Tegnell names Thunberg as this year’s media rocket

The state epidemiologist is making roughly the same journey as Greta Thunberg last year, when she, as a relatively unknown 16-year-old, sailed as the third most-mentioned in Swedish media in 2019 (this year she finishes 17th). Like Thunberg, Anders Tegnell is only defeated by Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and US President Donald Trump.

– She almost did a “copy and paste” on Greta Thunberg last year, and she’s going from nowhere to becoming not just a Swedish celebrity, but almost a global celebrity, says Sofia Cottman, a media analyst at Retriever.

The Retriever poll, which is conducted annually in collaboration with TT, shows that the state epidemiologist was mentioned in nearly 55,000 articles and reports in the Swedish media during the 2020 pandemic.

Face out

– What surprises Sweden in particular is that Tegnell has been the really clear outward face of the Swedish crown’s strategy and seemed much more than Stefan Löfven did on the crown issue. It is very different from the other Nordic countries, where the prime minister or president has been the clear figure in front of the media, says Sofia Cottman.

Press conferences by the public health authority have been the driving force in putting Tegnell in the spotlight.

– They went every day and generated several 100 articles daily. In March and April, there were peaks with 500 articles per day appearing.

With just over 136,000 mentions in 2020, Donald Trump ranks first by long before Stefan Löfven, who was mentioned just over 61,000 times. But Sofia Cottman almost thought the American would be given even more space.

– It’s still election year and I thought maybe they’d watch it a little more. On the other hand, it is seen insanely a lot and there may be limits to how much you can push it.

The pandemic breaks record

Last year’s main topic, the weather issue, was covered in 2019 with just over 140,000 items or features. That figure seems low-key relative to this year’s number one, the corona pandemic, which breaks all previous records with its more than 1.6 million items and features.

– There is nothing that has received so much attention before. But of course it permeates everything, so it really becomes more than just writing about reality. But it’s still completely unique, says Sofia Cottman.

Reports of the pandemic were most intense in the spring.

– In April, all the other articles and features that were published were about crown, says Cottman.

The article that sparked the most engagement on social media during the year was Aftonbladet’s article on the death of host Adam Alsing on covid-19 in April.

With half a million interactions on Twitter and Facebook (likes, comments and shares), it is also the article that has attracted the most participation in the Retrievers measurements.

Marc Skogelin / TT