Ett nytt sätt att se. Om bildtidningen Se 1938-1945

This dissertation describes and analyses the way that Se reported on the world between 1938—1945. Comparative analysis is the most important technique to describe Se’s type of journalism. Se is compared to the American picture magazine Life, the British picture magazine Picture Post, and the Swedish edition of the German pictorial Signal. Se is also compared with its Swedish competitors, for example, Liv, Folket i Bild and Vi. Throughout the dissertation Se is compared with its chief competitor Vecko-Journalen. Vecko-Journalen is, next to Se, the most important periodical in this study. The main question is if, and then how, Se’s way of reporting differed from other periodicals of the time. The editorial program of Se was presented in its début issue: ”SE wants to see in pictures.” That is the key sentence in its editorial program. To be able to present the events of the world in pictures Se had to develop a new way of reporting. That way may be described as showing. Instead of telling its readers about the world in lengthy articles, the editorial staff tried to show the world in pictures, in layout inspired by newsreels and motion picture. The staff relied upon the reader’s ability to understand or read a movie, or a newsreel’s rapid flow of news pictures. There is no doubt that Se’s way to show the world to its readers differed from other Swedish magazines. The picture magazine differed in various ways. Se had its roots in American and British press, not in first hand in German and in Danish press as its forerunners. Se’s layout was clearly movie inspired, and the connection between captions, picture and layout was closer than in its competitors. Se broadened the content for a general interest mass audience magazine published by a commercial house, by including critical social picture stories, and strongly political editorials. Se tried to be a voice of, and for the young generation, and for the people outside the big cities. Se published more photographs, bigger photographs and more dramatic photographs than any other periodical in Sweden. Se introduced photojournalism as an editorial format for an entire magazine in Sweden.