Journalists not only represent political leaders in terms of their policies and political competence. The personalities and private lives of leaders have also become an important component in mediated stories and narratives crucial for voter identifi-cation and interest. This chapter explores how the Swedish press reports on prime ministers' social backgrounds, personal appearance and leadership characteristics in relation to party affiliation. The empirical material consists of news reporting on four former Swedish prime ministers: two from the Swedish Social Democratic Party; and two from the Moderate Party. The findings show that it is not only party affiliation that is of interest to journalists in reporting on prime ministers. Broader societal trends of what it means to be a politician in a certain time and era also influence reporting.
Despite the growing debate over the European Commission's (hereafter, Commission) role in crises, there are few systematic explanations for the variety of actions undertaken by the Commission in times of crisis. This article outlines a heuristic device to explain the Commission's actions during crises, based on the variables 'Commission mandate' and 'member state engagement'. To this end, it examines two crisis events that affected two strategically important policy areas for European Union integration: the early stages of the financial crisis that began in 2008 and the migration following the 2011 Arab Spring. Based on analysis of these cases, this study identifies four strategies applied by the Commission: doer, follower, cooperator and recycler. Our study concludes that member state engagement and Commission mandate are important variables in explaining under which circumstances these strategies are used by the Commission
In essence, terror attacks are communicative events. From the perspective of political leaders, the challenge is to make sense of the event by explaining what has happened, who is behind the attack, what is the most appropriate response, and how to move forward. Adding to the difficulties is the fact that leaders have to communicate in a highly mediated environment. In this article, we explore the Norwegian government's crisis communication in the terrorist attacks in Oslo and on the island of Utöya on July 22, 2011. We do so by applying a model of crisis framing. According to the model, political leaders have to be able to select appropriate frames that reinforce each other and match the media coverage. The study proved managerial, responsibility and cultural congruence frames to be central. Moreover, the study demonstrated how the crisis produced a certain type of news coverage characterized by high levels of descriptive journalism, which, in combination with issue and episodic framing, supported the government's communication strategy.
When the so-called anthrax letters began to appear in the U.S.A. in early October 2001, FOI(the Swedish National Defense Research Agency), prepared to put its personnel and its expertknowledge at society's disposal, in case Sweden should be subjected to similar incidents.When the first parcel1 with suspect contents appeared in Sweden in the middle of October,FOI-NBC-Protection (the Division of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection, in thenorthern city of Umeå), abbrev. FOI-NBC, undertook the task of analyzing its contents. Atthe request of the Swedish National Police Board (RPS), FOI also agreed to test the contentsof any further such parcels that might turn up. FOI is traditionally a research and advisoryorganization, not a day-to-day operative organization. Thus, NBC-Protection had to make anumber of quick decisions concerning management and re-organization, in order to meet thedemands of the situation.Since the term "crisis" is central to this report, a short explanation of what the authors meanby this term is justified. A crisis is a situation and a process in which decision makersperceive2 all of the following: • a threat to fundamental values• severe time pressure• uncertainly Such situations can have their origins both in internal organizational factors and in externalfactors (Sundelius, Stern & Bynander, 1997).This report presents an analysis of interviews and testimonies given by staff of FOI-NBC, inconnection with the so-called anthrax crisis. The situation/process which arose at that timewas experienced not only as fundamentally threatening to society, but also to FOI-NBC'scredibility as an organization. It also involved intense time pressure and a great deal of dayto-day uncertainly.However, crises not only involve threats, but also present new opportunities. Morespecifically, if FOI NBC-Protection could successfully master the situation, this could onlylead to an increase in its credibility as a (expert) knowledge organization.In the aftermath of the "anthrax crisis", FOI-NBC was – naturally – interested in finding out ifits staff had been given adequate means to do a proper job, if delegated responsibilities wereaccepted, how assigned tasks were carried out and if the decision making process wasemployed in a competent manner. In short, how well did the organization actually functionwhen, during that short, intense period in the fall of 2001, it was forced to transform itselffrom an "advisory" organization to an "operative" one?Thus, in the spring of 2002, FOI's Division of Defense Analysis in Stockholm was given thetask of studying how FOI-NBC in Umeå handled the events of 2001.
This report covers the key findings about mapping exercises and the analysis of: - the effectiveness and legitimacy of Commission, European Council, and Council of the European Union's transboundary crisis management capacity -the role of the European Commission, in which much crisis management capacity, expertise and leadership potential can be found; and the relatively recent role of European Council in providing political direction to EU crisis management efforts
