-right discourse on Twitter and how these users help to (re)produce far-right discourse. Specifically, it focuses on their use of platform functions and on language use. The analysis shows that influential users have a narrow fo…
Standing Up for Sweden? The Racist Discourses, Architectures and Affordances of an Anti-Immigration Facebook Group
Facebook has faced growing criticism regarding its handling of hateful user-generated content (UGC) with research revealing how the platform can foster both covert and overt racism. This research has tended to focus on racist content while relying on abstract references to the general logics of social media platforms. In this article we consider how Facebook shapes the production of racist discourse in more concrete ways by integrating a concern …
Representations of Trans People in Swedish Newspapers
This article analyses the discursive representations of trans people in 15,901 mainstream Swedish newspaper articles between 2000 and 2017 using topic modelling and critical discourse analysis. Drawing from critical perspectives on gender it was found that the articles to various degree assisted in maintaining heteronormativity. The discursive strategies employed by the journalists included trivialisation of trans expressions as dress-up and inco…
Representations of Trans People in Swedish Newspapers
This article analyses the discursive representations of trans people in 15,901 mainstream Swedish newspaper articles between 2000 and 2017 using topic modelling and critical discourse analysis. Drawing from critical perspectives on gender it was found that the articles to various degree assisted in maintaining heteronormativity. The discursive strategies employed by the journalists included trivialisation of trans expressions as dress-up and inco…
Standing Up for Sweden? The Racist Discourses, Architectures and Affordances of an Anti-Immigration Facebook Group
Facebook has faced growing criticism regarding its handling of hateful user-generated content (UGC) with research revealing how the platform can foster both covert and overt racism. This research has tended to focus on racist content while relying on abstract references to the general logics of social media platforms. In this article we consider how Facebook shapes the production of racist discourse in more concrete ways by integrating a concern …
The importance of influential users in (re)producing Swedish far-right discourse on Twitter
Using a combination of descriptive statistics, sentiment analysis and close readings of a collection of 74,336 Swedish tweets, this article explores the platform usage patterns of users who are influential in a Swedish far-right discourse on Twitter and how these users help to (re)produce far-right discourse. Specifically, it focuses on their use of platform functions and on language use. The analysis shows that influential users have a narrow fo…
Politics of Deliberate Inaction
This article analyses the ‘free speech’ online forum Flashback , which adheres to a strict non-interference policy when it comes to user-generated content, but beyond this also forbids users from deleting their own content or accounts. Through a qualitative content analysis, this article sought to understand the relationship between the platform and its users with respect to this unconventional approach to moderation and content removal. This art…
The Sweden paradox
This paper analyses how Sweden has come to be imagined and represented on the websites of US far right organisations since the start of the so-called 'migration crisis' of 2015. It focused specifically on when Sweden is discussed by the US far right and in relation to what events, and what values and associations are attributed to Sweden. The analysis showed that news events were not reported on by US far-right organisations as they took place in…
Refugees versus ‘refugees’
This paper analyses how immigrants are understood by Swedish alternative media and the role that Islamophobia plays, if at all, in these representations. What is remarkable is that although all articles were sampled explicitly to discuss Ukraine, the analysis showed that Muslim immigrants figured with unexpected frequency throughout. The value of these two immigrant groups were antagonistically contrasted through arguments of alleged differences …
Cumulative disinformation through citation
Sweden has increasingly come into international far right focus, and digital media sites in the United States have proven especially active in spreading mis- and disinformative narratives about the country. Using social network analysis and descriptive statistics, we trace 776 links over a 27 year-period to understand how U.S. far-right media sites construct the idea of Sweden as ‘the rape capital’ of the world. The article makes several contribu…
Influence Without Metrics
The study presented in this article explores the processes through which influence takes shape in eclectic online forums with few vanity metrics. Using a dataset of 7.5 million posts in the large Swedish online discussion forum Flashback, it explores who becomes influential, their strategies for appealing to the community, and others’ support of them. While it has been known that Flashback hosts far-right users and content, the current study show…
Standing Up for Sweden? The Racist Discourses, Architectures and Affordances of an Anti-Immigration Facebook Group
Facebook has faced growing criticism regarding its handling of hateful user-generated content (UGC) with research revealing how the platform can foster both covert and overt racism. This research has tended to focus on racist content while relying on abstract references to the general logics of social media platforms. In this article we consider how Facebook shapes the production of racist discourse in more concrete ways by integrating a concern …
Representations of Trans People in Swedish Newspapers
This article analyses the discursive representations of trans people in 15,901 mainstream Swedish newspaper articles between 2000 and 2017 using topic modelling and critical discourse analysis. Drawing from critical perspectives on gender it was found that the articles to various degree assisted in maintaining heteronormativity. The discursive strategies employed by the journalists included trivialisation of trans expressions as dress-up and inco…
The importance of influential users in (re)producing Swedish far-right discourse on Twitter
Using a combination of descriptive statistics, sentiment analysis and close readings of a collection of 74,336 Swedish tweets, this article explores the platform usage patterns of users who are influential in a Swedish far-right discourse on Twitter and how these users help to (re)produce far-right discourse. Specifically, it focuses on their use of platform functions and on language use. The analysis shows that influential users have a narrow fo…
From technology speculation to value creation
The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly becoming an important technology, affecting our everyday lives, and is predicted to do so even more extensively in the coming years. Still, the concept remains somewhat fuzzy. As IoT continues to grow in importance and scope, so does the need to understand how the concept is used and what it represents. This study analyzes over nine million tweets over an extended sample period, applying a mixed methods app…
Influence Without Metrics
The study presented in this article explores the processes through which influence takes shape in eclectic online forums with few vanity metrics. Using a dataset of 7.5 million posts in the large Swedish online discussion forum Flashback, it explores who becomes influential, their strategies for appealing to the community, and others’ support of them. While it has been known that Flashback hosts far-right users and content, the current study show…
Dog whistling far-right code words
This paper uses the Swedish, once neo-Nazi expression culture enricher (Swedish: kulturberikare) as a case study to explore how covert and coded far-right discourse is mainstreamed, over time and across websites. A sample of 2,336 uses of the expression between 1999 and 2020 were analysed using critical discourse analysis. The findings illustrate how the expression works like a ‘dog whistle’ by enabling users to discretely self-identify with an i…
Through a white lens
In this paper, we explore how highly visible users in the context of #BlackLivesMatter on TikTok shape the narrative around Black victims of police brutality, the understanding of these narratives by others, and the potential consequences of these portrayals for the movement at large. To examine these dimensions, we analysed the 100 most circulated TikTok videos and associated comments depicting victims of police brutality using the #BlackLivesMa…
Refugees versus ‘refugees’
This paper analyses how immigrants are understood by Swedish alternative media and the role that Islamophobia plays, if at all, in these representations. What is remarkable is that although all articles were sampled explicitly to discuss Ukraine, the analysis showed that Muslim immigrants figured with unexpected frequency throughout. The value of these two immigrant groups were antagonistically contrasted through arguments of alleged differences …
Politics of Deliberate Inaction
This article analyses the ‘free speech’ online forum Flashback , which adheres to a strict non-interference policy when it comes to user-generated content, but beyond this also forbids users from deleting their own content or accounts. Through a qualitative content analysis, this article sought to understand the relationship between the platform and its users with respect to this unconventional approach to moderation and content removal. This art…
The Sweden paradox
This paper analyses how Sweden has come to be imagined and represented on the websites of US far right organisations since the start of the so-called 'migration crisis' of 2015. It focused specifically on when Sweden is discussed by the US far right and in relation to what events, and what values and associations are attributed to Sweden. The analysis showed that news events were not reported on by US far-right organisations as they took place in…
The Shifting Image of Sweden Abroad
The 2022 Swedish election saw a radical-right populist party-the Sweden Democrats-gain direct government influence in the country for the first time. This contrasted with the international image of Sweden as a progressive county yet resonated with the country's growing ideological use by foreign far-right actors. This article analyzes the framing of Sweden's image in traditional and far-right online media from the United States, Germany, India, a…
This Isn’t Journalism, It’s Propaganda! Patterns of News Media Bias Accusations on Twitter, 2010–2020
In several countries, research shows that mainstream news media have increasingly become a target of political attacks, and a recurring accusation is that the news media are biased politically. Since social media play an important role in circulating accusations of media bias, in this paper we analyze 167,527 Swedish tweets about media bias over a ten-year period using the mixed-methods CADS approach, which incorporates computational processes wi…
Cumulative disinformation through citation
Sweden has increasingly come into international far right focus, and digital media sites in the United States have proven especially active in spreading mis- and disinformative narratives about the country. Using social network analysis and descriptive statistics, we trace 776 links over a 27 year-period to understand how U.S. far-right media sites construct the idea of Sweden as ‘the rape capital’ of the world. The article makes several contribu…
The co-construction of political scandal in hybrid media
This article addresses the lack of critical empirical research into the power relations of those involved as hybrid media events unfold. Specifically, I address a gap in the research on how political scandals are (co-)constructed by different contributors in the hybrid media environment. By recreating the sequence of events over the course of eleven days, I map and analyse the hybrid media scandal that triggered a Swedish Liberal Party leader’s s…
The Racialisation of Rape
Far‐right parties and movements have increasingly come to incorporate ideas of gender equality into their political agendas. While seemingly out of concern for women's rights and safety, these issues are in reality seldom more than a veil to further the stigmatisation of Muslim men. With a starting point in the US far right, the situatedness of women in far‐right nation‐building, and the related concepts of boundaries and borders, this paper illu…
“Be like Sweden” (?)
By means of a longitudinal systematic content analysis across six mainstream US news and six US far-right media outlets, we illustrate in this paper how the Swedish COVID-19 approach was refracted through ideologically diverse media outlets in the US. In doing so, we show how the same events can be interpreted through quite different ideological lenses and misconstrued for political purposes. We show how Sweden was championed as a beacon of limit…
Rape Isn’t Real, and If It Is, Foids Deserve It’
Sexual hate and violence are core tenets of incel ideology, yet few studies have examined in detail how rape is understood and articulated within these digital communities. This article addresses this gap through a critical discourse analysis of 3,353 posts published in one of the largest international incel forums. It investigates (1) how women are portrayed in the context of rape; (2) how rape is understood among incels and how these understand…
My Europe Builds Walls’
This article examines the visual securitising discourse of Sweden Democrats (SD) through a qualitatively centred analysis of the party’s 2024 European Union (EU) election campaign and its official election slogan ‘My Europe Builds Walls: Against Immigration, Against Criminal Gangs, Against Islamists’. Through a comparative, cross-platform multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) of SD’s posts on Facebook, X and TikTok, this article explores …
Political science (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Social Media and Politics (12 works) · Law (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Media studies (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Content analysis (5 works)